A day late and a dollar short

This whole not having a camera cord thing is getting to be a real nuisance, as I am finding it extremely hard to keep up with all of our amazing awesomeness without it. I'm sure you feel the same way about the situation. Because you are cool people--like us.

I laid Patton on the couch so I could go get ready one morning, and when I came out this is what I saw. These two are too cute together. Patton lights up whenever Bennett is around, and Bennett loves Patton almost to the point of suffocation at times. Bennett's new thing is to "hug" Patton (a little scary) and yell "I love this guy!" at the top of his lungs. Brotherly love at it's finest. I am one happy mommy.

Last weekend (actually, the same weekend as the fish pictures from the last blog post. This is getting all out of order in my head) Matt noticed that it was getting cool enough at nights that we probably needed to start covering the pumpkins we are trying to grow in our garden to protect them. And since he knows me well enough to know that I would never think to do this with blankets on an individual basis, he simply decided to make a temporary greenhouse. Matt is a smart guy (who married a lazy woman with no interest in gardening).

This is the beginning of the greenhouse. Bennett was very involved in this project and had his own tools out so he could work as well. I realized on this day that Bennett can name almost every tool Matt owns, what they are used for, and how to properly care for and store them. Boo-yah! Take that pre-school!

This is the middle of the project, and as you can tell, both Matt and I are in this picture...which means Bennett must have taken this picture when we were too busy to notice he had the camera.

 The inside from the door.

 Our okra plants and tiny baby pumpkins, all safe and warm. And yes. This is the best picture we have of me and Bennett together. Sad.

Because gutting a fish and building a greenhouse is not enough, Matt also made a fishing pole holder for the back of his brother's truck, who was very generous in letting Matt borrow it for the fishing trip weekend. *Patent Pending*. Thank you, Joe!

Right after Matt left us for another week in San Antonio, I came down with this horrendous cold thing which totally laid me out flat for a day and took my voice and energy for several more. It was pretty bad. But we made it through with the help of neighbors and friends and a lot of Tylenol, and now we are back to our normal selves. And just so you know, raising a three-year-old while having no voice is like telling a mime to train a pit bull. Scary.

Bennett is really into Halloween this year, which is unfortunate because my Halloween spirit seems to have fled the scene. I have no idea why, as this is usually my favorite holiday. I think maybe I am just too tired to be scary...or maybe I am so tired that I am already scary enough. Hmmmmm. But being the excellent mom that I am, I have faked my way through and still created a great experience for our boys, who should never miss out on free candy and carving pumpkins just because of me. Here are a few halloweenie things we have done:

Bennett's favorite part of Halloween is wearing costumes. And the boy can make some good ones. Here he is wearing all of my necklaces and all of his play necklaces (yep. Our son has necklaces) being a "witch." He has also discovered the joy of wigs, and has found that layering as many pairs of pants as possible creates a great costume, as well as simply wearing no clothes at all. I'm sure our neighbors appreciate this last one.

Last Thursday I took Bennett on a date to McDonald's for dinner and to see the movie, "Hotel Transylvania". We met up with my friend and her little girl at the movie and they had a great time together. Bennett tried to wear his "witch" costume inside the theater, but I convinced him that maybe it would get in the way of watching the movie and we should leave it in the car. He was a little disappointed, since (he told me) "All of the people will say, "Oh no, Bennett! You forgot your witch costume! And you look so awesome in your witch costume! You need to wear that more." High self-confidence runs in this family. The movie however, was perfect for him without too many scary parts, and he actually sat through the whole thing. Hooray for screen time.

Bennett and Aspen getting some dessert after the movie in our favorite ice cream parlor. These two crack me up.

My mom and dad sent us a Halloween package, and inside was a "Sid the Science Kid" DVD, which just happens to be one of Bennett's favorite shows, and which we just happened to have watched twelve times already. Ugh. On the movie, the kids make green slime (aka: cornstarch and water mixed with food-coloring) and this is one of our favorite Halloween activities now.

This weekend (which is still trapped on the camera) we went to our traditional pumpkin patch and picked out our jack-o-lanterns, which I cannot begin to describe how excited Bennett is about that, and finally decorated our house, which in Bennett's world translates into the fact that we are throwing a party. (I should really decorate for things more often.) We have also practiced eating lots of "trickortreat" candy, which is my favorite part of Halloween, hands down.

And last but not least, we got to go on the Story Time Firehouse Tour. This, obviously, was not a Halloween related thing, but I wanted to put it on here anyway. Bennett's little friend was there with us, and they were pretty cute holding hands through the whole tour.

Bennett and Harper. Halfway through this guy's speech about fire safety Bennett suddenly sprints to the middle of the circle, stopping the guy from talking, and loudly announces, "Hello! I'm Bennett! I'm three!" It was one of those moments when you are torn between pride and embarrassment for your adorable, yet highly interruptive child. I tried to err on the side of pride...

Inside the ambulance.

Showing his "Super Fireman Muscles"

My two firefighting magoos. I have discreetly removed myself from this image so as to save your eyesight and my personal pride (it was pretty gross, as I was still getting over that cold thing).

So that is what happened LAST week, not to be confused with THIS week, as those pictures are still trapped on our camera. Pretty much just a jumble of random events, but that is what makes up everyday life around here.

Everyday. Awesome. Life.
May it always be so.