Happy Halloween

The night before Halloween we spent carving pumpkins. This was actually Will's third Halloween but his first to actually participate.

William was so excited. He spent the entire evening scooping and poking pumpkins. He really got into the whole process and I have to say, was quite good scooper.




Will used multiple tools to get the insides out. By the end of the night we had pumpkin head to toe.


He and daddy were hard at work !!


And my handsome Liam sat and watched patiently as always. He is such a happy, patient little boy.




Will spent the second half of the night concentrating on poking the pumpkins. He was so into it !!


Every once in awhile you could hear him grunt as if he was hard to push. I think this was when we were actually cutting the pumpkins, we must have been grunting ourselves and he was imitating us.


I think they turned out really well.
From Left to Right: Dad's Smiley Face, Liam's Pumpkin (looks just like him with his two teeth), Will's Pumpkin - three blind mice and stars, Mom's Pumpkin - Frankenstein.








On Halloween we surprised Grandma by coming to her. She was due to come to our house for Halloween unfortunately her hip came loose again which makes driving difficult so we changed our plans and trick-r-treated in New Baden. New Baden is like "Leave It To Beaver" land. You can walk down the middle of the road and feel safe and everyone knows everyone. It's a fantastic little town and I am happy my boys will get to experience a town like that.


I was surprised that Will liked his monkey outfit as much as he did. He dug his tail!!




Liam didn't mind his monkey outfit either. My baby's first Halloween outfit !!! He's so cute, loveable and cuddly. Boy do I love my Liam !!!






Liam road in the double stroller the entire night. It was late and he was tired so I didn't take him up to the doors. He really liked the movement of the stroller and if I stopped for even a second he would fuss. So I kept it moving and watched daddy and Will.


The next set of pictures to me are my favorite. Liam and I watched Will and Daddy walk house to house, hand in hand, trick-r-treating for the first time.


I was so proud of my little boy. He was so sweet and cute.








And this just melts me seeing Jim walking his son around his home town. What an amazing dad Will has. We are so lucky to have such an amazing man in our lives.






The night was a success !!! At the end of the night Will kept his monkey outfit on for quite some time and his lips were blue from his favorite candy - SUCKER -

Thomas the Train Came to Visit

A much anticipated day arrived. Thomas the Train came to St. Louis !!!! Charlie and William were so excited !!! We left before the sun came up in order to make the mandated hour prior to boarding time. Will is a sleeper so the early morning was hard for him but there was something special about leaving before the sun came up.

It's a good thing we left early - we kind of got lost in East St. Louis Illinios. In a mini van at that !!





We finally found it and I think we were the first ones to arrive. We were so early that most of the fun games were not even set up yet. I guess when we purchased the tickets we wanted to beat the crowd and that is exactly what we did !!! It was really cold !!

Will was so excited that he cried because he wanted to ride Thomas NOW















Finally the time arrived but we had another melt down because he wanted to climb into the train himself but the other kids started the trampel him so I had to hurry him along



You can't tell from the jacket on, but he has a very cute train conductor bibbs on. The binkie helped with his mood



Auntie Lee and Charlie



Charlie shared Percy the train and they did a lot of crash playing






I thought this picture below was cool, you can see the arch through the fogged up window. Again, a negative for going so early.




The ride lasted a 20/25 minutes up the track and then back. Afterwards we got to go to the front of the train to get a good look at Thomas.


By the time we got through the line, Will was so upset because he wanted to get back onto the train and ride it again. He did NOT want his picture taken.



Thank God for the little train that distracted him. I think both of them enjoyed this just as much as the Thomas ride



Notice that Will is pretending the chain is Percy's track.










At this point Will melted down, AGAIN, because he didn't wanted to get off the little train.

At the gift shop we got "Billy" and a train track for his trains.

It was a tough morning but when it was all said and done William woke up from his 3 hour nap telling me all about his morning. "Ride Thomas"... "Ride Train Tracks" ... "Choo Choo" .... "I love you mommy" and the rest of the day we played on the floor, setting up the track, loading "Billy" up with batteries and letting his trains travel around the circles. This boy sure does loves his trains.

Soon we will take another train ride but next time it will be later in the day so we don't disturb Sir William's beauty sleep.