Boo!

The kiddos were really excited for Halloween this year.

Liam kept going back and forth between being spiderman and a ghost. He REALLY wanted to be Bumble Bee from transformers but he decided that about five weeks to late :)

I took full advantage of Abby not knowing what was going on and made her a cherub

I was really suprised she left on the headband and wings as long as she did

Sammy was Optimus Prime and refused to let us fix the mask that was smooshed in the mail. He thought since it came like that it was supposed to be like that.

I made all the kids trick or treat bags because sadly enough I never did find out Halloween items (both orange and black tubs held random winter clothes, apparently my attempt at color coordinating holidays with storage containers didn't work).

We had a really fun trunk or treat party at our compound.

It was so much fun seeing people who had never trick or treated before enjoy their first time and of course all the babies!!

Our friends Jan and Meredith were "White Trash" and the only ones who even attempted to dress up ha!

When I first saw Meredith I gasped totally thinking something horrible had happened.

On Halloween the Embassy took all the diplomatic children around in a van to each of the embassy communities homes to trick or treat. It was so fun to see them all pile in and out of the can together.

Oddly enough Sam was the first one bolting to the door ha!

They also took them out to the See Bee's camp to trick or treat. Wow. If you are a kid who wants to stock up on full sized candy the troops are the place to go! I am sure they were kid enough to share lots of the candy they recieved in packages from home. Then Chris, Sam and Abby headed over to the embassy for the big party. Liam and I both have been feeling under the weather so we stayed back and rested. Abby went as Kung Foo Panda to that party. I would have loved to see Sam bob for apples. Hope you get lots of treats!

Contests Contests and one more contest

This year I was determined to submit a dress to the Dare to Design contest on Shabby Apple's blog.

I found out this morning it was selected for the top 15!!!! I was so excited! If you would like to vote for me (oh please please please) you can click HERE, I am number 12.

I was also selected to compete in "crafting with the stars over at Sew Dang Cute.

I was pared up with Jen from Tatertots and Jello which I am thrilled about. Our first challenge was due today:

I am kinda nervous about this competition because my "craft" supply is fairly limited ha! But we'll see how it goes. FINALLY oh my goodness I am have been DROOLING over these bikes for about a year now... remember I did a post WAY back when about them?

Well they are doing a give away and maybe by some MIRACLE I might win one ha! I could totally see myself biking down the horrible streets of Dili in one of these bad boys :) You can click to the pic and it will take you to their site if you want to enter yourself. My friend Jenny who lives in Beijing has her own tuk tuk that fits 2 car seats and this is the only thing that can come close to that! So lots going on at the Crawford abode crafty wise :)

Hiss! You're never around when I need you! -- I've been robbed

Ten bucks to who ever can name that movie. Anyway over the weekend our friends the Hiemstra's were kind enough to come to Back Beach with us (thusly named because it is to the "back" of the Christ statue) in the early hours to take some pictures. What do they get for this kindness? They, and we, get our rear windows smashed on our cars and robbed. Yeah, not fun. Before we get to all the gory details fun part first. I always have some crazy ideas for pictures and sometimes they translate and sometimes they don't. I think it also makes a difference when I am behind the camera. It is really hard for me to articulate what I have pictured in my head. Then imagine being handed a huge camera that I forgot to turn off Manual and be expected to get a shot described very vaguely. Yeah, don't you all want to come help the Crawford's do pictures ha! First I had a chalk board that I placed to far away from us so it just sort of looked odd, plus the kids were NOT going to look at the camera

So instead of giving it sometime sI of course rushed us to the next thing. An "I'm dreaming of a white christmas". This one sort of worked although I wonder if you can even read the sign

After 3 shots of this we moved on the the "Crawford Family est..." sign. Now this is when I feel REALLY stupid for switching lenses and running back to the pack before turning the dial back to auto for Meredith. Which is a real bummer because in this one the kids are actually all looking and smiling.

After rushing through the families I tried the kids. This one turned out pretty cute

The rest Liam was strangling himself with the tie or Abby was wailing.

Sam has gotten a lot better and understands the faster he cooperates the faster we are done.

It also helps when I sing the Animal Mechanical song apparently.

Liam seriously plopped down on this stool and just hung out while I was getting other pictures. He shoved his candy in his pocket and cheesed it up.

But it took that candy to get him to smile. His first picture was this:

The only person that could get Abby to smile was Jan. He totally got her to smile.

Which is a miracle because she was sobbing the entire time unless I was holding her.

I always feel ridiculous in front of the camera when I don't have a family to hide behind.

As soon as we were done the boys bolted to the car and immediately began shucking off clothes.

We moved the cars down a little closer to the beach and headed out for a swim. We only stayed about an hour. As we were cleaning up down on the beach Jan yelled for Chris to run up to the cars. We were obviously being watched from up in the hills and who ever did it came down and first tried to pry the windows out with a crow bard (or something) completely bending the window frame. Then the got impatient and just busted the windows. They went through everything, manuals, the center console, under the seat. Oddly enough they took all the cash, our phones and the necklace I am wearing in the pictures above but left our ipods. Chris and both wish they had just come down to the beach and demanded all our money. Now we have to figure out how to ship in a Jeep window and get it fixed. A HUGE headache and will take a LONG time. It also puts a kink in going anywhere and leaving the car. Plastic taped up to the window hardly says "security". I think the guys are most upset that neither of the car alarms went off. Not surprising to much for our car which is really worn out but Jan's is the Embassy's security car and is super nice. Oh well right?

