Super Silly Science Slime!

What do you do when you have a science play date scheduled the day before Halloween? You make slime of course!! :)

We met our playgroup at the park this afternoon and hosted our friends with a scientific slime time! After reading The Slimy Book, one of D's favorite books that we borrowed from Miss J special for this experiment, we got our hands super slimy for some silly fun! A & D loved the experiment. Little Miss A combined red and yellow food coloring to make orange slime. Mr D also combined red with "just a little yellow" so his came out more pink. They both hypothesized that their slime would turn purple. A predicted first, then D followed her lead. I guess we need to work more on combining primary colors to make secondary colors. :) We finished up our play date with some much needed park time. The weather has been gorgeous...it was so nice to get out and enjoy it!!!!

Pumpkin Carving!!!

Well, tonight was the big night!!! After TONS of Internet searching for patterns over the past few weeks, A & D FINALLY had their plans. (They were both all across the map on this one.) A ended choosing a cat in front of the moon. Drew has a "funny face" as he called it. The kids were such big helpers "gutting" the pumpkins this year as opposed to last year's spectator sport and the moans and groans of "eeew". This year was all giggles and grins for the Caswell Kids! They both got their hands right in there with the "slimy stuff". A was amazing and cleaned hers almost totally unassisted. She was so persistent in getting everything out on her own. Aside from a little extra scraping help, she did it all. D, on the other hand, was not interested in the seeds at all. I told him how yummy they were once they were all cleaned up and baked with Grandma's special recipe, but nope he was very adamant about the fact that he "would not wove that." (Still no L sounds from that cute little man.) Anyway, D loved watching A with her pumpkin, I think her pumpkin was a little easier to clean than his. His was a sloppy gloppy pie pumpkin, whereas her "Cinderella" pumpkin came out nice and neat.

A was a little "scared" when she saw the pumpkins on the porch, saying "our house looks haunted" and wanted to go back inside QUICK! D, on the other hand, absolutely LOVED his all lit up. So much so that the little fart snuck it back inside the house without Daddy noticing and proceeded to carry it from room to room. Daddy commented that it was like a creepy Halloween movie where the mysterious pumpkin keeps popping up in new locations. I swear, that is JUST exactly what it was like. Too funny!!!!

Believe it or not, A & D are in this picture, but I had to include this one over all the others since it looked the "coolest" as per little D.

Aside from a few last traditions to scratch off the list, we're almost ready for the big day!!! Every year just gets better and better. It's unbelievably awesome!!!! The kids are both asking, daily, if it's Halloween yet. Every time the answer is no and every response is "it's taking FOREVER!!!" (The birthday question gets the same response.)

Bunny Walk

A friend at school recently acquired bunnies for her classroom. Nice, right? EEK!!!! Well, they apparently have "bunny leashes" so you can take them for walks to get some exercise. Of course this was a "must have" for the Caswell house. We found the absolute cutest leashes for Miss Whiskers and Thumper and took the "bunnies" for a walk this afternoon after school. It was a total riot! A & D were in heaven with this new and extremely novel concept. Although A definitely outlasted D in the bunny walk. It wasn't too long before I was holding Thumper's leash and D was riding his bike in circles around A and I. Poor Spencer doesn't even get out on a leash much anymore, let alone the bunnies! Of course, it was brought up that the kitten (Sophie) now needs a leash as well. I wonder how that would work out? Look for a future post on that one. :)

Little Miss Mummy

Miss L had a mummy activity for the kids at school today...wrapping someone up in toilet paper as you can probably imagine. Well, our little A was the lucky someone to get all wrapped up!! Apparently Mr D was trying to wrap up not just the mummy, but all the other kids as well in one giant heap!!! Miss L took some pics, so hopefully I can add one or two sometime soon. :)

Cats and Bats Ball

Since we headlined in the Austin Children's Museum newsletter with a dual family photo with our BFF's from last year's Cats and Bats Ball, it seemed only logical that we add the event to our ever-growing list of traditional "must do's" for Halloween. What a different experience from last year. Last year's Cats and Bats Ball came at the height of Little Miss A's fear of balloons. Since there were balloons EVERYWHERE, it was a constant freak out session. (She wouldn't even let the cameraman take her picture last year because the balloonist was standing right at the entrance of the "photo booth".) With all that balloon business behind us, this year was GREAT!!!! A even got a balloon butterfly hat that she wore proudly displayed on her head for the remainder of the evening. :)



