Happy Halloween from the Periwinkle Family

I put the kids in their costumes this morning for a test run to see if I needed to make any last minute changes. They were so cute I couldn't resist taking a few pictures and sharing. So, without further ado...I give you Sweet Pea and Handy Manny.

She will be wearing green "Sleep Pea" jammies underneath.

Thanks to Grandpa and grandma for making the tools!

I'll post a picture of Zach when he tries on his costume for the final fitting. He is at school now.

Zach wasn't still long enough for me to get a picture of him alone. As soon as I was done the ones with Ryan he had his costume off and he was organizing his loot.

Yep, He's Three

This is how Ryan dressed himself to go out yesterday. Granted we were going to a costume party at gymnastics, but the boots, the backpack, my hat and the flashlight might have been a bit of overkill. We got a couple giggles at Michaels and Target where we went before gymnastics. Eh, why not. He had fun:-)

Beautiful

Recently I've been doing some thinking about make-up. This is something I contemplate every now and then. In high school I wore make-up every day and curled my hair. In college I decided that people should like me for who I really am and decided that make-up was a mask to hid behind(plus I like to just roll out of bed and head to class). Then I was in Erin's wedding and she found this great make up person that made me realize that make-up can be used to just enhance your 'natural beauty'. I also found that buying better make-up made for a better look. So I bought some good make-up and started wearing it. Then I got married and had kids. This leaves little time for make-up and I only wear make-up when I have extra time(ha!) or when I get dressed up. Every now and then something will make me realize that I look better with make-up and I decide that I should wear it more. This time my thoughts were sparked by a couple things. I was putting together a portrait collage and I thought about the pictures I was picking of me were all ones where I had make-up on. Now I don't wear any form of make-up at least 99% of the time. I don't like to have my picture taken when I don't have make-up on, so there are not that many of me in my normal state of being. So I started thinking about how I should wear make-up more. The next day I read this post and I thought 'Well, Erin looks fine without makeup.' Then I think of the pictures of me with make up and looking in the mirror every day and again make-up seems like a good idea. After all I do want to be attractive to my husband and look like I have it a little bit together to the rest of the world. Then today I saw one of these videos posted in Jackaroo World. This prompted me to look on YouTube for myself. I found some more videos that made me realize there is a way bigger picture. They made me think of Lily and how she will think of herself when she grows up. Then they made me think of Ryan and what he will think of himself and how he will look at girls. They made me realize I need to be making sure every day that my kids know they are beautiful and wonderful and to learn to embrace things that make other people different than them. This message from Dove hits me so hard that I joined YouTube just so I could post these videos in hopes that more people will post them and more people will see them and they might make more kids out there(and grown ups too) realize that they are beautiful. Thanks to Dove for their Campaign for Real Beauty. So for me, maybe I will wear make-up more often because I feel prettier with it on, but I will also know that my husband loves me for way more than how I look with make-up on.

dove 'little girls'

This is an important message. Kudos to Dove for starting the campaign for real beauty!

dove film

These girls make me sad. Unfortunately I think they are not in the minority.

dove evolution

This is incredible.

Ryan at 3

Ryan is three now and doing so much. Since he turned 3 he has started watching football with daddy. Now whenever he sees anything remotely resembling a football game on TV he asks if we can watch the Ravens. I've never really cared much about the Ravens. I guess any sports loyalties I had were established when I was young and the Ravens didn't exist then. There is something about your little boy rooting for a team that makes your heart a little soft for them. I guess the Ravens are now officially my NFL team of choice (if I had to choose).

Here are the boys watching football and drinking rootbeer floats.

He hiked all the way to this waterfall and most of the way back. That's quite a bit of walking for little legs.
He has also shown quite an interest in reading. I think he may be on the verge of starting to read. He wants to know what all the signs we pass say. He wants to know what words are in his books and he is getting pretty good at knowing what letters start words. He likes to sit and "read" his books all by himself. He also likes to "read" Lily stories from the books he has had since he was a baby. Just today he started saying rhyming words. I'm not sure he knew what he was doing when he did it, but he knows there is something similar about the words.




He is also starting to recognize and make patterns. The other morning I was in the other room and Ryan came running in to get me. "Come see my pattern, Mommy! Backwards, frontwards,backwards, frontwards." I went in and there were about 75 of his cars arranged in a line alternating frontward and backward. There were a couple planes and motorcycles thrown in for variety.

He is so much fun these days (when he is not being obstinate) cracking jokes and generally just being amusing. He is in big boy gymnastics now where he goes all by himself, but he likes to look out the window or come to the door and say "Hi mommy! I love you." or "I did it!" Curious George is his new favorite show and he belly laughs when he is watching it. He just loves that curios little monkey:-) I know how he feels because I just love my curious little monkey too:-)

Too Much TV?

Does it mean that Ryan is watching too much TV when one of his favorite songs is "Cha-cha-cha, Charmin"?

Or when I give him a little box of raisins he says, "Grapes and sunshine, that's all we need."?

Mental note: Only play cartoons from 'non-commercial' stations when I take a shower.