What a Weekend!

We've realized that for the foreseeable future, this particular weekend is going to be one of the busiest of our entire year. First, it's the weekend before Halloween, Mommy's favorite holiday, and the traditional time for Halloween parties like our neighborhood Halloween Parade and our multiples club's annual Halloween party. Second, at least four of our neighborhood friends (and Cousin Naomi) have their birthdays around the end of October, so their parties will likely fall on this weekend. Plus, if Mommy and Daddy ever run the Marine Corps Marathon again (like they did last year), it falls on...yes, you guessed it, this weekend. And this year we don't even get an extra hour since the end of Daylight Savings Time has been moved back a week!

So this weekend has been a busy one. We started out yesterday with friend Jeremy's third birthday party at the local fire station. Alex was particularly taken with the fire trucks and ambulances, and was very chatty with the firemen. Ari liked the equipment, but what she liked even more were the M&M's served with the cake...like Mommy, like daughter, we guess:

Alex on a fire truck

Arielle proudly displays the remnants of her M&M's

The birthday boy makes a wish

We left Jeremy's birthday party and headed straight to our multiples club Halloween Party, where Alex and Ari quickly changed into their costumes before heading inside for the fun. Ari was delighted with all of the activities; however, Alex took a little while to warm up to the commotion (guess he was somewhat of a cowardly lion this time...) Once he took it all in, though, he was running around like...well, like a kid on too much birthday cake, candy and pizza:

Ari loves being a bunny

Alex gives a big "roar"

Alex meets his lion twin

Ari meets her bunny twin

Yummm....pizza!

Alex and pal Owen (born the same day as Alex and Ari)

After the Halloween Party, we headed over to Nana and Poppy's house for some play time and dinner. Alex and Ari fell asleep on the way to their house, a testament to how pooped they were after a day of partying. But they perked up when they got to Nana and Poppy's, and were eager to get into all sorts of non-babyproofed things in their house.

This morning we went to friend Andrew's second birthday party where Alex and Ari joined their friends in a gym class, complete with parachute, instruments, music and hula hoops. Alex and Ari now know that a birthday party means cake, and they weren't disappointed:

Andrew blows out his candles with brother Justin and his mom

Ari says "Yay, more cake!"

Alex and Ari have fun on the parachute with their friends

After the party, it was home for a nap (for Alex and Ari) and then our neighborhood Halloween Parade. Mommy went to the party early to help set up and Daddy brought Alex and Ari down after their lunch. This was the third time they had the opportunity to wear their costumes- we're definitely getting our money's worth on the costumes this year! Alex and Ari got to see all of their neighborhood friends and rode in their Radio Flyer (pulled by Daddy) in the parade. They also had another chance to see a fire truck and ambulance, play some games and, of course, eat more sugar- cookies and juice.

Tired bunny calls it a day

Needless to say, this wasn't a nutritionally sound weekend, but every once in a while it can't hurt and we suppose that around Halloween, it's somewhat inevitable. We just hope that Alex and Ari don't think that we're going to be eating cake, cookies, candy and juice every day now!