tbt: Halloween through the ages.

Posted on October 30, 2014October 30, 2014 Posted in motherhood, photography, throwback thursdayTagged halloween, milestones, motherhood, photography, tbt, throw back thursday2 Comments

With tomorrow being Halloween I thought it would be fun to go through pictures from the kids’ Halloween past. Fun for me at least. This task proved harder than I expected because ALL of my 2009 October pictures had literally vanished from my computer – no idea why. And in my 2010 October folder I found no pictures of BB’s costume at all. Luckily I dug deep into the Mommablogsalot Archives and found what I was looking for (and saved them to my computer!) – hurray! How’s that for blogging power?

So without further adieu, let’s start at the beginning:

2006 : MM’s First Halloween

halloween 2006

MM the Pumpkin and his parents, the Pumpkin Farmers

2007: His second Halloween

Halloween 2007

We went to a little Halloween party with friends – if it isn’t obvious, MM is the little lion.

2008: Halloween Take Three

Halloween 2008

~~Our~~ Dan’s first attempt at a homemade costume, MM is the Man in the Yellow Hat.

2009: Our First Halloween as Parents of Two

2009 her first Halloween

In keeping with tradition, BB was a Pumpkin – in a ballerina tutu of course

2009 Halloween Costume

This year MM was a Firefighter – we took the kids Trick or Treating at the Zoo!

Halloween 2010: Matching Costumes Begin

Halloween 2010

We went trick or treating with neighborhood friends! MM was Mickey Mouse.

BB's Halloween 2010

BB was Minnie Mouse but this is the only photographic evidence I have of that. When she wasn’t crying she was tucked into a baby carrier sleeping soundly.

Halloween 2011: A hiatus from matching costumes

Halloween 2011

For her third Halloween BB was a sweet kitten and her brother was Woody from Toy Story

2012: A Whovian Halloween

the Doctor & Amy

Meet the Doctor and Amelia Pond: If you understand this picture, we are besties now.

2013: In Which MM Regenerates

halloween 2013

Last year MM regenerated in reverse from the 11th Doctor to the 10th. BB wore two different costumes last year – photographed above she was Rapunzel.

But on Halloween night she was a Mermaid Princess. Obviously.
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Also, this happened.

On (or after?) Halloween 2014 you will meet The Astronaut (the obvious transition really) and The Fairy Princess. I know you are waiting with baited breath.

What are your kids dressing up as this year?

tbt: ninjas then and now

Posted on October 2, 2014October 2, 2014 Posted in family fun, mama kat's writers workshop, photography, throwback thursday8 Comments

mm-tbt-karate

This time last year I was blogging about my littles becoming ninjas for the first time. Thanks to some very good friends we discovered a karate school in our area (the same good friends who recommended the kids’ new school actually) and signed the kids up for a week of lessons. I don’t think I fully intended to have karate lessons become a major part of our lives that day but a year later and one of my littles is now officially on the Black Belt Team, on his way to potentially earning his black belt in 2017.

It’s kind of unreal to me that we’ve now been taking MM to karate lessons for a YEAR. BB lasted six months and that impressed me, but MM really loves it and gets so much out of his lessons. His focus and determination have increased by leaps and bounds along with his energy level and overall athletic abilities. My timid, squiggly little boy is getting stronger every day and his horse stance dominates in the karate classroom (a weird thing to be proud of, perhaps?).

Joining the black belt team was no small decision as it costs a little more money and includes a few extra classes – meaning our afternoons somehow just got busier (hold me). It seems like the theme of 2014 is “Stretching our Schedules to Impossible Limits” but somehow we’re managing to make it work.

Luckily my little kindergarten girl has no extracurricular activities at the moment and honestly doesn’t seem to care. 2013 BB was all about doing whatever big brother was doing. 2014 BB is all about doing whatever she wants to do and that’s usually wearing her jellies, rocking a cute dress and asking me to read her a book or writing her name 3,000 times just because she can.

bb-tbt-karate

What were you and your family up to a year ago today?

I’m linking up with Mama Kat’s Pretty Much World Famous Writer’s Workshop. All the cool kids are doing it.

tbt: 3 Things you have to do in Amish Country, Pennsylvania

Posted on August 14, 2014October 8, 2014 Posted in family fun, throwback thursday, travelTagged amish country, kitchen kettle village, pennsylvania, travel3 Comments

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While we were in Pennsylvania indulging in all things chocolate and roller coasters, we had to stop by Kitchen Kettle Village in Lancaster AKA Amish Country. Dan’s parents have been doing this Hershey Trip for years and Amish Country is always a required stop.

While you are there, there are three very important things you have to do:

1. Have lunch (or dinner) at the Plain and Fancy or the Bird-in-Hand. Assuming you can handle a communal meal filled with more delicious foods than you can possibly eat.

2. Go to Kitchen Kettle Village and stock up on jams and preserves and whoopie pies and any other foodstuffs or knick knacks that make your heart sing. There are plenty. You should have enough jelly to last you a year when you leave or you aren’t doing it right.

3. Take nostalgic pictures of your kids at Kitchen Kettle Village so that after several years you can make collages that make your ovaries swoon.

turtle-thenandnow

wagon-thenandnow

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tbt: Niagara Falls Then and Now

Posted on July 31, 2014October 8, 2014 Posted in family fun, motherhood, throwback thursday, travel3 Comments

falls-thenandnow

niagarahotel-thenandnow What a difference 5 years makes! Niagara Falls in the early summer of 2009 / and again in July 2014! The last time we were here, MM was three years old and I was still seven months pregnant with little BB!

Hard to believe how much MM has grown in just 5 years and how surreal it seems to imagine having ever been a mother of just one. I don’t know if MM really remembers his first visit to Niagara Falls but I’m hoping he’ll remember this one someday (and now we have photographic evidence of both trips!).

I guess we’ll need to go again in another 5 years so that we can get another picture. He’ll be a surely teenager by then!

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