Halloween Time

This has been a very fun, full month preparing for the 5 Halloween celebrations this year. Whew, I'm glad it's over! It started out with picking out pumpkins. This year we went to a large pumpkin patch. There were so many pumpkins the kids had a hard time picking out their favorite. We ended up with 6 tiny ones, 2 little ones, a medium sized one and a big one. Can you say "Mommy is a pushover"?
We went home and painted pumpkins. It was a lot of fun. Michael started out doing a great job, but then went a bit crazy with the paint. I think he thought he had to use all of the paint I put out for him to use. I helped by painting the original face back on after he was done.The next big event was last Saturday when we had a Halloween party with Neils family. Karen and I were leopards, Michael was so excited to be a pumpkin and Neils wore a werewolf shirt because I wouldn't let him be the faceless reaper.We played some Halloween carnival games, had a costume parade and an early dinner. It was a blast. The kids had been counting the days and were so excited when it finally came around. We did fishing, pumpkin bean bag toss, penny drop, and pin the spider on the web.After the games we had all the kids have a donut eating contest. The kids loved eating without their hands. After one bite Karen declared that she didn't like it, but Michael scarfed it all down. Yummy chocolate donuts. The adults didn't want to be left out so we did it next. Everyone got it in their mouth with one bite since they were mini donuts, so we had to make it that the first one to swallow would be the winner. It was funny and I think everyone won since we all got to eat chocolate donuts.I thought it was great that everyone participated and dressed up for the event. There were some very creative and fun costumes!Next was Michael's preschool Halloween party on Thursday. Here he is with his cute teacher. We're so proud of Michael that he's doing so well and even starting to read a little. She's been a great teacher!Karen's school party was next which she asked me to dress up again so that we could be leopards together. Michael joined us too. We helped with the party by doing the Halloween bingo. It was fun!Next was a surprise visit to grandpa's work. They really get into it there and even had 3 little spook alleys. Nearly everyone had candy to give the kids so they came home with half their bucket full. It was so nice of grandpa to invite us, we had a great time and the kids were so excited to see where grandpa works.
Our ward Halloween party was Friday night. They had some fun carnival games and treats, but the kid's favorite part was decorating their own cupcakes. When they were done you couldn't even see the frosting. They LOVED it, though Karen only ate the candy and the frosting, it is the best part after all. Halloween night was rainy and cold and our final Halloween activity (whew!) Here we are ready to go. I was extra cautious and made the kids dress extra warm and made them ponchos to wear. They decided that they were a ghost pumpkin and a ghost leopard.We got home with full pumpkins and tired little kiddies. They were so happy and are still excited today. They have been playing trick or treat to every door in the house. So cute. What a fun Halloween we had and we hope you all had a fun Halloween too!

First Tooth

I'm so proud! My little girl lost her first tooth. She was so brave as I tied the floss around her tooth and pulled. It didn't even bleed that much. She's so excited and happy about losing her very first tooth. Michael wanted so much to lose a tooth too and be a part of this big event. He even put a cotton ball under his pillow to try to get the tooth fairy to leave him something too. So cute! Here are a couple pictures of the big event.


Here she is putting her tooth under the pillow in a little box shaped like a tooth for the tooth fairy. So cute!
Funniest thing is that Neils got squeemish when we got ready to pull the tooth out. He's usually not that way and I would have never thought pulling a tooth would make him cringe. He's so cute!

Starting School

School has started and we now have 2 students in our home. Karen has started 1st grade this year. A full day, lunch at school and best of all 3 recesses has Karen loving 1st grade. She's so excited to be such a big girl and loves making new friends. Here she is on her first day.
Michael has also started school this year. Preschool that is. He's watched his sister go to school for 2 year and has wanted so much to go too. Well, it's finally his turn and he's so excited. He loves his preschool and new teacher. He told me that he loves the girl with the princess backpack in his class. Look out girls, here comes my heartbreaker!

Harvest Time

We decided to try a garden this year. Neither of us are gardeners and so we decided to try square foot gardening. We decided to make a 2 ft by 4 ft box, small enough to care for and large enough for 3 types of plants. We chose peas, carrots and corn. I started the plants inside in mid March and they grew really well and more quickly than I anticipated. In April we needed transplanted them outside to our garden box. But, it was a cold spring this year and we had some snow shortly after we transplanted them and within a few days we lost nearly everything. Well, we didn't let that deter us and I bought some more seeds and planted again in May when the weather finally turned a bit warmer. This is what our garden box looked like in mid June.

A week or two later we had some plump fresh peas. Yum! And the kids loved to be able pick the peas and open them. They happily gobbled them all up and pronounced them the best they ever had.

The peas just gave me a second lot of peas and I just harvested the carrots. The carrots are tiny, but the kids love that they are so small and cute and gobble them up just as quickly. You can see the biggest one is about as long as my middle finger. The corn is still struggling to grow and may not produce, but we were excited to just see them grow. I think we may try it again next year. Happy gardening!

Michael turns 4

Two days after we came home from our vacation, we had Michael's birthday. I didn't have as much time as I wanted to do the cake, so this is more simple, but I think it turned out really cute anyway. He loved it! And the cars were a present for him too. He was extra excited about that!

He's been borrowing his sister's pink princess scooter for the last year, so we decided that it was time to get him his very own. He was thrilled, especially since the deck lights up too!

We had a quiet family party at the park. Michael & Karen both rode their scooters and then played in the splash pad. When we came home a few cousins and grandparents stopped by for cake and presents. It was a lot of fun and Michael is very excited to be 4 years old, especially since 4 is his favorite number.

Happy birthday to my favorite son!