Dancing with the Stars has nothing on us.

p: "is it time yet moooooooom, I cant wait anymore!"

me: "no honey, its still not time yet, remember I set the timer so you'll know when all of our friends will arrive, keep looking at it"

p: "but mom, its not going as fast as I want it to!"

ooooooo the anticipation of not knowing what in the heck is going on .

Did you know that peacocks love ladybugs?

Yep, thats my child trying to eat chocolate through the plastic wrapper.
And being that Ruby can not have chocolate right now, this was not a great holiday for her on the food spectrum. But more on that later.

Holding hands with Lila.

One of the most exciting things for Parkey was that the "real live Wonder Woman!!!" was there.
She sent me over first to see if we could take a picture with her, I gave her the thumbs up sign, and she ran over as fast as she could. This is a new idea for us, woman super-hero's, her little friends who are boys are discovering batman, spiderman, etc and are continually playing super-hero.... so this was to her delight.

At the neighborhood pre-trick or treat party.

The first few "treatings"
Ruby and I had been practicing all day saying "trick or treat" and she finally got it, and once she understood what saying those magic words got her, she was in.
She was a toddler on a mission, she didn't even want us to hold her because she thought she could walk faster if she did it on her own.

Fortunately the neighbors were gracious for a first time treater, more candy than this fluffy mama needs we could ever eat.

I realized at the end of the night that most of my pictures were of Ruby and that was for two reasons.
One I love , love, love this costume on her, and yes she will wear it again next year as well.
Two because , Sadie Parker was so beyond excited that it was Halloween, she wouldn't stand still long enough to take her picture.
She created her own costume, she had plenty to choose from, and I even offered to buy her one, but she was insistent on being a "fairy princess" which is exactly what she was, and she was ready two hours before game time.

After all the rainy fun, we came home and had chili with some friends and family.
Which turned out to be a great idea, mostly so that the kids could wiggle out the mass amounts of sugar they had consumed over the course of walking through the neighborhood.
Ruby discovered cotton candy and suckers, and loved them enough to lay down on the ground in that big old costume of hers and pitch a fit when I told her we were all done "open" candy.
It was such an accomplishment that I gave her another candy.

Later, while getting ready for bed, I asked Parkey what her favorite part of the night was and she answered,
"meeting the real Wonder Woman, and passing out the chocolate mustaches to the kids"
(more on that later as well.)

stuck in the middle with you

you. all.

I died when I saw this picture of us.

I really did stop breathing for just a moment in time.

My dear sweet friend Olivia graciously took some family pictures for us last sunday, and this and the header are just two of them.

I fully love this picture, as much as you can love an non-living thing.

Please get her to take your pictures.

We've never had pictures taken , and its always been something I've wanted and this was beyond what I even knew I wanted.

The Mr. and I were standing holding hands, and Ruby did not like that at all. She is actually pushing Drew away from me so that he wouldn't be touching me. Funny, yes. but a super sweet picture that I died for, absolutely.

Its only Tuesday.....

What, isnt this the way you are supposed to use sticky notes?!?

She went to bed with both arms in the sleeves of her shirts, but woke up with only one.

hmmmmm......

Yes, its already started, thanks to PBSKIDS.ORG

(how sweet is Rubes on her tippy toes wanting to see what all was happening)

Sweet night night's with good old Dr. Seuss.

It is happening already, at the age of 4 years, 9 months, 7 days, and about 6 hours.

She has decided who she wants to be, may I please introduce you to.....

"Parkey"

Now, she wont correct you if you call her Sadie Parker, but you will most likely be told that she likes to be called Parkey.

Which started out as Parkey Parkerson, just like you can do with any name, such as Mommy Mommerson, or Ruby Ruberson, or Snarkey Snarkerson, etc... ( I really could go on and on, and sometimes I do)

I think that is really might just be my fault, I've call my kiddos so many different nick-names, and endearing terms, that who can blame her for thinking that a name is interchangeable. She has even done it with the Mr. and myself, formerly Dada and Mama to Papa and Mimi. And I will even admit to my "youthful" days, to telling people my name was "Towanda Lucinda Jane."

That was a name that gave me great license to be/do whatever I wanted.

I digress.

So here is this little baby of mine, telling her teachers and all her classmates to call her Parkey.

Which I must admit has thrown me off a little. I mean if your personal nickname became what everyone called your child, that would take some adjusting to. Lets just hope this isnt a yearly event of change, we might be dealing with personality disorders at that point.

I will also caution you about the nicknames you give your children, make sure they are ones you really like and that you wont have issue with if they decide to keep and define themselves as such.

I am curious as to what a Parkey can/will do in life. We poured over the names of our children so much and named them very intentionally. Both girls have family names from both sides of our families, and we still to this day really love them. Names you know, but aren't heard of that much. So maybe SP is doing that herself, choosing a name that means something to her. I'll give her this much, you will more than likely never meet another person named Parkey.

And for the record, its fine if you still would like to call her Sadie Parker, I still do.

the phantom has struck again.

Neighborhood halloween festivities have begun.

And while I know some of you all don't celebrate, be it you don't have children, or you just disagree, we enjoy and have a great time.

A bucket is left at your front door with the following....

A friendly ghost, with a poem, and candy in a bucket.

The instructions are to pass along the fun, secretly, to your neighbors, mostly those with children.

Parkey has a great time planning out who her ghosts will be delivered to.

Watch out fellow neighbors, you might just be spooked!

Boo.

boing

Curls for days, upon days.