More Halloween Pics

I know you have already seen the boys' Halloween costumes, but since yesterday was actually Halloween, I thought I would share a few more pictures of the boys in their costumes. Our church has a Trunk or Treat so we headed there for some candy grabbin' fun.

I added a couple of things to Benjamin's fire engine since it's first outing last week. A fellow blogger mom made a fire truck for her son and I noticed that it had a cute little fire hose. So cute. Why didn't I think of that? So, I headed to the plumbing section of the local home improvement store and bought some 1/4 inch white tubing (not sure what it is used for) and this little brass nobby thingy (don't know what it's called or what it's used for). I glued the nobby thingy to the white tube and ta-da, we have a water hose!

And what fire engine is complete without a dalmatian (or in Benjamin's case- 2 dalmatians). He carried those puppies around all night.

Enjoying a sucker.

My boys.

Don't forget to check out the new wheelchair costumes blog. Let me know if you have a creation you would like to share.

Want to know how we made Benjamin's fire truck? Click HERE.

Want to know how we made Caleb's Dry Bones costume? Click HERE.

Crafting, Skating, and Lava Lamp Making

The title of this post pretty much sums up our weekend and I could just leave it at that. But what kind of blogger would I be if I didn't include some pictures!

When I started researching different ways to keep the boys busy and entertained this summer (as part of our Cool Summer Days calendar), I got this bright idea to invite all the mom's from Sunday school to bring their kiddos over for a massive crafting playdate.  I figured I could have several Father's Day crafts available for the kids to do.  Well this massive crafting playdate was on Friday and there were 14 kids in my house eager to do crafts!  What was I thinking?  While chaotic it actually went pretty smoothly and I think the kids had a good time.  Given all the chaos I didn't get a single picture of the kids working on their crafts but I thought I would at least share the projects we did in case some of you want to do them with your kids.  Click on the links for more info/photos of each craft.

Shrinky-Dink Footprint Keychain with poem
This is so cute!  I bought some Shrinky Dink paper and painted the bottom of the boy's feet.  I used craft paint and put the foot print on the rough side of the shrinky dink paper.  Let the paint dry and then cut the print out.  Hole punch the heel. I learned that you really need to punch about 4 holes really close together in order to have a hole big enough to put a key chain through once you bake the print.  The shrinky dink paper will tell you what temperature and for how long to bake your creation.  I printed out the poem to go along with the foot prints.  This is such a cute Father's Day gift that a kid of any age could do.  This was definitely a hit at our massive crafting playdate. Shrinky Dinks are so cool.

"Dad Rocks" Paperweight 
You can do so many things with this salt dough recipe.  It is so easy, so pliable, and so fun.

Tile Coasters
This is another really easy, versatile craft.  I bought plain white tiles at Home Depot for .16 a piece.  So cheap.  Some of the kids did the tissue paper with Modge Podge.  I also set out some car magazines so that the older kids could cut out letters, or photos to put on the tiles. You could also paint the tiles and then modge podge over it.  Or, if you have a cute picture of dad with the kids you could make a coaster with that.  So easy.

The massive crafting playdate was a success.  I was quite exhausted once it was over.

On Saturday we took Caleb (and Benjamin) to a birthday party at a skating rink.  Caleb went to a party at this same rink a while back and he had so much fun using his chair so he was excited to go again. Plus he was so thrilled to see his friends from school, he misses them already.  Caleb was a blur on the rink for most of the party so I didn't get a good picture of him.  I did manage to get a picture of Benjamin wearing roller skates for the very first time.

We closed out the weekend by making our very own lava lamps.  This activity was so fun.  The boys loved it.  You can click on the link to get more information but basically you take some water bottles, fill them over halfway with vegetable oil, add water, food coloring and then drop in pieces of Alka Seltzer.  

Picking out their color.  Benjamin went with yellow, Caleb chose green.

Pouring.

Adding color.

Getting ready to drop in the alka seltzer.

Watching the show.

The boys were fascinated.  The great thing is that you can continue to drop in pieces of Alka Seltzer to keep the bubbles going.  There is no limit to the number of times you can do this.  I was kinda impressed myself. This one was a big hit with my boys.  

Mario and Luigi take over Halloween!

Mario and Luigi (aka Caleb & Benjamin) took over Halloween this weekend!  Their costumes were a big hit, they had everyone talking.  I don't know how many people took pictures of Caleb on their phones, his picture is probably all over the place by now!  

We had our church's Hallelujah Carnival this afternoon.

This is one of the few picture I got with Mario and Luigi in the same shot.  It is virtually impossible for Benjamin to be still long enough for me to get a decent picture.

 I have to admit that I am really proud of this costume and what we were able to do with Caleb's wheelchair.  He loves playing Mario Kart at my parent's house so I thought this would be a great costume for him.  I think he was really proud of it and he seemed to enjoy all the attention it got.

 Benjamin did great leaving the mustache on but it was had getting him to keep the hat on!

 Caleb had a lot of fun at the carnival today.

Luigi has never looked cuter!  It was so funny as walked around our church, people would see Caleb first and say: "Look at Mario in his car!"  And then Benjamin would be right behind him and people got such a kick out of seeing "Luigi" too.  There were several kids dressed like Mario (although they didn't have a cool race car) but Benjamin was the only Luigi.

 Caleb and his Daddy (who just happens to be wearing his cool Redefining SB shirt).

