A very Bowen Halloween party!

Ready for the party....and the 3rd time today Mommy had to get Drew dressed in her costume. 

Grammy gave her some lipstick so she really wanted a closeup.

The Super-Family!

Most people did not guess Mom and Dad's costume. Hint: she is an apple and he is wearing an iPod.

Best costume of the night: 1986 Mike Scott. Rob has had this costume for months! Complete with blond mullet, gold-rimmed glasses, orange belt and a nail file and vaseline in his back pocket. 

Rob's inspiration:

 Clark Kent meets SuperGirl...or, as Wendy put it: SuperStayAtHomeMom because she's wearing Uggs.

The reason we had to buy red tights for Drew....apparently even the 4-6 year-old costumes are "sassy." 

Peanut-Butter and Jelly Tombstone sandwiches for the kids, so cute!

Sidney and Charlotte were the babysitters and had tons of stuff for the little ones to do: Drew is volunteering to play Duck-Duck-Goose.

Meghan, who was a pig, was not happy with the prize she won.

Drew was VERY excited to win her prize and has asked us if it's ok if Sidney babysits her sometime. Woo hoo! A babysitter!

Drew-isms!

It's time for everyone's favorite segment where we try and figure out what this 4-year-old is talking about!

"I like bananas. Do you know why I like bananas? They have no bones."

"Daddy why is your tummy so big? I think it's big because of all the food you eat."

"When I hear a song I like, I smile....I'm not smiling."

When getting ready for a bath, she is sing/shouting while taking her clothes off. She turns the corner into the bathroom, naked as a jaybird and says, "Beautiful Singing? Check!"

"Mom, I don't know the words to this book. But the author is John Iperton." (totally made-up name)

"Let's play family. You be the daughter and I'll be the mommy. I'm a small mommy and you're a big kid. Your name is Sunny-Boy."

In October, the Grattons have...

...gone to the World's Largest Children's Book Fair at OCC with the Mattoxes and listened to Molly Shannon talk about her book, Tilly the Trickster,

...gone to Pumpkin City, 

...and not had much fun at soccer (I don't know how we're going to get through 5 more weeks).

Saturday, November 12 is the last day of soccer for Drew followed by the big Soccer Festival, and then a not-so-well-deserved 10 month break from soccer until next fall.

Whatever works...

Drew joined the Sing and Shout Club at church and had her first "class" on Wednesday. She apparently learned something because she just said to me:

Mom, when you closed the refrigerator door, I tooted. And that made a beat.

One of these things is not like the other...one of these things doesn't belong.

Back-to-School night was fairly typical. At the end of the night, we were able to view some of the work the kids have already done. Drew has really been practicing writing her name this summer and it is now legible! Though she is one of the youngest in her class, we expected to see excellent work with lots of gold stars on her bean project. We searched the board, twice, and didn't see her name. I quickly thought back if there were any days she was absent and would've missed out on the project. No, no missed days.

Then we looked a little closer:

I'll give you one guess at who is at the top.

And as we looked at some of the other kids' phenomenal bean projects (one name was not only color-coordinated, but every bean was facing the same direction), we came across Faith's work:

However, Jeremy may or may not be at the grocery store buying beans for Drew to practice at home.

First day of soccer

Laguna Niguel Youth Soccer Association lets kids play as early as 3 years old. Of course we signed Drew up and were all excited to watch Drew rule the soccer fields on her very first day. Daddy took Drew shopping to get her shinguards, cleats, socks and ball. She insisted on the black and white ball instead of the pink ball because it was a "real" ball.

When we checked in last Saturday morning she got a full uniform and was even more excited! This is Drew's game face.

 We did a little warming up with some dribbling,

 a little passing,

 a few wind sprints, 

 and one last "yay for soccer!" face.

 We started out great. She followed directions and was the leading dribbler.

 She concentrated really hard and was playing well with her teammates.

 And then, at a whopping15 minutes in, things started to turn.

 Drew started to whine and frown. And sit.

 Then she got her second wind and joined in for the Monster Kick drill, with her entourage behind her.

 And then she hit rock bottom.

First day of Pre-K!

Excited to be going to Miss Teresa's class.

She knew right where her cubby was in the Blue Room.

She was so happy to see Emma, she ran over to her and hugged her.

No doubt, she just said the word, "actually......."

Back in chapel with Emma and Faith, a friend from VBS. Of course Drew is never too busy to smile for the camera.

Again, explaining something to an unwitting Emma. Probably saying, "So. Emma. Ok....."

 "Mom! Come here! Come stand by me!"

CA Adventure

We got up early last Sunday morning to go to California Adventure in the hopes of missing the heat and all the people. We certainly didn't miss the heat. Luckily it was early enough that we never waited longer than about 5 minutes to do anything.

 We tried to keep Drew's mind off the heat by taking breaks in the Puddle Park and staying wet.

 Doing a little crazy driving in the bumper cars.

 One of her favorite rides is the Jumpin' Jellyfish.

 If a ride didn't have a line, we rode it. Even if that meant the plain 'ol carousel.

 We noticed this year that Drew developed a sense of fear. At barely 3 years old she rode all the big rides and only complained about the Matterhorn last year. This year we had to convince her to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, Monsters Inc, Buzz Lightyear and other kiddie rides.

 And yet we still had to leave the street show because she was afraid of Sully.

Scared of Monsters Inc. I blame Kelsey and wanting everything to be spooky.