Halloween Fun!

For kids Halloween is such a fun holiday!  Candy, costumes, friends, candy, food, candy, fun, family and more!  Going to my friend Melissa's annual Halloween party has made the day fun for the parents too!  What a treat it is to eat dinner together and be able to walk the streets with not only our crazy kids but our friends too! 

 

Here we are in front of Melissa's house!  Shane was MIA - and now that he sees this picture without him in it he is very sad!!  Olivia had a completely matching costume to Faith for Halloween!  After her wardrobe malfunction at trunk-or-treat (her cheap Minnie costume tore at the waist!), a friend had a red Minnie costume that her daughter outgrew and loaned to Olivia!  In case anyone is wondering, I went as a mad scientist and Sumo Steve made another appearance!

 

Shane with the solo shot!  And his ghostly pumpkin!

 

All the kids and their pumpkins!  We carved them a few days before Halloween. Olivia wanted to make sure that her pumpkin was a happy one!  Now that the costumes are put away, tomorrow we bring the candy to the dentist to turn it in for some money!  They all selected ten pieces tonight that they want to keep for themselves, and the rest will go to the troops thanks to the dentist! A situation in which everyone wins!

Trunk-or-Treat!

Yesterday evening was the second annual Trunk-or-Treat event at our church!  The kids love having the chance to dress up more than once, and it's a fun event in which the whole community is invited! As the picture indicates, the girls are both going as Minnie Mouse this year, and Shane man is the Hulk! 

 

With the event being at our church, we of course had the van open for business!  We didn't go too crazy with the decorations, but our witch hat ring toss was a hit!  Olivia is asking for more m&ms!!

 

One thing that I overlooked in preparing for the event was buying Olivia a pumpkin for her candy!  Last year she dressed up, but being 11 months old, she was not exactly into the whole trick-or-treating thing!  Of course that is not true this year.  She realized very quickly that there were just two pumpkins and three kids!  And the big kids were not about to give their pumpkin to her!  So Steve made a run into the 99 cent store on the way!!

 

Big kids waiting to play the games at the carnival car!

 

Shane attempted to win a full size candy bar many times by bobbing for apples.  Poor kid came up short every time! Thankfully he did not let that bother him!

 

Faith enjoyed having her face painted at one of the trunks!

 

It was a fun event for the kids and adults, and it even included a chili cook-off!  And Steve's famous poker chili won second place out of eight!  From now on he will be reminding us that it is award winning chili!   

Faith's First Cotillion

Friday afternoon, after the pumpkin patch!, Faith attended her first Cotillion.  For those not familiar with Cotillion, it is a time for elementary and middle school students to learn etiquette, manners, and do some dancing.  In our area, it is a highly sought after opportunity!  While it starts in third grade, Faith has been on the waiting list since kindergarten!  We were both very excited about finally being able to attend!  And of course part of the fun is buying a new dress, shoes, and the required white gloves!

 

The third and fourth graders are grouped together, which is nice as approximately half the group has done all this before and can help the younger ones a bit!  In this picture Faith is dancing the cha cha!  Those running the cotillion do a great job of teaching the kids all the little details such as how both the boy and the girl is to hold his or her hands while dancing, leading on and off the dance floor, and always properly thanking your partner for the dance.   And they rotate partner 3-4 times, so they are able to dance with a variety of people.  Also, there are more boys than girls, so the boys can practice cutting in while dancing.

 

Here Faith is being escorted to her seat, and the boys were taught how to properly do that! After they practiced this a few times, they couples had to converse for about two minutes!  Coaching was given on how to ask non yes or no questions in an effort to create conversation!  It was really cute.  Something else that was done was punch and cookies were served.  Faith learned how to eat a cookie making as few crumbs as possible.  The adults watching picked up a few tips as well!

