First let me say to Jacob, dude, just because you're dressed like a cowboy doesn't mean you can't be cool. C'mon, noone is buying that sharp shooter stance and crooked cowboy grin. Okay, maybe Mom is...but really? I'll admit, I cannot wait to start pre-K so I can do all this cool stuff like dressing up for homecoming week. Mom had better let me be in Mrs. Beth's class next year!

Now for Halloween and birthday stuff:

Needless to say, Mom's attempt to "minimize" and "simplify" the whole birthday/halloween thing this year was a complete joke. She planned a "simple" party at home for Jacob's 5th. If you know Mom, I think you know how that turned out. At least she dressed the part for the "monster" party. I'm pretty sure she loves Jacob enough to go out of her way to get a ridiculous poison ivy rash on her face just in time for her whole head to swell out of control so that she'd look like a monster for his birthday party. I can't beleive we don't have any pictures to publish here. It was truly her best effort yet. I mean, the horrified look on people's faces as they quickly turned away from her...priceless! Can't wait to see what she comes up with for my party! Anyway, the halloween/birthday festivities, of course, lasted about 2 weeks. Don't get me wrong...I'm not complaining. I mean there was a LOT of cake and candy involved here. Jacob was way excited about the party, but even more excited to invite each guest inside the house and up to his room and playroom. He was very hospitable...a little more so than Mom and Dad had planned on though. I'm pretty sure Dad got into a serious sword and gun fight with 2 of the guests while trying to guard the front door. Mom just told everyone to basically run right in and break whatever you'd like. Anyway, the party was a hit. All the kids had fun, and Jacob ended up turning 5!

Onto the next celebration:

I'm pretty sure Mom secretly wants to be a preschool teacher because she is way too impressed with some of the crafts he comes home with. For example, this spider hat Jacob made at school...hence the theme of our next celebration! Mom decided she and I would make one for me and we could surprise Daddy by wearing them when he got home from work. Boy was he surprised, too! We looked awesome! And they were so much fun to wear that even Mom wore mine for the dinner time dance party. That's right, I said dance party. Mom had also decided that we should listen to our halloween CD during dinner, which naturally led to an impromtu dance party in the middle of dinner. Jacob and I take after Daddy, so we are great dancers. Mom on the other hand...let's just say it is a good thing there is not video to post of that!

Carving our jack-o-lantern:

We were so excited to do this! Ever since Mom mentioned it, we had been begging and begging for it! It was time, and now Jacob insisted that during this activity, he should be General Grevious, Mom would be Princess Leah, and I could be Anakin Skywalker. Mom tried to talk him out of this but I really liked the idea too...seemed perfectly halloweenish to both of us. So she went with it. Jacob was very specific about what he wanted the jack-o-lantern to look like, so he decided to draw the face onto the pumpkin himself. This resulted in him scribbling all over it with a pencil, and then somehow moving on to wanting the entire face to consist of a big letter J. I couldn't have cared less what it looked like. I was just interested in one thing...the knife! After Jacob's nonsense and my many attempts to swipe the knife, mom finally got fed up and Jacob and I moved along to playing Star Wars in the yard. For the next 30 minutes Mom carefully cut, emptied the guts, carved the face and perfected jack just according to Jacob's specifications...while we played Star Wars. When she finished, Jacob insisted that "we" carve another. Mom made it clear (maybe in a not so nice tone) that "we" were quite finished! Jack turned out great though, don't you think?