Who's at the door?

You never know who might show up around Halloween!

Trick or Treat!

Introducing Mario:

and his brother, Luigi:

Last night was Trick-or-Treat night for us. Malachi had a great time getting his bag filled with candy and Elliott enjoyed riding around in the wagon and watching the other kids.

Check out our crew! Thanks to the Martins for inviting us to their neighborhood for the night!
We definitely had the cutest babies in tow:

Mario was on a mission.
And so was Luigi!

It's A Circus!

We celebrated Kelsey and Baby Throne today with a circus-themed shower. Baby isn't due until the beginning of December, but we had a great turnout to help Kelsey and Mike prepare for the big day...oh, and we also had a lot of fun, too!

You can't have a shower without a game, so here's our Pop-A-Baby balloon dart game:

Check out Grandma Jane's dart-throwing ability! She popped a pink balloon and suggested the girl's name Margaret Elaine.Although men weren't invited, we did ask Mike to come and be a carney for the day.And here's the Mommy-to-be enjoying one of those fabulous Lemon Shake-Ups!We had all kinds of carnival foods - popcorn, cotton candy, twisty pops, peanuts, corndogs, nachos and caramel apples. And of course, the cake! Sugar overload, anyone?Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate Baby Throne today. I'll have an update in 7 weeks or so to let you know about his/her arrival!

A hint of what's to come...

...later this week!

Paint!

Who in their right mind would hire these two crazies to work for them?

Well, we did. And it's a good thing they don't charge much because I'm sure we wouldn't be able to afford them. Seriously, they do amazing work and keep you laughing in the meantime. The basement is now painted with just a few touch ups yet to be done. Woohoo!!

Another Trophy

Saturday was Malachi's last soccer game and he was very excited to add another trophy to his collection. His team scored two goals in their game, which is twice as many as all the other games combined, and tied. According to Malachi that's almost as good as winning, and we definitely agreed it was much better than losing!

Fall Festival of Leaves

Another Fall Festival of Leaves has come and gone! This year I didn't work at the store at all (the first year in many for that), but the boys and I spent many hours in Bainbridge enjoying all the activities. Malachi got to ride lots of rides and Elliott had his first experience on the merry-go-round and the giant slide. I believe the slide was his favorite - he laughed the whole way down and then tried to climb back up!
Erik was stuck working in the store for the majority of the past 72 hours, however he was able to sneak out for a bit to ride rides with his boys and to run on Saturday morning. I'm very proud to present the WINNER of the inaugural Fall Festival of Leaves 5k run! Run, Erik, run!!

Let's Slide!

Jack

Malachi's first carving of the season:

One Month To Go

Only one short month before our little guy celebrates his first birthday. Wow, that's hard to believe! This month has been full of excitement as Elliott is moving more, talking more, eating more and interacting more than ever.

The biggest thing I've noticed this month is that Elliott likes to explore and usually ends up going places he's not supposed to go. I really dislike baby gates, but I may have to break down and put one up to make my life a little more sane. He can crawl and pull up anywhere and is starting to climb a lot.

He says a few different words, but most of them sound pretty much the same. His favorites are "more", "banana" and "go!"

Malachi is teaching Elliott new things every day. Most recently he's taught him to dance and shake his head 'no'. As soon as he demonstrated that new skill I realized my days were numbered until the two of them start ganging up on me!

Surprise!

I'm a little behind, so I have lots of things to catch up on over the next few days! First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEG! We spent the day together yesterday and Meg taught Malachi all about age. If you ask him, GranMols is 100, Mommy is 32 (not yet, thank you very much!) and Meg is 27.

Last Friday we threw a surprise party for Meg at the Bell Tower. Mom (with only a little help from me and Kelsey and a lot of help from Aunt Laura and Uncle Mark) did a fabulous job on the food - appetizers, broccoli cheddar soup, spinach salad, rolls, marinated asparagus, grilled filets and shrimp, pumpkin pie, strawberry cheesecake, Boston cream pie and dark chocolate cake with fresh raspberries and whipped cream. YUM!

Not to brag, but this may be the best cake ever created at the Cake Kitchen. I'm already trying to figure out the next occasion special enough to deserve another one!

Meg's friends from Columbus made it down to celebrate with her in spite of construction traffic, wrong turns and bad directions.

Some high school friends were able to come too.

And, of course the siblings.

We love you, Meg, and hope you had a very special birthday...even though it may be the fourth time you've celebrated 27!