The aquarium always does fun stuff for Halloween and we’ve been going since Evan was a baby. This year the costume dress up weekend was “Pirate and Princess” themed. Unfortunately, I spend a bazillion dollars on costumes that are not pirates or princesses but were TOTALLY aquarium appropriate…so the kids dressed up anyway.

Although they weren’t eligible for the pirate/princess costume contests, I can promise you Evan won Unofficial Best Costume, just based on the fact that EVERY person we saw commented on it. Because it’s AMAZING.

p.s. The weird spacing thing on photos with captions makes me crazy but I cannot fix it so try not to let it drive you crazy too.

She traded her mermaid crown for one she made in the craft room

LOOK AT THAT COSTUME

They loved all the throwing games to win “pirate gold”

I wonder if the seals are getting nervous about the shark staring at them.

There’s an art installation set up about ocean pollution. This one was adorable/sad.

He’s goldfish. FYI.

Evan saw the pirate and yelled “JACK SPARROW!” and the pirate said “CAPTAIN. It’s CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow!” This was like the 5th time we ran into him just walking around, obviously they’re BFF’s now.

This is the best I can do for family photos right now.

Sorry Linc.

Then we went home and painted/carved pumpkins, something we never managed to get around to last year. Painting is genius, since carving is such a PITA.

Three kids is a lot of kids. I mean, it’s not A LOT of kids. 15 is a lot of kids. But three kids is more kids than I have hands or eyes, so the logistics of taking them out in public can be difficult.  It’s actually not so bad, since I can keep one kid literally tied to my body at all times, especially when we’re out doing things and it’s not really safe to just leave him on the floor. If it were up to me, that’s where he would hang out most of the time, since he’s pretty entertained by ceiling fans and smiling and I can smile at him from the couch.

But the two bigger ones still expect me to be Fun Mom who Does All The Things, so last weekend we went and Did All The Things. Since they have the attention span of gnats I managed to fit all the fun into just one warm, beautiful Saturday so we could stay home and do nothing on the colder, less beautiful Sunday. I like to pretend I am Supermom but I can only keep it up for like, 4 hours. Then I turn into regular old fed-up, impatient, tired mom.

Luckily it really was a gorgeous day and I did not collapse after climbing the giant hill to the apple trees and I even managed to bring my camera, which is the thing that I have been letting go in the name of sanity. But it was really fun to do fall things AND take pictures.

Please enjoy some pictures.

That’s Mohegan Sun, the casino. We take people there when they visit.

This thing fires water bottles at big targets. Evan would have spent every dollar I own doing it all day.

I hate corn mazes, but Evan took charge and actually lead the way through. There was another mom with a 4 year old who walked with us and even she was impressed.

There is still corn all over my house from this corn pit

Despite the fact that this WASN’T a typical week (hellooooooo single parenting) it was about as typical as any of our weeks are. Stroller Strides, playground, errands, cooking, lots of sleeping babies. But we survived and had fun and no one’s eyes rotted out because of too much Nick Jr. or starved to death because all they ate was Goldfish crackers.

Sunday:

Yes, Hello, We will buy ALL the pumpkins.

The portabello mushrooms were really just a goat-cheese-face-delivery device.

Late night toddler party

Monday:

I ruined a beautiful morning by exercising.

Playdough playgroup

It is a universal truth that water from a faucet tastes better than water from a cup.

Tuesday:

Does this LOOK like the face of someone being naughty?

I refuse to let him even try the big kid swings. He's not allowed to not need me!

Bebeh toes

Wednesday:

Baconface

So close, yet so far away. Victims of a cruel mother.

Dreaming of a quiet bath of his own

Thursday:

No YOU were just dancing to the Olivia theme song

She loves this book.

Riding dirty (on the side of the shopping cart).

Friday:

Too busy playing dollhouse to get dressed.

I like this.

Fine, if you won't let me eat those Oreos you snuck into your cart I'll eat my shoe.

Saturday:

My husband brought me a nice healthy salad for lunch...

...and then I went shopping for CARBS AND MEAT. Caaaaaarbs.

Caroline says "Gimme the boobs or I'll pop a cap in you, Mama".

The coming week is going to be ALL CRAFTING ALL KNITTING ALL BAKING ALL HALLOWEEN ALL CLEANING ALL THE TIME. It’s E’s last week before he starts design school (spoken lots of time out of town in a hotel) and I have a Halloween party that miiiiight have gotten a little out of hand to prepare for. It’s going to be super fun (and super bad for my diet) and if you’re reading this you should definitely come too. I’m forcing my whole family to wear Halloween costumes. Come back on October 31st for some EPIC pictures.

p.s. I’m also probably maybe sort of thinking about upgrading my iPhone so these weekly roundups aren’t such a blurry mess. I think that would be a good way to end my FULL YEAR of iPhone photos.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!