HALLOWEEN DAY

Halloween was a fun and busy day.  I'm just glad it was such a beautiful day for all our running around and trick-or-treating!

 

The girls and I started our morning with pumpkin pancakes.  Pretty sure I was more excited about the orange and green pancakes than Emmy and Bailey were.

Next, we got Emmy all dressed up for her "Art School" Halloween party.  She was so excited to have a spiderweb and sparkles on her face!

 

Seriously, one of the two cutest witches EVER :)



 

Emmy's class.  It's a small and fun group.  I love that the kids get together each week to play and learn.  Emmy calls it her school and asks me, "Are you just going to leave me there?"  When it's my  turn to help teach and I tell her "no," she gets upset and tells me she just wants me to drop her off.

While Emmy was at school Bailey and I hung out and got her all costumed up so we could go visit Great Grandma and Grandpa.

 

 

After preschool we did our first trick-or-treating.  Emmy had been watching a little too much Jake and Pirates cause she thought you said, "Trick-or-treasure."

We got goodies from Ed and Alice and hung out for little bit.  

 

After Bailey took a short nap, we got dressed up again and headed to my parents to pick up my sister, Holly.

 

We had a lot of people to see and places to be and I Holly was so sweet to come with me and help me with the girls.  She even dressed up!  She made a super cute Peacock tu-tu!  As for me, I thought I'd be a witch with my girls.  I LOVE dressing up on Halloween!  And I always make sure I wear a wig and fake eyelashes...SO FUN!

Our first stop was my brothers work.  He got special treats for the girls and they were really excited.  From there we went to visit some old co-workers, my in-laws work and then my sister Heather's work.  The camera didn't make it to those places.  After the first stop, it was just one more thing to keep track of besides 2 girls, 2 witches hats and 2 buckets of candy.  AND I kept hitting the girls in the head with it when I'd bend over!  

 

The girls had so much candy by 5pm it was crazy!  When Brian got off work at 5 we picked him up and went to visit some of our favorite neighbors in our old neighborhood.  It was great catching up with old friends.

 

By the time we got home it was around 7:30pm.  The girls were beat, I was beat and I'm pretty sure Brian was tired too.  I put my bowl of candy by the door, turned on the porch light and when no one had come by 8:30pm, the lights were off and we were all in jammies (well, Baily was in bed). 

Fun day.

 

Needless to say, we have PLENTY of candy at our house.  Since we didn't have any trick or treaters I sent a bunch with Brian on one of his hunts.  Better he eat it than me!  As for the rest...

 

The girls just love playing it it!  I keep moving the bucket up a shelf so the girls can't get to it.  They'd have candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner if they could!



October part 2

 

I think Halloween day deserves it's own post, so I'll share a few more October photos.

 

We decorated the house.

My friend Jes has always been a big Halloween fan and me, well, lets just say it hasn't been my favorite to decorate for.  Well, my opinions are changing and I am liking the bats, cobwebs, apothecary, etc. more and more. 

 

We've had PLENTY of leaves to rake this year!  We left two huge maples on the lot when we built and boy do they drop a ton of leaves!  Pretty sure the wind carries them all the way down the block leaving leaf surprises on everyones lawn along the way. 

We carved pumpkins!!  Our neighbor grows pumpkins and told us awhile ago that he likes to give them to the neighborhood kids.  So he knocked when they were ready and we got to go choose a few.  From the time we got them till we carved them, Emmy would point out which was hers every time we walked by them.  She was so proud of her "pick."

We even roasted the pumpkin seeds this year and it was a delicious snack.  I forgot how much I enjoyed them! 

October part 1

I have some serious catching up to do.  Here's a start.

 

October was a great month.  I love fall!  I love the crisp air, the fall colors, the cool mornings and evenings and I especially love all the fun there is to be had!

 

We went to the Pumpkin Walk with some friends.

 

 

Went to the local Elementary school Halloween carnival.

 

Played in a random hail storm.

 

 

Brian went fishing.  He caught "a big one."

We've been doing a lot of crafting and baking lately too.  Something about fall.

 

That's all I got for now.  I'll show you my cute little Halloween witches soon :) 

our labor day

I'm a little late on posting,  but we sure had a great Labor Day!  We camped with Brian's family on Friday-Sunday and then some friends invited us to hang out at Bear Lake on Monday. 

 

Bear Lake was a first for both my girls (pretty sure) and they had a lot of fun! 

But the big adventure for them was being on a boat.  It took them some time to get used to the life jackets, but they enjoyed watching the water and riding. 

 

They especially liked watching Brian surf, a first for him!  He said he's never stood up behind a boat on anything (not sure he's ever tried).  I was proud of him for stepping outside his comfort zone - and giving into lots of peer pressure - to try something new.

The nice boat, nice gear and his "coaches" helped make his experience pretty fun.  Looks to me like he's having fun anyway!

 

The girls especially loved playing in the sand/mud.  They splashed around, sat around and built "hot tubs" and "castles." 

We were at the lake most of the day and had a blast.  We had lots of snacks, lots of sunscreen (should have used more), great weather and super fun people to hang out with! 

 

seriously?

Do they get any cuter than this? 

 

Just lovin' on my little ones today!

 

Gosh they are cute!

lions and tigers and bears... oh my!

Ok, there weren't any lions but we did see tigers, bears, elephants, monkeys and all sorts of other animals at Brian's work pary...at the ZOO!

 

Brian wasn't able to make to the party so I invited my mom and sister to come along.  We had a great time!  The zoo stayed open for four hours just for the company party, all the public had to leave at 5pm. 

 

It was plenty warm for the first few hours but there weren't crowds and that was the best part (almost the best part...but we'll get to that)!

 

 

They had a free dinner for us, free rides on the train (too bad it was out of order), free carousel rides and free face painting!  Emmy got hers done first then Bailey, Holly and I decided we had better get ours done too.  

 

I hadn't been to the zoo since I was a kid, a LONG time ago!  I felt like a kid being there this time cause I was so excited to see all the animals!  I am still amazed at how large and beautiful some of them are!  Now if I could just see some of these exotic creatures in their natural habitat?  I might have to stick to the zoo for awhile, that could get costly!

 

 

Now, for our very favorite part of the zoo...we had to visit the exhibit three times...it was the POLAR BEAR!

 

The first time we saw him he was pacing around in his den.  Emmy wanted him to "swim."  The next time we saw him he was in the water.  WOW!  It was so neat to watch him.

 

He would DIVE from a rock, SWIM under water to the window,

then JUMP out of the water and look at the kids!  Then repeat...over and over and over and over.  I think he did it for a few hours!   

 

 

We stayed at the zoo till closing time and still didn't want to leave because it was turning into such a beautiful night.  If you ask me, it was the perfect way to see the zoo!  Minimal crowds, free food and rides and in the evening when it was nice and cool.  I hope they do it again next year!