Happy Halloween!

Hello friends...enjoy some pictures from our fun Halloween today. It was a nice balance of fun and not being overwhelmed! Too bad it was in the mid-70s this afternoon and I had purposefully designed all of our costumes for temperatures about 15-25 degrees cooler!

After Jake went off to school, Timmy and I went to the Bellevue Early Childhood Center for a trick or treating experience at their building. Timmy made his debut in his R2D2 costume and it was a big hit...not just with the folks who admired it, but also with Timmy. He seemed comfortable and happy wearing it. Unfortunately, he can't sit down, but at least it was easy for him to put on and take off...so if he wanted to sit, it wasn't traumatic for him. Check out Yoda -- Yoda's Mom and I made sure to try to pose the boys together for a cute photo!

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

Timmy and I went to lunch, then the BX and commissary after the trick or treat event...Timmy looked fine in his white sweats, but I still had on my costume and got quite a few comments.

After errands, Timmy went to Alissa's for about 1 1/2 hours while I went to Jake's school to see the Halloween parade and help with his class Halloween party. I'm very glad Jake's school recognizes Halloween and allows the kids to express themselves through their costumes. It was awesome to see the sea of children in their costumes...

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

Jake is Mace Windu, from Star Wars Episodes I-III (Samuel L. Jackson). Since Mace is bald, Jake and I discussed how to be bald. Our choices: shave his head or come up with a pretend way to be bald, such as a headpiece from a costume store, or else some pantyhose. Jake chose to shave his head...I didn't shave it all the way, but it was pretty close:

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

Jake had a good time at his party, and after school, since it was officially the start of the weekend, I set up the Wii again (it had been put away for a while) and Jake and I knocked out 3 Lego Star Wars chapters this afternoon before dinner! Whoo hoo!

After Dave came home and we had a quick dinner, it was time to suit up again for trick or treating in our neighborhood. It was Dave's turn to take the boys...and this year, no stroller or wagon! I put my costume back on and stayed home to hand out the candy! I really enjoyed seeing how creative the kids can be...we had so many children come by!

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

From 2008 10 31 Halloween2008

Enjoy our pictures and Happy Halloween!

The R2D2 Helmet Solution!

So we figured out how to keep that wide trashcan lid on Timmy's head for his R2D2 costume. Thanks to Dave's Mom (Grammy Vollmer) for the idea:

"As far as Timmy's helmet--can you take one of his hats, cut off the peak and glue it to the inside of the helmet? Don't know if this would work or even if it would stay on."

I searched the house for an old baseball cap that we didn't mind sacrificing to the hot glue gun, and found a chintzy Las Vegas hat Dave and I won through some geeky hotel promotion.

Instead of cutting off the brim, I simply turned it around and glued it in place. Timmy was thrilled with how comfy his R2 helmet fits him now.

As for pictures, you'll just have to wait till Halloween ;-)

My Future Fighter Pilot?

Timmy never ceases to amaze me. This is at the Early Childhood Center and Timmy has really taken to these foam blocks that you can form into assorted shapes.

He caught the attention of other parents and a couple of the ladies who work here, too.

Like Father, Like Son

Note: This is Patricia posting here. Every once in a while you'll see a post from "Dr. Dave Vollmer" and that's me writing through Dave's Google account, because I have run out of photo space on the Major Mom Google account and Dave's "Weathersix" account is virtually empty.

Most of the time, Jacob looks like me. It's obvious in his dark hair, dark eyes, and all-around know-it-all-ness.

That's my boy.

Today Paul sent me this blog post, another one of those funny JC Penney's catalog montages, a follow up to this one that circulated the e-mail world about a year ago. The new one even has a hilarious picture of Ricky...I mean, Rick Schroeder.

This got me thinking about all of the 70s photos Dave and I have of ourselves. So I broke out our photo albums and started looking.

Dave's album has a lot more 70s fashion than mine. Probably because most of my pictures are of birthdays and Christmases and I'm wearing really pretty dresses that don't look glaringly 70s. What do you call them? "Timeless?"

Meanwhile, Dave's Dad and older brother definitely looked like they could have shopped in that Penney's catalog! Dave was mostly in jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts, sweaters. He was definitely an 80s fashion icon, though :-)

But I did come across a picture of Dave that jumped out at me...it looked like a picture of Jake I had taken last month that he is thoroughly embarassed about. He said his smile looks funny. It isn't his normal smile, but I think it's a cute picture anyway.

So what do you think? Dave's was around his 5th birthday, Jake's is around his 6th birthday. Proof that Jake and Dave are indeed related?

From 2008 10 28 Dave_Jacob_SillySmile

From 2008 10 28 Dave_Jacob_SillySmile

R2D2! Need ideas for Timmy's helmet!

So today we just about finished with Timmy's Halloween costume. You can see the shots of pre-construction from earlier this week here.

Yesterday I painted the top of the trash can chrome-silver and it turned out pretty nice.

From 2008 10 20 R2D2_Costume_Construction

Today ended up VERY windy! Gusts exceeding 50 mph! We ended up having to do the rest of the paint work in the closed garage, and then setting it outside briefly to dry. But the dewpoints were in the single digits today, so it dried in no time at all! Dave took over the masking for the rest of the helmet and he did a really nice job:

From 2008 10 20 R2D2_Costume_Construction

From 2008 10 20 R2D2_Costume_Construction

Meanwhile, I grabbed a pile of multi-colored Sharpies from my craft stash and got to work on the body details. I used this picture of R2D2 as the guide.

From 2008 10 20 R2D2_Costume_Construction

So here's Timmy modeling what we have so far. I recycled Jacob's white sweats from his 2006 astronaut costume. The red light on the right side of the helmet is a red safety blinker.

From 2008 10 20 R2D2_Costume_Construction

Help! If anyone knows how I can make Timmy's helmet look better, please speak now! I'm using a rolled up t-shirt to set it properly on his head, but otherwise it's just balancing there like a bobble head...

Timmy the Tagger Strikes Again

This is what happens when Jacob starts spelling and decides to help
his brother leave hints that it's snacktime. Since Timmy didn't eat
his lunch, I was making him wait till 2:30pm for his yogurt snack.