Par-tay!

Tuesday night we had a Halloween party at our house with friends from our neighborhood and ward. We had a great turn-out and it was so much fun! Thanks Jocelyn for sending me some of these great pictures!Mike was Perseus and I was Medusa - here Mike is trying to see my reflection in his sword so he can slay me!Nice socks Perseus!

Spiders and Pumpkins!

Lots more pictures to come in the next few days, but for now I wanted to catch up on some things the kids have gotten to do lately!

The kids had been begging to do Halloween sugar cookies, but not wanting to go through all that work I decided we'd do these Oreo spiders instead! The kids loved doing them and they were sooo much easier than sugar cookies! Oh, and just in case anyone wanted to know, we made these ones with black licorice for legs which looked cool but didn't taste great and were hard to eat. I later made some with pretzels for legs and they were way better!We had a Halloween party with friends from the neighborhood and ward on Tuesday night (those pictures still to come!) and my parents were so great to take the kids for the night. The kids got to carve and decorate pumpkins with them and my brother Cameron and his girlfriend Aubrey. They had so much fun! I'm so glad they got to do that because we hadn't had a chance to go to the pumpkin farm this year, and Mike and I don't really love gutting out pumpkins anyway! Thanks Dad for the pics!

Our trip to madness...um, I mean the witches!

It's tradition every year to see the witches at Gardner Village. I swear it gets crazier and crazier every year! Of course we did go on a Friday! And we still got some decent pictures out of it, so I can't complain too much! My mom came with us when Brayden got out of school today - I think Mike was very happy to miss out this time! Ashton cried most of the time, he was not loving it there, but I think Brayden had fun! My brother's girlfriend works at a shop there, and my brother was helping them out today spray-painting little kids' hair. They had to work 12 hour shifts today - crazy! It was fun to go see them at work!

I guess Ashton started off okay...it was downhill from there!Ashton is SO happy!Ashton in my sunglasses!Brayden's favorite witch!Uncle Cameron...the only thing that made Ashton smile!

Happy 6th Birthday Brayden!!!

Brayden's birthday was Wednesday, October 7th. I can't believe Brayden is 6. That six years has gone by way too fast. I feel like it wasn't too long ago that she was born, and now she's in kindergarten! I feel so old!

This year was Brayden's first year to have a friend party. We would have done one last year but we were at Disneyland. She has been counting down the days! I LOVE party planning, and it was so nice to have that distraction with everything else going on. I love that Brayden's birthday is in October so we can really go nuts with all of the decorations and do some kind of Halloween-themed stuff to reuse for Halloween. She wanted a Snow White party - Snow White is her absolute favorite of all the Disney princesses! We decided instead of doing just the cutesy princess party, we'd show all parts of the movie, like part of the Queen's castle with the magic mirror, the scary forest, and the cottage. Lots of pictures ahead...

When the girls first showed up, they all got to be crowned and got a picture taken in front of the castle. They all made gorgeous princesses!

All of the princesses with the wicked queen! The girls all kept telling me I looked like the real witch...I didn't know if I should take that as a compliment or not! :)Mike was dressed as Sneezy and when he was taking this picture he did a big fake sneeze to make the girls laugh...it worked!Ashton was Dopey. I feel bad this is the best picture I got of him in costume...he stripped it off soon after that! I didn't get any of Mike as Sneezy at all. He lasted about as long as Ashton did in his full costume!Eating pizza!The girls decided to scream for this picture!The girls got to decorate picture frames - they did such a great job!After that, they decorated caramel apples to save to bring home, then we sang "Happy Birthday" and had cupcakes! I think the candle went out on it's own so there's a little pause after we sing before Brayden gets to blow it out!

Presents!It was so cute how excited the girls got about presents and they couldn't wait for Brayden to open theirs next!Brayden saved her present from her Uncle Cameron until after the party. Ashton was so sad not to get to open presents, so Brayden told him he could open hers. He was so excited, even when what he opened was jewelry and makeup!The entry was was the queen/witch's castle and magic mirror.This was the scary forest Snow White ran through and the mine the dwarfs work in.The vultures that followed the witch when she was bringing the poisoned apple to Snow White.5 of the 7 Dwarfs. The other 2 were Mike-Sneezy and Ashton-Dopey!The kitchen was the Dwarfs' cottage with some of Snow White's animal friends!I have to thank my parents and brother for all of their help! Especially my mom, she was at our house all day helping me get things ready and did a ton during the party! And I'm so glad Mike's mom got to come for part of it. Brayden said she loved every part of her birthday - she said she liked it even better than Disneyland which we did to celebrate it last year!