Hallo-week

Last week was great. We packed all kinds of Halloween festivities into the week, including the acquisition of dumptruck loads of candy. I think we'll be working on this candy for years! Some of the fun activities included... (warning, there are a ton of pictures in this post)a fun Halloween dinner with Vampire blood, apple bites and of course

Mummy dogs!

a playgroup costume party complete with trick-or-treating

cookie decorating and delivering

Madi even got in on the frosting fun!

spooky story time

here are the kids in all their finery: a cheerleader, a clone trooper and Jessie the yodeling cowgirl (if this costume looks familiar, you're right! I made a red yarn wig to change it up a little, but she wouldn't wear it. boo hoo.)

They had a great time trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, then we headed over to the church for some trunk-or-treating action. Madi loved putting the candy in her little bag and wouldn't move on until it was safely secured. So funny!

Just in case you needed more, here's another cute picture of my little monsters! Hey, did I mention that Kody won a costume contest at a little festival we went to? I'm glad, because Grandma B and I worked real hard on getting his costume just right. What was the prize you ask? More candy! I hope you all had a great Halloween, because we did!

Movie Monday

For your entertainment, here's a classic Madi video clip, circa sometime after Christmas and before we moved. Hope you get a bit of a smile from her laugh!

Happy Monday

Fall Field Trip

Kody had his first kindergarten field trip on Friday, and Mollie and I were lucky enough to be there with him! Where else do you go on a field trip in October besides a pumpkin patch? This was at the high school (yes, as it turns out they are pretty big into farming around here), and the high school students took the kids around to a few different stations:First, of course, was the hayride...

then lots of animals to pet and smell...

craft projects involving real sheep hair...

storytime, where they learned all about pumpkins...

planting pumpkin seeds (do you think anything will grow?)...

and last but not least, they got to bring home their own baby pumpkins!

Character

They say scars give you "character". Now both my girls have some great character.

Mollie got her character in May while visiting Grandma & Grandpa D,and poor Madi just got hers yesterday at Grandpa & Grandpa B's.

Can you see the blood highlights in her hair? Poor kids, they were both troopers. I wasn't able to be with Mollie when she had her accident, so while I was in the E.R. with Madi I just couldn't help but think of what my poor mom went through comforting Mollie all the while trying to stay strong herself. I broke down a little, but tried to remain calm for Madi. If it wasn't for my awesome mother in law, I'm pretty sure I would have just fallen apart. Thanks Moms!

Help me win!

One of the blogs I follow is having a giveaway of her newest dress pattern and I must have it! Go here, and you can see the cuteness. Wish me luck!

Pretty Little Schoolgirl

Mollie has started preschool now, and she loves it! We are just doing a little group with some of the kids in church and they meet once a week for about an hour and a half. Perfect! They are working on letters and numbers, and they do a cute show and tell each week. Mollie loves having her own little school to go to.first day of school - the gratuitous front door shot

journal writing

what a little supermodel!

Kindergarten (I only cried a little)

We survived the first week of Kindergarten!

Kody was a little nervous on the first day, but has overcome his fears and absolutely loves his new school!

He has a great teacher, Mrs. R, who has been teaching Kinder for quite a while and just loves these little ones. She is so sweet! Day one was this past Monday, and it was just an hour to help the children get familiarized with the teacher and class. Parents stayed, so you can imagine it was a little crazy.We only live about a half mile from the school, so we have been walking him to and from school.Here he is with the school mascot.This picture is for Grandma B, otherwise known as the Frog Grandma!

Yesterday when I got to the school to pick him up I noticed this red stuff all over his shorts. Mrs. R assured me it wasn't blood, just frosting from the birthday cupcakes that his classmate brought. Seriously folks, who brings cupcakes with RED frosting to a kindergarten class?!? Apparently, Kody had some fun with the red frosting and covered himself from head to toe. In the picture, I had already started to douse the stains with my trusty stain remover (thanks Chel, it works like a dream!) when I decided to take a picture for posterity. So no, that's not blood and pee on his shorts! And would you believe, it all came out!