Halloween Part II

We had the Downing/Franco group over to our house for dinner and festivities on Halloween night. In order by age, we had a pirate girl, an evil jester, a choo choo train, a pumpkin, and Genevieve, the youngest, was a lion. Renae, James and I all brainstormed about the train costume that we would construct. We all did our part to build it, but Renae ended up doing the majority of the work. It turned out great. We were a little nervous and wondering if Tristan would actually wear it because although he thought it was cool, our first “dress rehearsal” didn’t go very well. Nana Carol arrived at our house first to help us with any last minute preparations and thank goodness she did because we were running a bit behind. Tristan wasn’t a very happy train when we tried to show his full costume to Carol. By the time the other kids arrived and he saw that they were dressed up too, he happily wore it and played the part quite well with loud choo-choo noises. Joel wore a wig with long dreds and at one point we put it on Tristan, along with Andrew’s mask. He looked like a scary Cousin It with his hair touching the ground. We made it quite a long way around the neighborhood with the train on. Tristan was a trooper because it was actually a bit heavy for such a little guy. Ashley held his hand for most of the trick-or-treating and everyone had fun. Before leaving the house, James had also printed out signs for the side of the wagon that said “ZuZu’s Zoo.” ZuZu is Genevieve’s nickname and since she was a lion, we thought it would be funny if she was in a circus car, sort of part of Tristan’s train. She HATED the wagon and shortly after that she let us know she was done with the costume, so she made her way around the neighborhood in a onesie, while riding in the stroller. We took the double stroller and both Tristan and Maddy would take their turn riding for a while before the night was over. The grandparents stayed at our house to hand out candy and we found out that Grampie was asking all the kids if they wanted candy or a coupon for the dentist. Apparently a lot of kids were confused and most wanted the candy, but a few wanted both, so they got a business card for the band. Nice marketing trick, Grampie!






The next day I was able to get a good picture of our little lion!

A party and a pirate

Tristan’s class was having a Halloween party and I got to go this year. James went last year and this year he was on baby duty instead. Tristan was going to be a train, but we didn’t want his costume to get messed up before it was time to trick or treat, so I just dressed him up in his conductor outfit for the party. He was such a cutie!

When the parents first started arriving we all dressed our kids in their costumes and had a fun snack. We then had circle time with a book and a song, and twirling and falling on the ground dizzy. There was a crazy amount of giggling going on. Tristan’s little friend, Cash, decided he wanted to have snack and circle time in his normal clothes and was changed into his costume right before we went “trick or treating.” Mrs. Nicole mentioned that Cash was going to be a pirate and Tristan’s eyes lit up, he said something to himself and ran over to the dress-up corner. He opened a big drawer and started digging through the contents and throwing out all kinds of hats until he got to the pirate hat. He was so proud of himself when he found it and he yelled “yeah, pirate!” Then he ran over and gave it to Cash. It was so sweet and it just made my heart melt. He’s such a kind little helper.

The whole class walked across the street together and knocked on a neighbor’s door. The neighbor had all kinds of goodies waiting for us. We ended up making about four stops for goodies along the route and then it was time to head home for the weekend.

Random fun - October

Renae and I took the kids to the Dinoland exhibit at Zilker Park and we were all pretty tired when we got home. Apparently, Renae was so tired that she didn't even wake up when Tristan put a paint tray on her and then "shared" his drink with her...








Our little cutie-pazootie!

Getting kisses from big brother!



Eating our first rice cereal with the fun dragon spoon!



Having fun draining the pool; and look at all the spiders climbing onto the hose trying to get out of the flood! Wow!

Carving pumpkins

We had three pumpkins to carve this year: one for Tristan to help with, another just because it was a nice looking pumpkin that wanted to be rescued from the pumpkin patch, and one for Renae to demonstrate some crazy artistic carving. James had seen someone carving a pumpkin with a saw and thought it was a great idea. We didn't want Tristan to see this, so James did it while Tristan was at school. Then that evening we let Tristan help. He wasn't a fan of touching the gooey stuff on the inside but liked the process and the end product. Kael was spending some time with us while Renae carved her pumpkin and she set him up to help scoop out the insides but he REALLY did not like getting sticky/dirty, etc. Tristan gets this from his daddy who also doesn't like to be dirty and would take five showers a day if time permitted. It's safe to say the LaBrecque girls don't mind the mess, we know we won't melt and can take a shower, and we welcome fun with pumpkin guts, muddy, rainy games of flag football and other messy activities!