As always, Mr D was like a ball in a pin ball machine bouncing from one part of the museum to the next. (You could almost hear the ping, ping, ping as he went from here to there and everywhere.) He even missed his chance to get a balloon scuplture himself. While A "waited" in line, I tried to convince D that he could get a balloon as well, but he was too interested in the trains. After he saw A with her balloon hat however, his story changed. Sadly, the line for a balloon was INSANE!!!! There was no way we were going to be able to wait again since the "ball" was almost over and it was already so late on a school night.



The kids had lots of fun...a costume parade down 2nd street from City Hall to the museum, face painting, ghost craft creations, a twin (rather than single) photo from the photo booth, making slime, blindly feeling squishy goblin eyes (half-mashed grapes), brains (cooked noodles) and melted ghost (slime), not to mention more time this weekend with our "bestest" friends. Who could ask for anything more?

Halloween Fun at the YMCA!

We went with our "bestest" friends to the YMCA tonight for some Halloween fun!!!! The kids roamed from one bounce house to the next, running around like they owned the place. They played a few games for candy and went on a CRAZY train ride that had them zipping ALL over the road!! The fact that they went on the train ride without us and were out of view for a while made me so nervous. They're growing up...and FAST!!! Towards the end of the evening, we were standing on our old tee-ball field...I think D ran on the field more tonight that he did the entire season we played tee-ball!!!!

What a day!!!

Today was a super special day at school for A & D. They started their morning with a visit from the local Fire Department. As you can probably guess, the fire truck was a HUGE hit for both of them!!! Miss L snapped pictures for me since I was in the middle of a lesson when they went out front to see it. :)

In continuing with "A Week on the Farm" theme at school, the kids made butter from heavy cream in baby food jars and shaking it up. I caught the tail end of the activity and Allie said "Mommy, I shook it a TON!!!" Drew insisted that I try some of his on top of one of his crackers. He was SOOOOO proud of himself!

The kids have "show-and-tell" every Friday where they get to bring a special toy to school that starts with the letter of the week. (I can't begin to tell you how hard it is to come up with TWO "things" for every letter.) Anyway, it was Q week in Miss L's class. Little Miss A took a Queen crown and Mr D (tenacious D in this instance) took a "quacker" from our local Duck Tour. I got special clearance from the teacher early in the week so that I wouldn't be known as that parent that sent that thing to school. He was relentless...all week asking if it was Friday so he could take his "quacker" to school. He actually slipped it by me and slid it into his backpack on Wednesday morning and snuck it into the classroom where of course toys aren't allowed unless it's show-and-tell day. Oopsie!!! I guess I need to start checking the backpack in addition to the pockets now!

Since I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon, Daddy got to pick them up from school. (A totally new occurrence.) Upon pickup, Daddy notes how beautiful it is out by RPE and decides to take the kids for a nature walk. There is a nice little trail to follow with gorgeous views of downtown and the surrounding hill country. On the nature walk Daddy realizes that A does NOT like cacti at all, even though D was the one that decided to grab a spine of a nearby cactus that totally got stuck in his thumb causing his to "scream like a little girl" according to Daddy.

Add to that a trip to our favorite local Mexican dive for dinner and our traditional Firday night move night...it was a BIG day!

Week In Review...

Okay, so I've been a little late in posting this week...it's been a bit crazy over here.

Kids in the Kitchen

We had a super fun play date yesterday after school at Ms. D's house. We made some super yummy toffee bars. A & D were totally into using the mixer. I guess I need to start relinquishing a bit more control when they are helping me in the kitchen. They loved it! They also made the cutest little spiders with marshmallows and pretzels with funky Halloween decorated abdomens. Of course, knowing how much Little Miss A and Mr D LOVE marshmallows, this was a huge hit with the Caswell Kids!

Me Too Iguana

Yes, Aunt K, we still need that Sweet Pickles book...Tuesday was a classic case. As much as Little Miss A LOVES dance class. As soon as she realized that we would be watching D in his karate class, she decided she wanted to do karate too!!!

