Halloween

We went to the Hansen's for Halloween this year (quite possibly for the last time as they are planning on moving sometime soon).  As always, Anita made it into a big affair with a special meal planned (thanks Ruth -- the soup was delicious), and special surprises for the kids.  The kids had a fantastic time trick-or-treating with their cousins and then playing in the backyard with special toys that lit up.  Everyone played and talked until late and then started for home.

Fall Leaves

A week or so after our first snow storm there were finally enough leaves on the ground to play in.  The kids and I (but mostly the kids) raked for hours and then had so much fun playing.  There is nothing quite like watching your kids love life when they're together.  It makes me so happy and proud even just thinking about it.

If you look closely at the bottom 2 pictures, you'll see some sweet little faces hiding.

The First Snow!!

 Yesterday I was awakened with the excited squeals of my kids because it had snowed!  What a wonderful surprise to wake up to (although I would have preferred for the surprise to have come less early in the morning).  The kids were so excited, so by 9:30 we were out in the yard.  The kids were playing happily and I was knocking the snow off our trees -- trying to save the branches before they all broke off.  Snow is super awesome when there are no leaves on the trees.  But when it falls before the leaves have had a chance to fall off, well, that's just trouble.  Just look at this poor sycamore tree, and this was after I had done my best to get off the snow.  When I woke up the branches were so heavy with snow that it looked like a weeping willow tree.

Just a side note, you may have noticed Kale's pink pants.  We got the snow stuff out last week to see what we might need for this year.  We knew Kale needed snow pants but I decided we didn't need to buy them yet because it never snows before November.  Hah!  When we went to put on snow stuff yesterday, Kale was pretty sure he could not wear the pink snow pants, but I convinced him it would be okay since we were just in the backyard.  And now here I am posting his awesome pink pants for anyone who wants to see them.  I guess we'll have to get to the store soon so he doesn't have to relive this embarrassment.

 While I was saving trees, Kale and Hallie made these super awesome little snowmen.  They were so pleased with the end results.

Pumpkin Carving

We told the kids they could carve pumpkins this year and they were so excited because it's the first year we've done it.  We usually just paint them.  So this year they combined the 2 decorating methods.  Hooray for Jon who carved 4 pumpkins in a row!  If he hadn't been here, we would definitely have been just painting once again.

Our First Halloween Event

 There was a Halloween party at the girl's school on Friday and the whole family was invited.  We usually don't go because it starts at 7, but we've found ourselves getting more lax about bedtime as we get more kids.

  Kale was so excited that he got to go -- Sky was just excited to be dressed as a princess.  The kids totally got into it and wanted me to do their hair and make-up.  When I suggested to Sky that we could do her hair and make-up she made it quite clear that she would not be participating in that aspect of dressing up.  Kale was Batman and I was Catwoman, but of course no masks at school, so you can't get the full effect.

We can't wait until the next time we get to dress-up.  The girls are trying to make some party plans so there will be a guaranteed dress-up occasion.

DisneyWorld Adventures

 Jon and I took our family on a surprise visit to DisneyWorld last week.  It was so fun to plan everything in secret and know that we were going to have such a fun surprise for the kids.  We were flying out on the redeye flight, so we woke the kids up a little earlier than necessary to tell the news.  It took a little while for them to process it (understandably since we had just made them get out of bed).  But, once they woke up a little more, they could hardly control their excitement.  We thought the redeye would be such a fantastic plan so the kids would sleep.  Who were we kidding!?  Of course the kids didn't want to sleep, after all, we were on our way to DisneyWorld!  I think everyone got in at least one hour during the flight.  Luckily kids are resilient -- unluckily, I'm not.  Our first day was super fun, but I was super tired and happy to lay in our bed that night.

Amidst the joy of just being in DisneyWorld, riding the rides, and seeing the characters, the kids also got to have their faces painted (something that Kale talked about non-stop until it was accomplished), and they got turned into pirates and mermaids.  Marmee let us know about a super fun thing called the pirates league.  We went to the cool pirate place where everyone talked like pirates.  The kids got to choose a new pirate name (or in Hallie's case, mermaid), have their faces painted (or just make-up for Rachel), and then were magically transformed into pirates and mermaids.  They loved it so, so much.  So, thank you Marmee and Papa for letting us have that fun opportunity!  Rachel had to pose with her pirate face in almost every picture the day she was turned into the pirate.  So funny.

 Being with the kids in this setting was so much fun.  I loved seeing how excited Sky was to see the princesses -- she is definitely our most princess-loving girl so far.  I think she would have gone home with any one of them if they had suggested it.  It was crazy to see how big the 3 oldest have gotten since we came here the first time.  Rachel and Hallie rode scary roller coasters with Jon and loved it (scary like Space Mountain and Everest -- rides I don't like going on).  Even Kale rode Splash Mountain and thought it was super fun. 

 We had a fantastic time, but it was super exhausting for everyone involved, and we were all so happy to be home and sleeping in our own beds again this week.  Who knows what our next adventures will be together.  I'm not sure, but I can't wait to find out.

Halloween Time

 It's that special time of year again, and this year our kids are totally into spiderwebs.  They were positive we needed to have some spooky cobwebs all over the house, so I finally gave in and Kale and I decorated with cobwebs while the girls were at school.  He was so excited to show anyone who came to our house.  The kids really think they're the best decoration ever.  In fact, every time we go to the store they're trying to convince me that we could use some more spiderwebs to go outside.  We'll see if they convince me.  So far, this is what our decorations are looking like.