FYI: i'm no fun

as it turns out, i, apparently, am no fun. 
the source of this data? 
mr. benjamin savarese. 

the topic of conversation that spurred this fun fact? 
how to decorate the house for halloween. 

this, per usual, happened in the drive on the way in to work. 
we passed a house that had been "TP'd."
(although, i must say, back in the day we were not so bold as to write "UAGS"...which i imagine stands for Upper Arlington Girls Soccer, or something to that effect...ON THE LAWN when we did such things. we thought we were, somehow, anonymous.)
anyway, we passed a corner house with lovely tall trees dripping in toilet paper. 
benny assessed their work. 
and promptly asked if we, too, could dress our house as a mummy for halloween. 

i, of course, declined. 
thus making me "no fun."

so, thank you, local teenagers, for helping my children find new ways to find me boring and utterly unreasonable. 
greatly appreciated. 

Benny HGTV - fail photo

(remember when i used to do "fail photos?" oops.)

so far this week, benny has helped us see old halloween costumes as potential home decor items.
today, benny shows us that there is no need to keep the decor just to the home.
why not, say, on the car ride to daycare, take advantage of the halloween stickers still sitting in your bag of treats from yesterday's fun?
there are entire windows back there just waiting for a little bit of this action:

note: no bennys were harmed as a result of this design choice.
they were, however, highly confused as to why mommy and daddy were not nearly as excited about the decor as they were.

fail photo 43: more trick than treat

i did it!

i posted a fail photo friday post...on friday!

sometimes, we must celebrate the little things. 

yesterday i shared some photos of our pumpkin carving and trick-or-treating moments. 

here is what the majority of my pictures actually looked like. . .

alex is a hugger. 

normally, anth is as well. 

except i'm thinking he was caught off guard in this particular moment. 

(note: they are actually standing.)

we decided to go out onto the porch to get better light for our pre-trick-or-treat photos. 

ben refused to take off his mask. 

or align his eyes with the mask holes. 

at that same moment, anth decided that this was a good expression for a photo.

insert alex into picture. 

ben takes off mask, but refuses to look at the camera. 

anth gets another hug. 

ben puts the mask back on his face.

(yes, these are in chronological order.)

anth takes a catnap.

while, perhaps, meditating.

alex gives up on my boys.

one last attempt. 

benny pulls up the mask party way. 

anth's hood slips. 

mommy gives up on the photo opp.

halloweekend

i often reference being behind on life here on the blog.

well, the reality is that i am eternally  behind on life. 

i am coming to terms with this. 

to illustrate this point, here are some photos from Halloween. 

hot off the presses. . . 18 days ago. 

first, it is important to note that Halloween can be stressful. 

especially when you are three and faced with the blank canvas that is a pumpkin.

fortunately, dad was there to save the day. 

anth was also there to carve this ghost. 

though, i don't have decent picture to prove it that involves either of his eyes being open at the same time. 

also, my colleague Mary Anne was there that day. 

well, not really. 

but she and i spent lots of QT on the phone together for work, so it kind of felt like it. 

glad to have you with us, MAK. 

at long last, it was time to don the halloween garb in the pursuit of sugar. 

benny spent some time practicing his light saber skills while anthony finished getting ready.

then it was anth's turn. 

he was rather intense about the whole thing. 

(that's my boy. staying in character.)

and then, the big moment. 

the boys' friend Alex came over to trick or treat with them. 

she had a costume with a light up skirt. 

this was significant to anthony, because he found it rather important that they all had the opportunity to "glow a little" between her skirt and the boys' light sabers. 

so close to the perfect picture.

of course, ben is actually smiling. i just can't prove it's him. 

precious.

also precious?

the effect of darth vader bundled in vest, hat and gloves. 

with a bright teal trick-or-treat bag. 

(well done, mom.)

tomorrow? 

is friday. 

and you know what that means. . .

the really good halloween photos.

The Many Stages of Vader

tonight is all about tricking and treating in our world. 

the boys' friend alex is coming over to join the fun. 

she has a light-up costume, and the boys have their light sabers. 

anth feels that this is a suitable amount of lighting for safe traveling around the neighborhood. 

while i hope to grab some lovely pictures, here are a few of the boys taken earlier this month.

no, i didn't pick the costumes. 

they did. 

but i couldn't have picked them better myself. 

 anth took about 300 shots to get this pose to his liking. 

first there was this. 

and then there was...this. 

within two frames. 

no idea. 

 a moment of sweetness. 

 and then straight back to life as i know it. 

 Intense Vader.

 Defeated Vader.

Can I Please Have Candy Now, Mommy? Vader

Can't Have Candy Vader.

I Am Now Resolved To Battle You For Candy Vader.

I'm Just Going To Get The Candy Myself Vader.

Happy Halloween!!!

Atreyu still rocks. As do Kara & Brandon.

last summer, i wrote about bernie's former-supervisee-turned-friend, kara. 

or, karaface!

she had come back to campus from her job at Dreamworks to present at our RA end of the year banquet. 

today, kara and her charming fiancee Brandon are tying the knot at a precious little church in Studio City, CA. 

bern flew out there for the big event, and the boys and i had a fun day together here. 

we did a few chores and errands.

then we headed out to Micheal's for some fun halloween craft supplies. 

we did a little crafting. 

and then, The Big Event.

we tried on their halloween costumes. 

