"....This Is Halloween, This Is Halloween...."

Halloween's a little like Christmas. I'm always so excited during the month leading up to it, but also a little happy when it's over. We've celebrated the heck out of Halloween this month starting with Taylor's party, the preschool party, the church party, and a friend's party today if Corinne's feeling better, multiple trips to the pumpkin patch, and visits to just about every Halloween store in our area. And I definitely got my money's worth out of Taylor's costume. She's worn that thing over and over again and loved every second of it. Daddy's $50 Jack costume was worn for 5 minutes. Corinne wasn't at all thrilled with his choice of costume, so we're hoping to use it again in the future when she's got thicker skin. A friend lent me her Cruella Deville costume (Thanks, Kim) and we couldn't leave Corinne out of the fun. Possibly the most adorable puppy I've ever seen, and she has no problem keeping her little dog hat on. I continue to think she's the cutest toddler on the planet. This October's been fun. Dare I mention we have 8 weekends until Christmas?

bowling from Nikki Pollard on Vimeo. VIDEO of Taylor. She takes after her Great Grandpa.

I'll Laugh About This One Day

I'm sure I'll laugh at all this one day. The last 2 weeks, that is. To recap, we were all in my sister's wedding which was beautiful and lovely, but busy all the same. The day after the wedding, Taylor came down with bronchitis. Two days later, it turned into pneumonia. That weekend when Taylor was thankfully feeling better, we had her awesome birthday party. Again, fun but a bit stressful. And that morning we had to make an impromptu trip to the urgent care for Corinne, who woke up covered in hives. I then had to call everyone who was invited with kids and 3 pregnant women, to inform them that they should only come to the party at their own risk. Just in case Corinne had the chicken pox. So here we are on the following Friday night, and Corinne has had diarrhea all week and hasn't napped once. I'm sure you're all reading this and feeling bored out of your gourd. But I blog because I blurb (I turn this blog into a book at the end of each year). And one day, years from now, I hope to read this post about the last two weeks and laugh. Ha, ha, ha. Because it will all be a distant memory and I'll be able to say that I survived some of the more brutal parts of motherhood.

Today I took the kids to Lambardi Ranch with our neighbors, just to get out of the house and have some fun. Because if we didn't leave and I had to sit around all day listening to the Noggin theme song or Corinne screaming, "More Dora Halloweeeeen!" I think I might have gone certifiably insane. Here are some pics from the last week. October is officially the busiest month of the year for us.

Taylor's "Nightmare Before Christmas" Birthday Party!

Up until Taylor's birthday this year, we've always had simple parties with mainly family. But for her 4th birthday we couldn't avoid having a full blown party with friends, a bouncy house, more candy than the parents were probably happy with (sorry), and costumes. Way back in July, Taylor requested that this year's party would have a "Nightmare Before Christmas" theme to it and every friend that she had would be invited. It turns out that she has quite a few friends who all showed up dressed in their adorable Halloween costumes. Even Jack Skellington made an appearance, to Corinne's dismay. Taylor was dressed as Sally after I found a teenage size costume and had a friend size it down. She was elated! Of course it's impossible to find "Nightmare Before Christmas" decorations, so we brought out every Halloween decoration we had, used some butcher paper to draw our own (luckily it required little artistic ability), had a picture of Jack scanned on to a cake, and called it good. Taylor had so much fun running around with her cousin, Logan, and all her friends. She loved her presents, but tossed aside the clothes that she opened up like a true kid (But I really appreciate them, so THANK YOU to those who purchased clothes).

There was no talking her into having a normal princess party this year. In true Taylor fashion, she wanted something different. It's one of the things I love most about her. She's an original. She walks around the house whistling songs, singing Steve Martin's "King Tut" and Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies". She has a curiosity that makes me smile too. Always asking me what certain words mean and how a reflection works. And she's a passionate little girl. There's no in between with her. She either loves something or despises it. She's also grown into a wonderful big sister (even though she wacked Corinne on the head today). Last year we started to assume that she'd never really be a very social person. We assumed that she was taking after me, sadly. =) She always seemed so shy and reserved in public. But she's blossomed into a social butterfly and is always the first to go up to kids at preschool to invite them to play. It makes me SO proud. She's very sensitive and loving. I've even seen her defend her friends who were being picked on. Just last week she asked if we could stay later after preschool because her friend's mom hadn't shown up yet, and he was upset about being the last child left for the day. I hope I always remember that at 4 years old she has a heart of gold. Taylor loves crafts, music, playing pretend, the computer, helping Daddy bake cookies, having "Mommy/Taylor Time", playing with friends, reading, visiting with family and riding her scooter. We're so lucky to have Ms. Tay and we've been so blessed to watch her grow. Thanks to everyone who came. We know everyone's busy so we really appreciate those who took the time to celebrate with us. I don't have a lot of pictures from the party (I was a bit busy), but here are the few that I have. Thanks again for making it a wonderful day.

The party invitation that I made. I thought it turned out pretty cute.

Daddy, dressed as Jack. What a trooper, huh? Not a fan of Daddy's costume.

The newlyweds were Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.

Enjoying the cotton candy machine. So good!

Another One Bites The Dust

Wedding madness has officially come to an end. My sister and Jimmy are hitched! It was a beautiful wedding and it all went smoothly. I made a slide show in an attempt to get out of doing a toast. A few people commented that they couldn't see the projector screen very well, so I thought I'd post it here on my blog.

Congratulations to my beautiful sister and wonderful brother in law. There's nothing better in the world than seeing the people you love be happy.

Jen and Jimmy's Wedding Slide Show from Nikki Pollard on Vimeo.

(PS, there's no audio. I just had the DJ put on some music. Hum to yourself if it'll add to the affect.)

And So It Begins...

My dad and I were chatting with Taylor after preschool today.

Me: Who did you play with today?

Taylor: Weston. But there are two Westons. One is cuter than the other.

(My dad and I were dying at this comment.)

Me: Which one did you play with?

Taylor: The cute one.

Sigh....It seems like 3 is a bit early to be deciding who's cute and who's not. I'm scared for what lies ahead with this girly.

Poison Control

In case you were wondering, the number for the Poison Control Center in California is 1800-222-1222. I had to google it on Saturday when Corinne decided she wanted a snack while I was in the shower, and helped herself to a chunk of my deodorant. I called the on -call pediatrician who was clueless as to what I should do.

"It's not something she should eat," he said. Thanks, Doc. "Why didn't she spit it out? It must have tasted awful!" Because it's CORINNE, we're talking about here! And if you haven't had the pleasure of meeting the child, she's a weirdy. An adorable little ball of spunk, but a weirdy all the same. So of course she swallowed it. And from the look of the teeth marks she left, she went back for seconds.

Poison Control was a bit more helpful and informed me that deodorant wasn't toxic, but that she needed to drink milk and I needed to keep an eye on her. She was fine. And her breath smelled baby powder fresh for the rest of the day. Taylor, who alerted me to Corinne's little stunt, was rewarded with a trip to the Disney store. (I'm actually surprised Taylor didn't encourage her to eat it.) Sigh.... The start of a very eventful month.

My little weirdos