Since We've Been Back

It has basically rained every afternoon. No one has any idea what is going on. I chalk it up to the rainy season NEVER ending. We went straight through what was supposed to be the dry season with tons of rain and now we have gone head long into the wet season. Anyway Abby LOVES the rain. She loves to sit outside and watch it (we just got our hammock today so I am totally pysched to lay out there with her and watch it). Last week she was begging to go out in it and I thought why not.

Aka our new cook watched from the kitchen window I am sure thinking "oh my gosh this women is nuts". Chris came home from work and we were still out there so he grabbed some pics from the safety of our huge deck, then came and joined the fun.

(I think I look a little nuts in that picture... but even more nuts and unflattering would be this picture:

Abby sure looks cute in this one though:

The only one who didn't come play was Sammy, he didn't want to ruin his Octopus Pie costume {otherwise known as Optimus Prime). Abby loved playing by the rain gutter outlet. She just stood there with her hand under it forever

After our galavanting in the rain Oscar and Carmen came over for some Halloween crafting. I also taught the kids how to make a toilet paper (or as Liam calls it Bathroom Paypah) mummy.

You can tell we are back in Timor and back to the kids picking out their own clothes by Liam's sweet matching job in that picture. We taught Dominique (their momma about toilet papering, no one does that anymore). Then it was bed time and we did out ritual of "Coins" with the boys. It is a new discipline thing we are trying with positive reinforcement and man is it working (thank you Cherylyn!). When we asked Liam to come out for coins he came out like this:

and didn't mention the googles at all. (he LOVES his Captain Chaos jammies thank you Granny!) We also had a pretty brutal game of Hopscotch.

Liam wanted to make up his own rules & apparently it was a shirts vs. skins game

Sam would make these HUGE jumps to avoid his tiny pebble

and it resulted in the dirtiest feet ever

but they loved it, which seems to happen when I introduce them to classic games. The whole playing in the rain thing might have backfired though because Abby is now very sick with a crazy high fever... so even when it is warm you may not want to play in the rain.

Saying goodbye

I am not going to lie it was really hard leaving Italy, and when I say Italy I mean Grandma and Grandpa. The boys have asked on several occasions to go back. Liam last night broke something that he got there and said "well better go back to Grandma and Pappa's house" and headed for the door ha! For or last day we headed to Ostia to see the old fortress and ruins. First we headed to the fortress to see when tours were. When we saw a huge crowd we were shocked. Until we realized there was a wedding at the gorgeous old church that shared the piazza, which was GOREOUS

I loved the kitty in the window

Apparently the wedding had just ended and they were waiting for the bride and groom to come out. It was so fun people watching and seeing all the over the top outfits. Or the underdressed feet, as in this guys case:

The couple came out and the crowd went wild. They threw everything, rice, bubbles flowers it was a free for all.

After lots of pictures and mingling they headed of to what I assume was their reception. And this was when I snuck a picture of the bride, who looked a little ticked off that I did ha!

After everyone was gone I snuck in to see how the chapel was decorated

Could you imagine getting married in such a romantic old setting?

After some serious finagling we got all 3 cuties to at least sit down by each other

and they stayed for one shot with Grandma and Granpa

and then Abby started eating rocks as always

And giving me the pouty face when I took them out

The boys were way more interested in the fortress. Sammy went and knocked on the door a few times and yelled hello

It was a pretty cool door.

I especially liked the modern day peep hole "Yes? Who's knocking at my fortress door at noon?"

Once we got on the tour the boys were CONVINCED that a dragon lived in the castle. Chris had them believing that the lizards scurrying around were baby dragons. They also really like the holes in the side for archers or as Liam believed "camons" (canons)

After our tour we walked over to the ruins.

The boys were absolutely respectful and quiet.... or not so much

Abby zonked in the stroller and the massive cobblestones were not made for sleeping babies so I parked near the stage and rested with her for a bit. The boys had fun exploring and looking through their binoculars quiet a bit.

Liam kept telling me he saw "nuffing"

The floors in these ruins were amazing. They were all tile mosaics

In the little market in front of the stalls they would have a smaller version depicting what they were selling or makers of. It was really awe in spiring to see something that old and beautiful. Sammy liked the sea serpent and went hissing on his way

Once we had our fill we headed down to the beach. Beach's in Italy are not like most I have been to. They are all private and you have to pay quiet a bit to gain access to them. We walked down a ways though and found a perfect little place that suited our need of a few minutes for the kids to play.

The kids had a blast running crazy along the shore

just watching them made me tired, running in sand is hard work.

This trip Sammy really became attached to his Grandpa. He still tells me I am not reading stories right at bedtime and reminds me of Grandpa's cool voices. He really misses him.

Abby ate lots of sand

and in lou of underroos which she likes to put on her head she went with pants.

It was a really lovely day with Grandma and Grandpa

It is comforting to me that for now the boys don't understand how far from family we are. I can't wait until next summer when we get to see EVERYONE on both sides of the family (that means you better come Cori!)