Me and the star of the Hallelujah Carnival!

 Yesterday we went to a Starlight Halloween Party.  It just happened to be at Texas Christian University (my Alma Mater). It's been awhile since I have been on campus and it has changed quite a bit.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  Almost makes me want to go back to school there to get my Masters or something!  Just kidding.

 Luigi running around like a maniac all over the campus!  This was right after his Luigi hat flew off and landed in the water fountain.

It was a fun weekend for us and the boys.  We had the Pumpkin Patch yesterday and 2 parties.  Mario and Luigi are pooped and sleeping soundly.

I entered Caleb's costume in a contest to win a Flip video camera.  If you would like to vote for Caleb click here and then scroll to find his pic and then "like" Caleb's picture.

Someone pointed out to me that I never featured Caleb on my "Faces of Spina Bifida".  It really never occurred to me to feature him because I figure that if you are visiting this blog then you already know Caleb.  I did recently update "His Story" if you want to check that out.  Caleb's story was actually featured on the Kidz blog last week.  That was pretty cool!

Vacation Bible School

Caleb went to his very first VBS this week.  I'll admit that I was very nervous about sending him.  I had to make special arrangements with our church to make sure he had the best time possible.  I worried about him feeling left out or that he wouldn't have any fun.  Boy was I wrong.  He had a great week and I feel silly for ever being worried in the first place.

This was the first day of VBS. He was so interested in the red Mini Cooper in the parking lot that he wouldn't look at the camera!

He came home with a craft each day.  They made these cowboy hats the first day.

I'm so glad I pushed past my fears and sent Caleb to VBS.  I am so thankful for the wonderful church family that went out of their way to make sure Caleb was included and that his needs were met.  He had a really great time.  I got the pleasure of dropping him off in the morning and hearing several other kids say "Hi Caleb!" as soon as he rolled into the classroom.  And seeing him find his friends in the hallway and give them a hug just made me smile.  I always worry that he won't have friends but I'm learning that kids his age are incredibly accepting and they don't seem to care about his wheelchair at all.  In fact, they seem quite fascinated by it.  Plus, this is his church home so Caleb is certainly a familiar face there.

Well my first born is turning 5 years old on Monday...(sigh).  I can't even believe it.  His birthday party is Sunday afternoon so be on the lookout for those pics!!

Benjamin's Sunday

Sunday mornings are tough on little Benjamin.  He doesn't get his usual morning nap because we are at church.  He is one tired little boy by the time we get home.  This is what we found when we got home from church today...poor guy.

Now that is one tired boy!

I finally bought a couple of baby gates today.  I just needed someway to keep Benjamin out of the kitchen when I am trying to cook.  We decided to try the baby gate out today while I was making lunch and this is the reaction I got from Benjamin...

I don't think he likes it.  Clearly not a fan of the new baby gate :)

Hallelujah Carnival 2009

took the boys to our church's annual Hallelujah Carnival. Caleb was Superman this year. We tried to use his wheelchair as part of his costume again this year (here is last year). I think it came out pretty good. I wasn't sure what to do with Benjamin so I figured he would make a good Lex Luthor since he is practically bald. So we used a green glow stick and called it kryptonite. It was a lot of fun. We are exhausted and thankful for the extra hour of sleep we get tonight!

Texas Rangers game

Every year our church reserves several sections of the ballpark for a Rangers game. They even have shirts made up so that it looks like a sea of red in the stands. I think there was about 2,200 church members there last night. Anyway Caleb was so excited about going to the ballgame, he talked about it for days leading up to the game. He seemed to really enjoy it. I was so proud of him because it was very loud and Caleb isn't much for noise but he did amazing. We only stayed a couple of hours (that's long enough with 2 kids). Both boys were exhausted by the time we got home, Caleb slept until 10:30 today!

Hallelujah Carnival

Caleb and his construction truck chair were a huge hit at our church's Hallelujah Carnival. I have to admit that I was pretty proud of his chair. I think I was more excited about showing it off than Caleb was. It was some work putting it all together but it was more than worth it. Caleb had an absolute blast and everyone had to stop and compliment his chair. Even strangers wanted to take pictures of Caleb in his decked-out chair. Of course now I am concerned that we have set the bar kinda high and I'm wondering how we can top this next year. I better start thinking of something!

Moving up at Church

Today was a big day for Caleb at church. He "graduated" out of the nursery and is now in the Preschool classes. It seemed like a big deal to me so I figured it was an opportunity to take pictures. He did really great in his new class with his new teachers. They even did a small lesson: "Let us love one another", so of course I took some pictures of Caleb's art work. He's so big!

Mr. Independent

Here are some more pictures of Caleb in his new ride. A couple of them are from church this morning. He had a ball at church today. He was SO social, going up to everyone and shaking their hands, waving at people, giving high 5's. He was all over the place and loving every minute of it. We could tell that he just feels more confident and independent in his chair. This is just going to be so great for him and his development. We feel so blessed to have him as our son, we are just so proud of him. He certainly expresses his independence in his chair, he gets most upset if we try to steer him in a direction that he doesn't want to go (I guess that is typical for a 2 1/2 year old).

Sunday Best

Caleb looked so handsome this morning dressed in his Sunday best. I just had to post this picture of him all decked out in his church clothes. He looks like such a big boy! I am blown away by how big he is getting, I guess I just don't always realize how much he has grown.