(benny had asked previously if he could "trick-or-treat just a little." i told him no and gave him a piece of our candy for putting on his costume.)

suffice it to say that the majority of our afternoon entailed the following...

a tad of this.  

a smidge of this. 

and a whole lot of this. 

the boys were in heaven, and i now know that benny's cape needs to be hemmed if he has a chance of staying upright on the big night. 

our next adventure? 
tonight i introduced anth to the original version of The Neverending Story. 
i was really excited about this. 
bern and i both adore this movie.
based on the cover of the DVD, anth was less than convinced that this would be a decent use of his time. 
halfway through, when we went to make some popcorn, anth turned to me and said, "mom. this movie is legendary. you were totally right."
(no, i did not actually describe this movie as legendary.) 

but i mean, come on. 
you've gotta love Atreyu.

at the end of the movie, i asked anth what he thought. 
he still agreed that it was a really good movie. 
and then, "but, really, if i was that kid, my first wish would be for my mom to come back to life. not to ride around on some dragon. i mean, maybe that would be second."
yes, even after a movie about the importance of imagination, anth finds the logic. 
i love him more all the time. 


while it was a lovely day here, it is a much more exciting one out there in Studio City. 

bern sent along this picture after the ceremony. 
so precious. 
even more precious? 
the fact that the ceremony included her siblings reading from both Adam Sandler and When Harry Met Sally. 
my favorite part is that the reception involves taco trucks. 
genius all the way around. 


so much love, and many happy days ahead to kara and brandon, from all of the savvy fam!

Letter to Benny: we had a good thing going...

Dearest Benjamin,

You are such a sweet little peanut of a boy.
However, I wanted to take a moment to write you a letter regarding my concern about the recent developments in Halloween Candy Distribution in the Savarese household.

You see, in the past we had a system that worked well for our family dynamics.
Anthony agreed that all things chocolate were disgusting.
Mommy and Daddy supported him in this decision by allowing him to eat the "candy candy" and we stepped in to "take care of the chocolate items."
Specifically, Daddy got the Reese's and Kit Kats and Mommy the Butterfingers and Almond Joys.
The rest were somewhat evently distributed.

I take ownership of my failure to share this system, and its nuances, with you prior to this Halloween.
However, since you have taken the stand of loving all things chocolate, specifically Butterfingers, I have tried my best to be flexible in our sugar-related policies.

But I must state my utmost concern in relation to your recent success in reintroducing Anthony to chocolate.
He has been converted, and is now regularly requesting all of the "good stuff."
Leaving Mommy and Daddy with Tootsie Rolls and other assorted grossness.

This, simply put, will not do.
I hope that you will seriously consider the ramifications of your decisions before we enter the 2011 Halloween Season.

Thanks in advance,
Mom

chicken little

in peeling through the Halloween photos, there are definitely plenty to share. 
but, thinking ambitiously, i would like to save a few for next Halloween, should i still be doing the savvyboy thing. :) 


but, there was one that struck me. 
look at the expression on anth's face, circa 2005.

and then compare it to one of the earlier fail photos...


fail photo friday - 4

...and people tell me they don't see the resemblance. 

Various Stages of Halloween Costume Rejection

there have been some costumes that i have ADORED over the last 5 years.

...my boys have not always shared the same sentiment.

this is anth trying on his 2007 costume.
it was not love at first sight. 

...so we tried the other costume i bought out of lack of decision making skills.
clearly, he felt the same about monkeys as he did about lions.
so, we went with the lion. 

benjamin had a similar reaction to his 2008 cow costume

 

...which quickly changed to apathy

and, eventually, acceptance as he shifted back into his daily routine.

Fail Photo Friday - Halloween

so, yesterday was officially be a nice, doting mom day. 

now it's friday. 

so here are some of the less successful shots from Halloween 2010. 

...these sent me on a mental stroll down memory lane of some of my favorite unfortunate halloween photos of years past. 

the ghosts of failed photos past, if you will. 

so, i'm thinking that, in honor of the holiday this weekend... 

(and, because this California girl who grew up trick-or-treating on October 31st and not whatever day the city of Columbus declared to be "trick-or-treat" night finds this new structure unsettling...)

...i will spend saturday and sunday night sharing some of my favorite old gems. 

benny adamantly declared Dots to be his favorite candy over the last two days.
i don't understand.
but, whatever.
now i don't have to eat the leftover candy and i can focus on the chocolate.
here, we were on our last residence hall of the night.
ben appears to have had one too many Dots. 

My Sweaty Boys was a close second to the blog's current title.
but it just seemed to send the wrong message. 

like all true superheroes, mine occasionally break into dance.

this would be mom's failed photo.
but my friends and i sure had fun handing out the candy while the boys were walking the neighborhood with daddy. 

my little heroes

today's post is neither funny nor ridiculous. 
just shamelessly sharing my boys' cuteness for halloween this year. 
...i mean, i have to be a legit mommy sometimes. :)

the boys trying on their costumes 

yep, i forgot to take the sticker off of anthony's head 

benny was SO proud of his inflatable wings.
which, thank you online vendor, came with a hole in them.
and lost their steam, as seen here, within about 30 seconds.
mom & dad were SO proud of their super glue & piece of trash bag patch job. 

the boys went to Haunt the Halls on campus on Wednesday night.
benny stopped by my office first to snag some candy from my candy dish.
AKA, in keeping with life on campus, he pre-partied for the event.

benny's pumpkin is on the left. he asked for a "mad face."
anth requested something a tad more complex. 

tonight was Trick or Treat night in our neighborhood.
i merely include this to prove i eventually noticed, and removed, the sticker. 

love this kid.
to infinity.
and beyond.