October 25, 2015

Coming off a weekend of partying was hard on all of us.  Tommy was especially tired.  Sunday night he left the dinner table, quietly went to find his blanket, and fell asleep in front of the piano.  Poor guy.

 

Preparations for Halloween are in full swing.  The girls have been pretending to be witches - riding brooms all over the house and yard. We can't wait for our neighborhood trunk or treat on Halloween night.  And for family night we'll be carving pumpkins...check in next week to see those.  

While Puna and Papa were here we recruited Papa to paint our front door black.  We never thought we'd have a black door, but the more we thought about it, the more it seemed to suit the house and tie everything together.  It looks great.  We've had neighbors call and stop by just to tell us how good it looks.  Thank you Papa!

The kids were so excited about their new art supplies and play dough.  They wanted to share with their friends.  One afternoon this was the mess we had to deal with after the kids played for an hour with all the new stuff.  Calgon take me away!  It was a disaster.  All those little creative minds at work - too bad they aren't as enthusiastic about cleaning up.

Stretching out the birthday celebrations even more......Annie's preschool teacher did Annie's celebration on Tuesday.  Annie brought in cupcakes and her teacher gave her a new book.  On Wednesday the whole family went to school to have lunch with Lily because that was her actual birthday.  Lily was so excited to have all of us there for lunch and recess.  It was a little hectic so we didn't get a chance for pictures. But it was a lot of fun! We also delivered treats to her class and got to visit with her friends.

Friday night was our neighborhood Halloween Carnival.  It was a lot of fun!  We volunteered to bring treats.  I found this idea on Pinterest and it seemed easy enough to do with the kids.  I was right.  It was simple and so fun.  The original idea was to dip the top of the heads in chocolate but I knew frosting would be easier.  I bought candy eyes at the craft store and let the kids help with everything.  Each Frankenstein monster looked different.  I had nearly all the kids on the street in the kitchen helping with the frosting and eyes.  It was a great experience.  The kids were so proud of the their rice krispy monsters.

Aren't those little faces funny?

Before the carnival we do a little costume parade. The ladies who host this party every year are in the center dressed as the mad hatter and the queen of hearts from Alice in Wonderland.  Their theme for the party was "a very scary unbirthday". A lot of the activities had to do with things from Alice in Wonderland.

Lily as Princess Leia and Nathan as Luke Skywalker.  Annie is over Nathan's shoulder.  She was a Seahawks cheerleader.

Tommy wanted to be a monkey again this year.  Good thing the costume still fit!

Our friends dressed as Marty McFly and Doc from Back to the Future.  They also did some temporary modifications to their car to look like the Delorian.  What a fun idea.

Lily loved her costume.  Joey didn't get a costume this year.  He's cute enough without one.

Tommy snagged a cookie right away.  Licked all the frosting off, and then threw the cookie away.

Here's another shot of my friend Bobbie in her Queen of Hearts costume.

Annie with Russel Wilson and Richard Sherman.  Tommy's little buddy Makiah. She's pretty much the cutest thing we saw all night.

Annie loved her vampire teeth.  This swimming pool was full of styrofoam a.k.a. ghost poop.  The kids got to dig through the poop to find prizes.

Our friend Olivia dressed as the Cheshire Cat.

 

Dance Party!  We stayed until almost eight o'clock.  Once the sun was down, it got very cold.  It was a great night.  We can't wait until next year. 

 A friend sent these pictures to us Monday morning.  Lily looks so beautiful.  And I just adore this picture of Jeremy and Joey. 

On Saturday I took the girls to place Annie does gymnastics for open gym time.  Annie had fun showing Lily all the things she knows how to do.  Lily loved the tumble track.  Here she is running down the track and flipping into the foam pit.  See her tiny little feet poking above the track in the last picture?  She did so many flips that day.

 

There is a big slide that pours into the foam pit.  To ride the slide you have to either climb this rope/climbing wall or climb up through a series of steps.  The girls rode this over and over and over again. 

Annie worked on a few gymnastics skills in between playing with Lily.  She loves her new leotard and shorts from Puna. And they fit perfectly.  It was a fun filled two hours.  They were super tired when play time was over.

Saturday evening we tried out a new straw maze in Rexburg.  Jeremy won tickets from a local radio station.  The whole experience was funny - especially with Tommy.  Being lost in the maze seemed to stress him out.  We'd hit a dead end or path we had taken before and he would throw his hands up and say "it's not working!" or "oh no!". See his worried expression in the picture below? This was at a dead end spot.  He was so upset that the path didn't go through.  I guess he's too young for mazes.

It was fun exploring as a family.  The kids didn't put up any complaints about going to bed that night.  All the walking tuckered them out.  But this maze wasn't nearly as fun as another one we went to a couple years back.  We'll have to do that one again in the future, but maybe not with Tommy.

The kids liked climbing on a straw pyramid better than the maze.  Mommy was worried someone would get hurt, but Daddy helped everybody stay safe.  After their pants and shoes were filled with straw from sliding on the bales, we called it a night and went home.
I just love fall.  The weather is cooler.  There's excitement in the air as we anticipate the holidays.  It's just a beautiful and magical time.  Now it's even more special since we have two little girls with birthdays in October. It was a fun week.  We're looking forward to Halloween next week!