Halloween 2011

 Halloween is coming to a close!

The fun started on Friday with the school Halloween parade.  I ran over to watch the boys walk by.

Joey was Waldo and Vinnie was Luigi.  Vinnie cracked me up when he told me wearing the mustache  "smelled like skiing in Deer Valley".   I am guessing because he usually has a fleece gator pulled up to his nose?  Funny kid.

Friday night was the school Pumpkin Bust (basically a carnival).  for the first time ever we did NOT win a cake at the cake walk!  Just as well.  The boys did do the hair scare booth, which meant they all had to shower when we got home--what a mess!

The big excitement (at least for Joey) was that he won a bag of guppies at the carnival.  I told him if they survived the weekend we would buy them a bowl.  Sure enough the little suckers lived.  Off to the pet store we went--turns out a fish bowl ain't good enough for these guys.  Nope.  They have to have a tank with a water filtration system, heater, rocks, plants and something to hide and swim in.  At least that is what the pet store lady said.  Or maybe I just have "sucker" written across my forehead.  Either way, the free fish cost us $70 in supplies.  Now they really better not die!

Sunday night was the annual Halloween party at the  Saratoga Country Club.  There is good food and a pretty cool magician that the kids watch while us grown ups get to sit back and chat.

The cousins at the Halloween party.  I love the look on Zach's face!

 Are Mario and Luigi not the cutest damn things you have ever seen??  Adorable!  I skipped the big puffy mustache and just drew one on with eyeliner.  Much better!

The weather has been in the 80's here all week, which means we can't carve pumpkins until the last day or else they rot.  I was scrambling yesterday and today to get them all done.  Christopher loves Angry Birds so I had to do that one for him!

The younger 3 went out trick or treating with the neighbors.

Zach went out with a bunch of his friends.  In fact, they are still out there!  When they dropped by he already had a ridiculous amount of candy.

Zach and his friends Hunter and Eric entered the school costume contest for best group costume.  They lost to a bunch of crayons.  Boo.  I think their idea was better.

Vinnie hitting his loot after.  Funny thing is, he probably won't even eat 80% of it!  He is as picky with candy as he is with food.  He will only eat regular M&M's, Skittles, Starbursts and plain Hershey bars.  Thankfully I love peanut M&M's because he got a boat load of those!

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

Our Fall weekend craziness!

We are nearing the end of our crazy Fall schedule. The calendar below is a sample of what Saturdays are like around here:

Absolute insanity. So what have the Contini boys been up to?



After 2 years of football, Zachary decided not to play this year. He wanted to play more baseball, so is on a juniors Fall ball team. He has now moved up to a full MLB size field. The size difference is huge--last season the base paths were 60 ft long. Now they are 90 ft long.



Zachary has actually done great with the transition, which is no small feat since he is a catcher! The throw from home plate to 2nd base is ridiculous, but he is improving. He is even getting great hits!



Just because Zach isn't playing football doesn't mean we are done with it. Joey is playing his first year of tackle football and is really loving it. I was a bit concerned because it is such a huge time commitment, and Joey is such a lazy complainer at times (Love ya Joey!) that I was afraid he would complain and not want to go to practice. It has been tough at times to get homework done, but he has hung in there!

He is number 12 in the picture above. He has come a long way this season and is getting considerably more playing time that last few weeks, a testament to his improvement.


Vinnie usually plays soccer in the Fall, but also wanted to stick with baseball this season. Pete is coaching him in a Fall ball team. It is the first time that the kids are now pitching. He is doing a little pitching, and is pretty decent at it.

After struggling all season to get a hit, he went all out yesterday. He hit a solid single, but thanks to the beauty of play at this level, a series of errors turned it into a homer! He was so excited it was great to see. He followed it up with another single at his next at bat. His slump is officially over!


And that leaves us with Christopher. I have already posted about Chris and his first real sport. Pete is coaching Chris in soccer (yes, my 4 boys are playing 3 different sports. God forbid they all choose the same sport!). I have to admit, he is kicking butt!

He is playing up an age level, so is by far the youngest and smallest one out there. He is aggressive and not put off at all by the bigger kids. He is the dominant player on his team and is such a kick (ha ha!) to watch! There have been times when parents from the opposing team are cheering him on because he is so cute and stands out so much.

And Pete and I? Not too much. On a last minute whim we ran the Morgan Hill half marathon this morning. It was so much fun. I am grateful to have a husband that shares this passion of mine. I had no idea what time to shoot for as I heard this was a hilly course and I haven't run an official half in a while. My PR on a flat course a couple of years ago was 1:54, so I was hoping for under 2 hours today. Much to my surprise I came in at about 1:51:30!! Woo hoo!! Pete of course kicked my butt, coming in at 1:33. It was a fun course and perfect running weather. We definitely need to do more of these (as if we have the time with the boys' sports schedule!) together.

That about wraps it up. Go Team Contini!!

Crazy Snake Lady

You know those crazy ladies with all the cats? That might be me some day. Except I will be the crazy snake lady (which sounds much cooler than the crazy cat lady!).

Our friends were looking to get rid of their corn snake. I figured 2 snakes can't be much more work then 1 snake, right?



Introducing the newest member of the Contini family-- Brian Wilson Contini! We call him "Wilson" for short. He came to us with the name "Ninja", but we wanted to keep with the Giants players theme, so he is now Wilson. I don't think he minds.

I am still keeping my fingers crossed that Buster will still make an appearance. Come home Buster!! We still miss you!!

Vinnie's Top 10

At the beginning of the school year Vinnie had to fill out the following paper titled "Top 10 things you need to know about Vincent Contini" for his teachers (he has 2 this year).

I cracked up when I read through and reached "And the number 1 thing is____!"

*click to enlarge

Way to lower your teachers expectations of you Vinnie! At least they have been warned.

Desperate times...

...call for desperate measures.

You know how you will lose something, then go crazy looking for it? You look and look, but just can't find it so you break down and buy another? Then you find your lost item?

That is what I am hoping will happen with us. We lost Buster Posey, our pet snake about a month ago and still haven't found him. We have left dead mice out for him, his favorite rock, the warming pad. Nothing.

So we broke down today and bought a new snake.


Introducing Tim Lincecum Contini. We just call him Timmy.

Welcome to the Contini house Timmy!

(OK Buster. You can come out of hiding now)