Halloween Day 2013

Happy Birthday, Daddy! As soon as the kids got home from school on Halloween Day, we celebrated Kyle's 36th birthday! This little spook was born on Halloween night.

 Kyle wanted a white chocolate cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes. That is his favorite flavor.

 What's really ironic about Kyle is that he does NOT like Halloween. He hates dressing up. I think it comes from all the years he had to share his big day with the trick or treaters! Haha! For someone born on Halloween, he is not very festive!!!

We always try to acknowledge his birthday before we partake in the Halloween rituals.

 We made him his own personalized bday pumpkin.

 Gunnar was helping to unwrap gifts.

Birthday cheese!

 After we did cake and presents, the kids got dressed up in their costumes.

 Then we ran to Brandi's house for a fun Halloween party.

 By far the favorite activity was the cookie decorating table. Have you ever seen a little green monster decorate a cookie?

Or a pink cat decorate a cookie, for that matter?

 Slade enjoyed the face painting and picked a Texan logo like his football team.

 Finley picked flowers and Gunnar would not participate.

 Snow White and three non-dwarfs.

After the party, we came home and met some friends to trick or treat around our neighborhood. Our hood is a great place to go trick or treating. Here's Finley's candy loot.

 Gunnar's loot. Our next door neighbors have a huge haunted house that people line up down our sidewalk to see. They decorate the first floor of their house and even use the side of our house. It's a huge deal. We weren't sure what to expect. It was really loud, and we could hear them in our bedroom and Gunnar's bedroom. About ten o'clock, though, they started wrapping things up. Next year, Halloween is on Friday night, so it may still be going strong at midnight. We shall see!

Here are some pics of our pumpkin carving. We didn't actually do it on Halloween day, but I'm sneaking them in anyways!

Pumpkin Patch 2013

We had to just make time to run to the pumpkin patch this year! We are busy, but it must be done! We got some good pumpkins while we were there, too!

 Sunny faces, but we at least got a photo this year. I will take what I can get!!!

 Little scarecrow. I didn't have any single photos of Slade because his friend was with us and they were too cool for pics!

 Sitting on the pumpkins!

 My windy haired girl!

             2009

           2010

         Another one of 2010-nine months pregnant

           2011

            2012

          2013-notice that the Halloween shirts went by the wayside this year! I was lucky just to get them all there at once! Ha!!!

Too Fast Fall

Oh my goodness! Is anyone else flustered that it's already NOVEMBER?!? What the heck??? I mean, I'm not joking when I say that I was just meeting friends at the pool to swim. I cannot believe how fast Fall is just zipping by! I love Fall and it seems to get shorter and shorter every year. Slade finished his football season on Sunday. It's already time to eat Thanksgiving lunch with Finley this week. I need to look for a Christmas tree! My head is just spinning. EEEKKKK! I have some great Halloween photos amongst others on my Nikon, but here's a few quickies that were on my phone! Here we go!!!!

 My Halloween Smarties! A monster, a pink leopard cat, and Scream scary man?!?

This dude was not having the Indian costume I bought him. He actually screamed and cried and threw a fit. He would not wear it. He kept saying that he was going to be a dinosaur. This is as close as we got to a dinosaur as we looking for a costume the day before Halloween. He picked this. I'm not really sure what it is. I think he looks like the monster that's in the story, Where the Wild Things Are!

 Here are two of my silly kids while painting and carving pumpkins! It's so funny, I have these dreams of doing all these awesome things with pumpkins and making these elaborate pumpkin scenes on my front porch that I pin on Pinterest. Then life happens. I carved one big jack-o-lantern and sat out my acrylic paints and all was well. They loved it and I didn't even try to help make their painted pumpkins "pretty". I just let them have at it. Homemade front porch decor.....check.

 Kyle and I went to a Tech game.....alone, as in, with no children. What a relaxing treat! I did not have to buy $80 worth of treats and overpriced Cokes. It was glorious!!!

And the next weekend I was evidently smoking crack, and I took my three kids to the game alone. We met B and Campbell there. Sometimes I think I take on more that I bargain for! Ha! It was the last home game and they were honoring Purple Hearts, and it was actually super cool!

In all honesty, the kids really did fine. Gunnar lost interest in five minutes so he sat under the seats and watched Netflix on Brandi's phone. Besides the fact that I spent one hour dressing us warm clothing and when we got there the sun was so stinkin' hot, we were stripping off clothing left and right, we still had an Ok time. I was happy when we left at halftime. I took four kids home and B stayed with her friends. The stands are overrated!!! LOL!

 Slightly stripped down rat pack.

Finley's super cute turkey that she had to decorate for school.

 Some people might call this kitchen messy. I like to say it's "well used". That's what I'm going with today.

Forgot this one pic that I have to include......6 or 7 troopers parachuted into the stadium before the game!!! That was worth all the trouble of getting to the game with three kids! It was so awesome!!!