For whatever reason we didn't capture any pictures of two of the pumpkins, but we've got one of Renae's pirate ship.

Houston and the Rio Grande Valley

This weekend we spent a lot of time in the car! On Saturday we spent about three hours driving to Houston for one of James’ college buddy’s birthday party. This party was supposed to take place in September, but hurricane Rita decided to visit Houston instead. We arrived at our first hotel and after unloading the car, James sat down to hook up his computer and turned on the television for the UT/Oklahoma State game and that particular channel did not work. Since we got to Houston early so James could watch the football game, the kids could take naps, and Renae and I could go shopping, the fuzzy channel was a problem. James ran to the hotel office to ask them about it and they knew it wasn’t working and previously had the cable company out to look at it but didn’t have the issue resolved yet. James got back to the room all out of breathe and told us to pack everything back up. Apparently after he spoke with the people in the office, he ran to the next two closest hotels to ask about internet connections and television stations. He got us a nicer room for the same price, with all the working amenities. So, we packed up and moved. After the game, naps and shopping, we made our way to the party. James reconnected with several college friends and JC’s band played. JC’s son, Gabe, even joined his dad’s band on bass for a couple of songs and then impressed everyone with his classical abilities on the piano. Happy Birthday JC!

The next day, after Tristan served everyone make-believe coffee, we got back into the car for the five hour trip to the Valley to see James’ grandmother, Grammie, for her 90th birthday. This would be the first time she would meet Genevieve. After some time at Grammie’s house, we went to James’ cousin’s house. Forrest and Heather have lots of animals, tractors, etc. that we thought Tristan would really enjoy. Forrest even set one of the trailers up for a hayride for us. Well, I guess Tristan had just had too much time in the car and there was a big meltdown. The only thing that made him happy was riding the tractors and various riding toys they have. Renae ended up staying in the hotel room with Tristan while we went to dinner. We weren’t going to brave taking Tristan out in his grumpy state. He really needed some special one-on-one time, a nice bath and a good dinner and Renae was happy to help with this. She even went to the front desk to see what kind of fun surprises/toys she could get. She came back with a shower cap that turned into a fun bathtub toy. Gran ran out to get Renae and Tristan dinner and when she returned, we went on our way to the restaurant to meet everyone else. Tristan’s mood improved, we got to go out and enjoy dinner and Renae was the hero!

The next day we met Grammie and Mason, along with James’ parents for breakfast and went back to Grammie’s house for some pictures and so Tristan could water more of her plants. Then it was back into the car for the five hour drive home! Thank goodness we had the special (toilet paper roll) binoculars that Ashley made for Tristan. I really dropped the ball on packing car toys and I learned my lesson. The drive went very smoothly, against all of our expectations and we spent the rest of the day just resting and relaxing at home.

The pumpkin patch

For the second year in a row we drove out to the pumpkin patch in Marble Falls. It’s such a nice drive and Marble Falls is where James and I got engaged, so we try to eat at the same restaurant if we are going to be in the area.

We arrived at the pumpkin patch and Tristan quickly befriended a small green and orange pumpkin that accompanied us throughout the day. The pumpkin boat and the little tractor were big hits. We got to feed a lot of animals and it was really fun to watch Tristan hold food out for the big horses. Many times, right as the horse would try to eat the goodies, Tristan would get a bit scared, drop the food and jump back and laugh. The animals were able to make contact with the food about 50% of the time. Tristan loves tractors and the ones pulling the hayrides were no different. He wanted to ride on the tractor and not in the trailer with the hay, so that was a little glitch in the day. He also was getting tired on the hayride since it was about naptime. Otherwise, the ride was fun and when we got back to the main area we had some yummy fresh strawberry popsicles. Tristan led us through the corn maze this year. Last year he was in the stroller and just one year later, Genevieve is the stroller rider. Lastly, it was time to pick out the pumpkins we would take home and carve. We also let Tristan pick out some baby pumpkins for all the kids in his class and he really enjoyed that. On the way home we stopped in and had lunch at our special restaurant overlooking Lake Marble Falls.

Almost sitting up!

(October 2008) We were practicing sitting up with Genevieve and she was doing a great job. After a few seconds she would start to lean to one side or the other and very, very slowly she’d tip over. Then, she caught sight of her feet and decided she wanted to eat them and there was no more sitting up. Toes are tasty! Although on this day they were covered with socks and shoes, she didn’t seem to mind.