Faith had a great time, and it is really cute to watch her practice some of the conversational pieces they focused on and see her try to teach Shane the cha cha!  We're looking forward to the next cotillion in a month!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

After coming back from the lake Thursday evening, we ventured out to the pumpkin patch Friday morning with our Better Together co-op.  To make the adventure even more fun, we took a train to the pumpkin patch.  About five years ago we took the same train around Christmas time to a Christmas tree farm and were able to see Santa.  This train ride was less traumatic (Shane was petrified of Santa!), and of course it was fun to be with friends.

 

Olivia thought she was pretty tough carrying around her pumpkin!  She would for about ten seconds and then look at me and say, "heavy! heavy!"  With pumpkins everywhere, she had fun just running from one spot to another and pointing to all the pumpkins!

 

Sweet Faith!  She is a little disappointed that we are yet to carve them!  I assured her we will do it before Halloween!

Trip to Lake Havasu

This past week we spent five beautiful days at one of our favorite vacation spots - Lake Havasu!  We enjoyed gorgeous weather (there is a reason fall is our favorite time to go there!), made great memories in the water and on the boat, and had fun just being all together as a family! 

 

Each day we spent time swimming in the pool.  The kids especially enjoyed it when Daddy went in the water and played!

 

All three kids love to help Steve drive the boat!  Olivia especially thought it was fun since it was her first time being able to do that.

 

Here is Faith on the EZ ski!  The two oldest took turns riding on that and the inflatable.  Olivia wanted a turn too, but we told her she needs to be older!  She wasn't too thrilled with that idea!

 

One of the fun treats about being on vacation is lying in bed and watching movies!  They think it's so fun that they can all fit in there together!

 

Looking forward to our next trip and savoring the memories made on this vacation!

September wrap up!

So September has been a busy month!  Nothing too major or unexpected, but as school and all the "school year" activities begin again, the pace of life just seems to go up to the next level!  Since that usually means fewer blog posts, here are a few of the highlights of a fun, enjoyable month!

We spent many afternoons at the beach!  Since moving to the area almost 10 years ago, Steve and I have found that fall brings some of the best beach weather of the year!  And it's generally not as crowded at the beach to make it even better!  All three kids love the water, and it is enjoyable to take advantage of living so close to great beaches!

One more from the beach!  This time it was later in the afternoon and we intended to just go for a walk by the water and let the kids play at the playground!  All three ended up in the water!

 

Shane is playing soccer!  His team name is the Vikings, and they are doing very well!  After last year's experience, we are grateful for a coach who shows up and plans practices so that the kids can actually learn a thing or two!  Shane is enjoying playing and enjoying the boys on his team!  Also this fall Faith is taking ballet, and she is also dancing in the Nutcracker!  She is loving dance, and we see little glimpses of her role as a snowflake in the Nutcracker as she dances around the house!

 

With school in full swing again, our homeschool co-op also started up!  This year in addition to the class days twice a month, there are field trips on the other two Fridays.  Our first field trip was to a farm (the same farm the kids go to for farm camp each summer!) to do some apple picking.  And of course see the animals too!  Olivia was a huge fan of the piglets!!

 

Here is Shane in the apple orchard.  He ate three apples before we even left the farm!

 

A few other cute pics that I couldn't resist posting!

 

Trip to the Big House!

Last Saturday we spent the day at the Big House!  What a thrill it was for me to share with Faith and Shane something that was part of my childhood and something that in general I just love!  Thankfully the forecasted rain held off, and it was a fun-filled day of football! 

 

Before heading to the stadium we had a tailgate picnic in the lumberyard parking lot!  Couldn't resist having our picture taken in front of this party bus painted to look like a Michigan helmet!

 

The next stop was the band practice facility.  We were able to see the band come out and line up and go through their final check by the drum major.  They then stepped (seemingly all at once!!) from the sidewalk and onto the street to march toward the stadium!  What an incredible sight!  The pageantry of it all is indescribable!

 

After marching behind the band to the stadium, we finally were inside the gates and ready to head inside the Big House!!

 

Shane and Grandpa at the game!  Sitting with 106,000 other loud, excited, cheering Michigan fans!

 

Go Blue!  What an incredibly fun day!  And it sure helped too that Michigan played well and won big!  Hail to the Victors!