Train Party
We went to a party for some of our twin friends' on Saturday. The highlight of the party was the train ride around the park. The "tunnel" was decorated for Halloween. (It was really spooky!) The kids LOVED it! A kept saying "the hands keep grabbing my hair!" (There were plastic gloves filled with some slimy material hanging at just the right spots through the tunnel causing them to "get" A every time.) A & D had so much fun playing. Little Miss A, ironically, had one of her old dance friends at the party too. Neither one of them wanted to leave even though they had been falling asleep in the car on the way to the party. :)

Family Time at the Park

In an attempt to break up the LONG stretch between Labor Day and Thanksgiving break, we decided to take a "family day" right between the two. We all stayed home yesterday and took it slow. It was so nice to just to hang out and PLAY! We took a fun trip to the park in the afternoon that quickly turned to evening! A & D are doing so much better at pumping the swings by themselves. The fact that we could ALL swing at the same time was REALLY fun! Of course our budding scientists needed to collect as many treasures as their pockets would allow. Mr D was convinced that the somewhat clear/transparent rocks would "glow in the dark." Little Miss A loved the black rocks, "they look so cool!" Of course no trip to the park is ever complete without a fun game of tag, that was definitely my highlight of the afternoon. Their ear piercing screams and sweet little laughs are absolutely contagious!

Eating dirt? Nope, not the Caswell Kids!

I hope you are sitting down to read this...we actually left school at 3:15 today!!!!! YEA...hopefully a trend that will continue into the future! I decided we'd have a little fun in the kitchen and make some slimy, grimy dirt cups...complete with gummy worms of course! The kids had so much fun, and were such big helpers. Sadly, I think they both enjoyed the making the dirt cups more than eating them. I am seriously starting to wonder what is up with these silly monkeys. Kids that are more likely to eat broccoli than pudding with cookies and gummy worms...what's up with that? Are we related????? Seriously, who wouldn't eat that? Answer...A & D. Well, I guess I should clarify, they LOVED the gummy worms, but that was it. They just stirred the dirt around. Maybe because it was called dirt? Who knows. It was just so great to have a nice afternoon at home doing something fun together. :)

Our Little Karate Master!!!

Okay, so it's a little early in the game for that title, but man was Mr D stoked about karate lessons tonight. His instructor was great. We've only missed one lesson and thankfully they let us in early since we're technically supposed to wait until he's four. Since we're sadly only a few weeks shy of that, they let him in. He was measured for his uniform at the end of class and we'll get it within the next ten days, so I'll have to post more pictures later. Though he is super excited about the uniform, he is even more anxious to get his "sparring helmet". (Seriously? Oh wait, this is D. Nevermind, I retract my previous statement.) The kid was on cloud nine, acting totally goofy...go figure. Which made me completely nervous thinking they're going to give him the boot and how in the world would I explain that to him when he is obviously so beyond excited!!!

He actually learned four "moves" tonight. Who knows if he'll remember them tomorrow. Maybe Daddy, with his purple belt experience, can help him practice. :)

The Great Pumpkin Patch

Well, we headed out today in search for the great pumpkin. All four of them in fact!!! :) After lots of hunting and scouting, A found the perfect "Cinderella" pumpkin for her side of the front porch. D found a "pie" pumpkin that he knew he just had to have.

We took a trip through the kids maze of maize and of course stopped to pet and feed the goats. The highlight for both the kids, even beyond the great pumpkin search, was the pony ride experience at the end of our visit to the farm. Little Miss A rode Lacey, while Mr D rode Dexter. Just by chance that it worked that way, but totally perfect. With our pumpkins loaded up and ready to go, we made our way back to Austin. The kids completely conked out on the ride home. It was definitely a day full of fun!

Field Trip!!!

Little Miss A & Mr D had their FIRST school field trip today!!! The highlight..."riding a real school bus!!!" When we got to school this morning and saw the regular buses, at the door (as always) they both said "there's our bus!" They both immediately walked over (with the "big kids" still on board waiting to get off) and tried to get on. They were soooo ready to go!

I am SO glad I was able to take a half day off to join in the fun and ride the bus with them. Our destination...the zoo!!! A place we've been so many times before, but boy this trip was seen in a whole new light just because of the transportation on the way!!!

