CMPD Volunteer Fall Fling

Since Brian had to go through a 3-hour volunteer training at the Police Department (plus the 3-hour training at the animal shelter) to be able to foster animals, he can now do other volunteering things with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. Because of this, he got invited to their fall volunteer appreciation day on October 30th. It was actually a lot of fun because we all got to see the vehicles and gear (and guns) up close and personal. The kids had a great time, as did we.

Brian, Wes and one of the SWAT guys on top of the SWAT vehicle.

Brian trying on the top of the bomb squad's suit. Just the top alone weighs between 40 and 50 pounds. You can see their robot to Brian's left.

Sydney's driving and Wes is doing the communication. They're a great team. :)

Going to check out the helicopter. It was amazing how many vehicles they had (boat, motorcycle, car, SWAT truck, bomb truck, helicopter, etc.)

Shout out to Grandpa Hanks and L-3! I'm not sure what Wes' face is about.

Trying to get Sydney to take a picture with me. :)

The kids playing in the helicopter.

I decided if I had to work for the police department I would want to be a hostage negotiator and Brian said he would be a SWAT guy. (I don't really want to work for the P.D. though.)

Halloween Candy "Science Time"

On Sunday evening, Wes, Brian and I had "Science Time" (Sydney was in bed) using some of the Halloween candy and the experiments from this website. Some worked well; others, not so much. Wes sure loved it though!

Halloween 2010 Festivities

On October 28th, the kids and I met Brian downtown after work to check out the pumpkin carving contest called GUTS.

On the 30th, we had our ward trunk-or-treat. The kids loved it, of course, and Sydney wouldn't let anyone help her carry her trick-or-treat bucket. I, on the other hand, tried not to panic when people would say to my kids, "Here! You want some more?" and try to load up their buckets. We gave out Disney playing cards (as seen at Costco and Target) instead of candy. Yes, Brian thinks I'm weird and a little paranoid. :) However, even if I give each of my kids a piece of candy everyday, they'll be eating it for months! At least they had a good time.

At GUTS: Wes did not want to get his picture taken with these pumpkins. I think they scared him.

The pumpkin carvers in action.

Sydney was Minnie Mouse for Halloween. One day I noticed she happened to have the perfect pink polka-dot pajama shorts for a Minnie Mouse look. A homemade outfit at its easiest! :)

Originally, I had planned on having Wes be Mickey Mouse, but then one day he came home from preschool and said, "Someone at preschool said I should be a robot." So then, I was on the lookout for a robot costume. At some point, he decided he'd rather be a dog (which he's been pretending to be incessantly for the last three months...so annoying). So then, we went to Target looking for a dog costume and we found the actual costumes for dogs and he decided he wanted to be the banana split one. Then, I just made him some ears out of his socks (and a headband) and he wanted to wear the gloves as doggy paws. He's three, so whatever works for him! Shockingly, I didn't see any other dog-banana split costumes at the trunk-or-treat.

The back of the banana split (on the gym floor of the church).

The two kids...smiling!

Brian's 30th Birthday

On October 26th, Brian celebrated his 30th birthday. He went to work, had lunch with his co-workers, came home, had a fantastic dinner (made by me, of course) :), and then we had cake (angel food cake with strawberries...a Brian favorite) and opened presents.

The big three-oh on the birthday cake.

The kids in their party hats singing "Happy Birthday".

Blowing out the candles!

The kids had to help open presents, of course. They each got him a Hot Wheels car (Wes was sure that was exactly what his dad wanted for his birthday) and a candy bar.

Sydney was more than happy to hang onto the candy bars for her dad and they both wanted to play with the cars they had given Brian.

Brian's "big" present (from me, thanks to Groupon) was NASCAR-type racing lessons from The Buck Baker Racing School. We're driving a couple hours south for that next weekend, so there will be a report on that sometime the following week. Brian was pretty excited, in case you couldn't tell. :)