happy halloween, mateys

by the way, i just ate 2 bite-sized snickers, a reese's peanut butter cup, and a mini heath bar like it was against the law.  like i was trying to win a race.  and if it had been a race, i would've won.

i hope your halloween was as cute as a pirate and a baby monkey.

p.s. here is a pic of my nieces and nephew from last night that i stole off of my sister-in-laws blog.  it's halloween at it's finest.

a new tradition

our niece's birthday is right after our trip to syracuse (a.k.a. cousin camp) every summer.  we usually celebrate with gifts and cupcakes.  this year, with caroline's permission, nana and papa decided to celebrate every grandchild's birthday since they often miss them throughout the year.  

 everyone had a cupcake.

 everyone had candles to blow out.

 happy birthday was sung to each child one at a time.

witnessing the looks on their sweet faces was hands down my favorite part of the trip.

happy birthday, babies.

does your family have any sweet traditions that melt your heart?

cousin camp

for the past couple of summers, we have planned our vacation to visit chris' parents at the same time as his sister and her family.  it is beautiful there in the summertime, the temperature peaks at 80, we eat outside for every meal.  one night of our vacation during dinner on the screened-in porch, my sister-in-law pointed out that our surroundings looked a lot like those in the movie dirty dancing.  she was right, it is just like dirty dancing, minus all the dancing dirtily.

 something about sleeping under the same roof as my two kids, my husband, his parents, his sister, her husband, and her three kids reminds me of my church camp days.  we spend the week soaking up as much quality time with each other to last us through the year.  because of this, i have nicknamed our vacation cousin camp.

meet the camp directors, nana and papa.

they make sure we all get there safely and that we don't want for one thing during our stay.

meet our junior counselor, aly.

as the oldest cousin and an almost-kindergartener, she makes sure everyone follows the rules and stays out of trouble.  ben called her 'momma' all week.  it got a little confusing (for me).

 the award for silliest camper was a tie between ben and caroline.  they kept us entertained with their mad singing and dancing skills.  my son was introduced to the music of justin beiber and now has a bad case of beiber-fever.

there was another tie for the cutest camper award.  jack spent the trip making sure the trash ended up in the trash-can.  he's efficient, that one.

 and crosby spent the trip sleeping, eating, smiling, pooping (repeat).  cute boys, they are.

as cousin camp assistant director, aunt karin made sure there were plenty of books to read and that everyone had enough to eat.  ben and crosby have developed quite a crush on her.

as cousin camp social chairman, uncle chris made sure that everyone was adequately worn out by the end of the day.

at cousin camp, nature was observed,

 pools were inflated,

 blueberries were picked,

 sand castles were erected,

 all of the meals were served family-style,

and in typical camp fashion, we (i) cried when we had to leave.

***to view all pictures from our trip, click here.