Carving Pumpkins

We finally managed to find a free night to carve our pumpkins! The kids were very excited and couldn't wait to squish all the goo between their fingers. Pumpkin carving at our house goes a little something like this:

1. Make sure to cover the table to limit the mess as much as possible

2. Turn on the Halloween music

3. Mom and Dad cut the lid of the pumpkin

4. Brianna and Bricen clean the pumpkins out (with a little help)

5. Kids seperate the seeds out so mom can try to bake them (In all 7 years of trying, still haven't gotten this right!)

6. Mom draws the faces on - with pre approval of course!

7. Mom gets the hot cocoa ready

8. Dad helps cut the faces out

9. Mom cleans the lines and kids drink delicious warm cocoa

10. Finished product!

Happy Birthday Lily!

Every school morning, Lily goes in to wake Brianna up. She jumps up onto her bed and nuzzles under Brianna's covers to snuggle for a few minutes. This morning Brianna woke up singing Happy Birthday! Yes, it is Lily's 1st Birthday, so we had a small celebration after dinner tonight.

After Brianna got home from school, she made Lily a cake. Ingredients include: dog treats, cooked rice and peanut butter. It may not sound that good to you, but let me tell you Lily loved it! We all sang and Brianna helped her blow out the candle, then set the cake down for her to enjoy. I did dress her in her bling bling collar today, as one must look their best on their birthday!Then it was time for presents. Brianna had wrapped each one for her to open, but she needs a little more practice at that so Brainna helped her open them. A delicious pig ear is what she is enjoying here along with a new toy that at present time, she has already destroyed. And a pretty new pink sweater! Nothing could top the party better than some one on one play time with Bricen!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY!

Brianna School Field Trip

Brianna's class went to the pumpkin patch today. It was not ideal weather but everyone had fun just the same. Each kid got to get a pumpkin that they could carry and 2 ears of Indian corn. It was pretty fun picking the ears of corn from the stalks and stripping them down to see the colors inside. Some of them were sooo beautiful! Brianna got 2 ears that were very pretty :)
Brianna with her new friend Kendra. Brianna and Kendra became instant best friends the first day of first grade. They are so cute together, you can just tell they really enjoy each other's company. Brianna will out of the blue want to color a picture for Kendra, write her a letter, make her a bracelet or necklace, then will take it to school the next day to give it to her. And Brianna brings home many works of art that she has gotten as a gift from Kendra.

The farm owner gave a presentation about the corn and the different types of pumpkins. Very educational for a school field trip!

Really Scary Stuff

Last Sunday Oct 17th (the same day we went to the pumpkin patch) our cousin got in a very bad motorcycle accident. He went through a lot of pain and 9 hours of surgery and was released from the hospital the middle of last week. It is a miracle he survived and after a lot of therapy and recovery will have his mobility back! We are so thankful that he is going to be ok and wanted to show him how much he is loved. So... Saturday morning we drove up to Washington to visit. Bricen and Brianna made him this sign and we all wrote a special note of encouragement on it. We were happy to see how good he looks and how happy he was to see all of us. They hung the sign up on his wall where he can see it and I could see how good it made Brianna feel. We were able to take his 2 brothers to dinner and swimming at the hotel pool. We got another quick visit in on Sunday and then headed back home to get ready for yet another busy week!

Brianna's Halloween Party

Brianna had this last Thursday and Friday off of school. I decided to take Thursday off of work to do something fun. As our time got closer and we didn't have any plans to go out of town, I decided it would be fun to let Bricen and Brianna each have a Halloween party and invite friends. Brianna invited 13 people and all 13 people came, which made 15 with Brice and Brianna!

It was so much fun and we had a lot of fun planning and getting ready for it! Brianna and I froze water in gloves and made skeleton ice cubes for the punch. We made monster toes with bandages and a almond slice for a nail. We put gummy worms on the cupcakes and planned many fun games and activities. We started out decorating pumpkins with eyes, noses and smiles I cut out of a magazine. We also decorated goodie bags and colored magnets. Here are all of the finished pumpkins - I just love them. The faces make me laugh every time I look at this picture!
Thankfully it was dry outside, so we took most of the party outdoors. The kids played mummy wrap...

Silly string tag... This was by far the hit of the party!

We did a bean bag toss, searched for bugs in a bowl of noodles and tried to eat a donut without using your hands.

Brianna's party was like a whirlwind! The 2 hours went by so fast and all of the kids said they had a great time! Yummy, yummy!

Bricen's Halloween Party

This was Bricen's first opportunity to invite lots of friends over for a party that wasn't to celebrate his birthday. He invited a lot of people and a decent crowd ended up coming. It was just perfect for his age and I had many fun activities planned.

We had lots of Halloween treats that included these mummy cupcakes! They were very yummy. We started out the party by decorating bags and making egg carton spiders. They all turned out super cute. Then we played "Monster Mash Freeze" Brianna was in charge of the music and everyone danced around in a circle then stopped on a colored square. We drew cards and whoever was on that color won a prize. (everyone won prizes!)
After that we did a bean bag toss and the kids had some time to just play. They snacked on a yummy orange punch, gummy worms, and other fun things.

All in all Bricen had a great time and is already talking about what he wants to do next year!

Pumpkin Patch

I love going to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins. Ever since we have had children, we have gotten our pumpkins from the field. There are so many to choose from and this year we picked them quick. My brother and sister-in-law, my mom and dad and my grandma met us there. We tried out a different farm this year and it was fabulous.

Bricen and I picked out my pumpkin!


Daddy had to carry all of them back to to tractorWe found lots out in the field, but if you didn't like what was out there you could pick from the piles and piles they had near the entrance. The kids thought they were fun to climb on.

And so starts the first of all of the upcoming Holiday happenings!