At last I see the light!

Another 2017 goal I'm saying is complete, and this is probably the one I'm most excited by, and also most hesitant to post about, for fear of jinxing it all.
One of those goals for Craig was to have all poop and pee in the potty. For a long time, I couldn't see the light at the end on this tunnel. It felt more like we were in a cave, the entrance collapsed, with no light and no way out. Stubborn boy that he is, Craig told us for a while he wouldn't potty train until he was 10. Um, no. I don't think so. Then he amended it to when he was 4, which I was a little more okay with, but still scared of. Because I plan ahead, I was already thinking of when he starts kindergarten next year (!!!) and putting myself in a mild panic.
Anyway, Craig birthday came, and went, and we reminded him that he said he'd use the toilet when he was 4. It was a rough couple of days, getting him to actually SIT on the toilet, and there was lots of bribing involved - a new duplo set the first time he peed in the toilet

And Moana Legos the first time he pooped in the toilet. We spent quite a bit of money to convince this boy to do what we knew he could do.
BUT!
Do you see this picture?

Do you know what is in that box, other than Craig?
NOTHING! There is nothing else in that box. That box, that used to be full of Craig-sized diapers, is empty, and it will stay empty. I haven't used them in a month.

Craig still has some accidents, but I can see that this is in fact a tunnel, there is an exit, and we are right at it, one foot in the tunnel, and one glorious foot feeling the sunshine and fresh air. And it feels fabulous.

Fearsome Halloween!

Happy Halloween 2017!

Introducing...
My Fearsome Trio!

Oh, wait. Those are just toys.

Here we go! This is the right picture!

My orca, tiger, and rhino. Definitely not a bunch you'd want to meet in a back alley, am I right?

After all, if they'll eat each other, I'm sure they'll eat you, too.

I asked Craig what we should do on our watermelon jack o'lantern. "Oh, my favorite: the triangle!" And so, since Kyler is a pro carver, we made a triangle jack o'lantern.

Kiddos liked helping take out the "guts."

Well, Caleb just liked eating the guts.
And the end result?

Not too shabby.

Not too shabby at all.

Spooky Caleb!

Calista planned out the last several years of Halloween the August she was four. I've had some time to figure out what I was doing with this, which was good. Because she wanted to be an orca, and that's not a costume you can just buy at the store, or even a pattern you can find at the fabric store. I'd need to make it, using my own wits... and a couple of solid ideas online. My main inspiration came from this website, with some fin and teeth advice coming from here. I was excited and a little nervous to make the orca costume, because it was either going to turn out awesome or... not so awesome.
So, I bought 2 big black sweatshirts, white felt, some stuffing, and set to work. After some decent time on my sewing machine

and a little more time hand sewing than I originally planned - I decided it would look better with the dorsal fin hand-sewn - I had a finished orca.

And I'm pretty dang proud of it. It ended up almost exactly how I planned.

And Calista loved it.

Fierce face!

The only "mistake" I made was that I probably made the tail just a touch too low. It dragged on the ground a bit. Oh well.

Dorsal fin, standing tall.
Calista got to do some fun things as an orca, too, not just school and trick-or-treating.

Like, she got to go curling.

Preparing the throw the rock.

Away she goes. Form's not bad for an orca... or a 6-year-old.

All in all, the orca costume was a success. And everyone thought it was unique (way to go Calista!) and looked good (way to go me!).


Craig isn't like Calista. He bounced a dozen or so ideas around for his Halloween costume before deciding on a black cat. Then we go some hand-me-downs from his cousins, one of which was a tiger costume, and he changed his mind once more. "After all, a tiger is a type of cat!" That's fine. Less work for me. So a tiger it was.

Tiger got to go to gymnastics, and of course had excellent balance.

He's pretty good at climbing, too.

Those claws are super helpful.
And, of course, all cats love boxes.

And sleeping.

All cats love sleeping.

RAWR!

And Caleb, well, he didn't get a choice. I bought a rhino costume about 3 years ago in a post-Halloween sale. I hoped child #3 would fit it. And Caleb did!

Isn't he a very cute rhino?

But you better watch out! Rhino charges!

Caleb was funny about the costume. Sometimes he didn't mind it at all.

Other times...

You don't want to make a rhino mad!
But it wasn't the hood part that was the problem.

Sometimes he was happy to wear it alone. Whatever. He wore it happily for trick or treating.

Mostly because there was candy involved. As soon as he got his first thing in the bucket, a lollipop, he didn't want to keep going. He just wanted to hold the sucker.
So he spent the rest of the trick-or-treating in the stroller, holding his lollipop.

We've decided next year, though, if weather is at ALL decent, we're going to skip the mall. Lots of people, little candy. Instead we'll go around the neighborhood until the kids are tired and/or the buckets are full, which won't take long because the neighbors are pretty generous with their candy.

Anyway, Happy Halloween!