A's favorite part of the zoo was feeding the goats and deer. Once our bag of animal food was gone, she began finding every piece of hay she could get her hands on, laughing all the while, just as content as could be.

D's favorite part of the zoo was his mission to collect as many feathers as possible. Our local Austin Zoo is filled with free roaming peacocks, roosters and even a few chickens. He was in a race with his classmates to collect the most feathers. Leaving the park with only one was definitely a challenge, but he picked the biggest one so that made it somewhat okay. :)

After spending only 3 hours at the zoo, our ride home wasn't nearly as exciting. The kids crashed in no time flat. (Surprise, surprise, right?)

It was truly a GREAT day!

Inflatable Fun

Our Thursday afternoon play dates have become our regular days for fun lately. In keeping with that new tradition, we headed to one of our favorite bouncy house places this afternoon. The kids had a blast!!! In a new twist, Mr D was following Little Miss A all over the place copying her every move. (Most of you know it's usually the other way around. So, I was glad to see that they can each have their time in the spotlight.) After a while they split up and found some friends of their own, on opposite sides of the play area of course. So, whether D was right in front of me or not, I could ALWAYS hear him. That little boy was wired for sound...completely hyper!!!!! Totally excited about an afternoon of fun! :)

Story telling...

Mr. D has been the biggest story teller for a while now, but recently Little Miss A has joined in the fun. These stories are quite elaborate and can go on forever. (I have witnesses...)

Here are a couple of our shorter versions from today...
A: "I saw a bat and a ghost in the fireplace. They had a monster in there too!"
Me: "What were they doing in the fireplace?"
A: "They came out and licked me. They were hiding, but they're nice."
D: "Actually, A, they were fighting, because my blue cup was empty and they wanted some." (Referring to the empty Slurpee cup he held in his hand at the time.)

D: "Did you know that Batman had a sheep tied up with a hot rope?"
Me: "What?"
D irritatedly repeats the same question as if this were the most normal occurrence on any given day.
Me: "No, I didn't. Why did he do that?"
D: "Just because he wanted to."
Me: "Oh, okay, that explains it then."

Where does this stuff come from?

Not this already...

Well, the great pocket emptying debate has begun!!! What was once reserved only for Daddy is now encompassing his son as well! In doing laundry over the weekend, we had a lot of very unusual spots appear on clothes that were previously unstained. The culprit? A chocolate bar in D's pocket!! NICE! As I was throwing a load in tonight I head the "plink, plink, plink" of non clothing items falling into the washer...ACORNS!!!! Apparently tenacious D has pockets and knows how to use them!

Our Little Ballerina!!!

After a long summer break and delayed opening of the new studio, Little Miss A had her first day back in dance class today. :) She was in heaven!!! It's unbelievable how much her skills have blossomed since May. We really struggled with high skips (looked a little awkward) last spring, but now they are just amazing!!! Miss S commented that "A must have grown a foot since May!!" Seriously, she is so tall!!! Still the youngest one in the class and by far the TALLEST!!! Height, grace and beautiful posture, you can't beat that combo!

Disclaimer: Sadly, of all the pictures I took this afternoon, this was the best. The lighting wasn't very good through the window, not to mention the reflection issues I was having. Add those problems to the motion from inside the studio that made everything super blurry and that was all she wrote. So the wall shot before class is the best we have.

Superheroes to the rescue!!!

After a LONG and arduous task of costume contemplation...A & D have finally decided on and purchased their Halloween costumes!!!! With no prompting what-so-ever from J or I, we have two superheroes!!!!! (Still coordinating..woo hoo!!!)

Little Miss A is the ever popular and stunning Wonder Woman. (I wonder if our 4th of July 5K over the summer when Aunt K and I dressed in Wonder Woman capes had any influence on her decision.) She definitely knew what she wanted last night!!! Earlier this week I really thought it was going to be Hannah Montana, whew...close call.

Mr D. decided to be Batman! (He obviously won't be seeing The Dark Knight anytime soon. Maybe I'll have to check out the old school versions and see how kid friendly they are.) Anyway, after seeing a REALLY cool batman costume at Chick-fil-A earlier this week, he hasn't faltered a bit. It was batman all the way. No more flip flopping every other day, that was it.

J and I will be sporting super hero capes on Halloween night as well. We'll be a family of supers!!! :)