Super Sunday!

Today Karen & I took Emma & TJ out in costume. TJ was Buzz Lightyear and Emma wore her Mulan kimono. First we went to WalMart for our free Halloween photo shoot. Then home for an hour or so and lunch. Then we headed out to the pumpkin patch for a "trunk or treat" event which was very busy but a lot of fun. The kids got candy, played games, and won prizes all for free. Then we met Mom at the park for a while where Emma loved playing on the swings with Grandma and both kids loved playing hide and seek with her. It was a nice Sunday...

The After-Party

After the walk everyone headed over to Kino & Pauline's, as usual. We had a wonderful afternoon hanging out, letting the kids swim, eating some awesome food, and just being with our family. As a bonus, some of the New Mexico clan drove out for the walk as well and it was so neat to see many of our cousins that we hadn't seen in years.

Memory Walk 2011

We spent Saturday morning participating in the annual walk to fund alzheimer's research. It was an early, but fun, morning. This is the second year we have walked with our family and I think it is important to do things like this and to teach Emma about helping others and being part of a larger community. The competition is a nice bonus too. For the 3rd year in a row we had the largest family team, Pauline's Angels. And we also had the highest earnings for a group overall. About 60 walkers (not counting the little ones and the late comers) and over $8, 300 earned! Go team Pauline's Angels!!!

MyGym Halloween Party!

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We had a nice evening on Friday with our friends Jen, Hayden, & Charlene. I found out about a Halloween party at the local MyGym so we decided to take the girls. Before the party we met at IHOP for dinner and Emma & Hayden enjoyed their (FREE!) Scary Face Pancake meals for Halloween. Then it was off to tumble and roll, dance and flip. The uneven bars were a big hit, as usual, and the girls loved climbing and flipping over & over. Emma also really liked sliding down the fireman's pole and climbing the ladder to the ceiling. It was a fun evening with good friends!

Pumpkin Carving!

We did our pumpkin carving this past Thursday evening. It was a long day at work and we didn't get home until 5:30 after picking up both Emma & Mikayla so I made a quick dinner of stew that we had in the freezer from the last time Karen made a batch. Then it was time to carve, get baths, and be completely done by 8pm so we could watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." It was a busy evening but we got it all done and the kids had fun. TJ was a bit hesitant at first telling me, "I'm not doing it if it gets my hands dirty" whereas Emma was gung-ho to reach in and pull out gobs while yelling "pumpkin guts!!!" Lol. Different strokes, huh? Everyone got into it after a minute though and there was a competition to see who could get the biggest pile of guts out of their gourd. And all 3 of them had very distinct ideas as to how they wanted their pumpkins to look. Mikayla made a vampire, TJ drew a square face, and Emma wanted eyeballs and teeth on hers. I think they all turned out great!

Harvest Day!

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Thursday was "Harvest Day" at Emma's preschool. There were western decorations, a pumpkin patch, wagon rides, and the kids were asked to come dressed in western wear. I think Emma makes the most adorable little cowgirl I have ever seen! How perfect was it that she even got pink princess cowgirl boots for her birthday too! Put those together with a jean skirt and her jessie tee shirt, along with a dress up hat and spurs and she was good to go. One of the teachers was reading "Pinkalicious and the pink pumpkin" to her class and even made a giant cut out of the characters so I was able to get a shot of Emma in front of that too. Emma said she had a great day and a lot of fun and ate TWO hot dogs at the barbecue! Lol. I got to see some pictures and, some might say I'm biased, but she had the best get up out of all the kids there. Yee haw!

Halloween Tree!

Emma & TJ enjoyed making the votive holders so much the other day that I decided to do another craft with them this past Tuesday afternoon. I had a kit put away that I bought last year on clearance to make a shrinky dink halloween tree. This craft took a bit longer that the last one what with the coloring, cutting, hole punching, baking, cooling, stringing, and decorating of the tree but I think the final project turned out fabulously. And the kids were very proud of their creation. Another awesome toy from my childhood making a comeback...

Halloween Votives!

I decided to do a Halloween craft with the little ones last Sunday afternoon. We made jack-o-lantern votive candle holders. The kids got to cut pieces of orange tissue paper into small squares and then decoupage them onto glass jars with watered down glue. After they dried, we glued on facial features cut from black construction paper. I love the faces they turned out with since the kids did all the cutting themselves and they each decided how they wanted their own craft to look. Emma's is on the left, with the small "surprised" mouth and TJ's is on the right with the long mouth.

Monster Trucks! 10/22/11

There was another craft clinic this past weekend at Lowes so, of course, we went. This week the kids got to make really cute monster trucks. They even had flashing lights and actual monster stickers to go on the monster trucks! So cute. Unfortunately, Emma had a bit of a rough morning. First she got distracted while hammering and got her fingertip pretty good. A blood blister formed almost as quickly as her tears! Then, on our way out, she got tripped up in her new cowgirl boots and beefed it across the concrete floor. Poor kid. Luckily, both injuries were minor and she was up and running again within a minute or two.