Halloween Heroes.

We were so glad that Halloween night was dry since this month has set a record for the most precipitation for an October in our area. We did our traditional routine of going to my parent's house for hot dogs, trick-or-treating in their busy neighborhood, and then back to their house for a bonfire on their driveway. The girls were besides themselves excited for all the fun.

With excited comes goofiness!

Michael was a cute little skeleton. He liked the getting candy part, but wasn't so down on not getting to eat it all right away as soon as it went into the Halloween bucket.

Hitting the streets in search of treats.

And we found LOTS!

Audri really got into the trick-or-treating this year. This was the first time we didn't bring a wagon or stroller along, and good thing too because no one would have used it. After each place that put candy into their buckets, Audri would say "Can I go to the next house?" in a high squeally excited voice and then she would take out running for the next porch light that was on.

If she got behind her sisters at any of the spots she would wiggle her way up to the front to be first in line for the candy...it was quite comical. She would even try to look in their windows if they didn't answer their door in a timely fashion : ) Carly at one house said she didn't really like the type of candy she was given and asked to trade, my brother got a big kick out of that one.

We met up with some of the girl's friends at one of the houses and they were super heroes too.

It was a very fun night, but quite cold...you know it's chilly when the kids ask to go back to the bonfire instead of forging on for more candy. They came home with more than enough loot though and all in all it was a great Halloween night.

Treats and Jacks.

It has been a pretty hectic past week around here with all sorts of to do's on the list. It was school photo day last Wednesday, report card conferences on Thursday, treats needed to be made for 4 different class/daycare parties, and Halloween was thrown into the mix too. I just tried to take it all in stride and I made it through. The girls were presentable for school pictures complete with straightened hair and coordinating sweaters, they both received excellent remarks from their teachers at conferences, and even though I stayed up way too late 2 nights in row I had some pretty festive goodies and treat bags for the girls' parties. Oh, and I worked 40 hours last week too...Whew!

I have to give credit to Jessica for sharing both of the Halloween inspired treat ideas with me. She gave me all the details of how to make them (see her cooking site for her cute cakepops). Take a good look at these first treats, cake lollipops, as this will be the first and last time I make them. They are super cute, really yummy, but man are they time consuming! The mini-cupcakes are more my speed.

Pumpkin and Ghost Cake Lollipops

Mini-cupcakes with Spiderweb Toppings

I also made homemade playdoh and paired it with a Halloween cookie cutter for Audri's preschool class like Tina did last year for her favors. Audri was so excited to give those out.

Since we obviously didn't have any extra time during the regular week, our pumpkin carving had to wait until Saturday morning. We got our jack-o-lanterns carved just in time for Halloween night so they could shine brightly from our front porch.

When my apple corer idea didn't quite work for Audri's little pumpkin, Steve came to the rescue with power tools! : )

The results:

All aglow in the night.

Alter Egos.

Did you know that my goofy girlies have secret alter egos? It's true!

Carly is a normal kindergartner and middle sister by day, but crime-fighting Batgirl when duty calls.

And Audri is not just a spunky 3 year old, but she fends off evil as Captain America Girl in the face of danger.

They wanted to put on their Halloween costumes this weekend after seeing some advertisements on TV...I said sure, as long as they let me take some pictures of them wearing them ; )

This dynamic duo will definitely be out on Halloween night doing their part to rid the world of injustice...and as much candy as they can cram into their bags : )

Lauren will be going as Supergirl too, but she said she would just wait to put hers on at Halloween...I guess the costume thing has lost it's luster for her somewhat. Yep, definitely growing up!

Sk8er Girl.

We headed to Skateland this year for Lauren's 8th birthday. I used to have my birthday parties at this same skateland when I was little so it was very nostalgic to go back all these years later for my daughters celebration. Not much has changed since then and it still was a fun place to celebrate 8! Her friend Lila's birthday is the day after Lauren's and so we had a dual party for the both of them together. All the girls had a blast. Even Audri skated...if you can call it that since they had her wheels tightened so much she basically just walked around the rink in her skates. She really thought she was something out there though, and it saved us from a lot of falls and bruises that way. Steve opted for the speed skates and we got a good laugh out of him skating during the all boys fast skate.



One of the highlights was for the birthday girls to get to step inside the money machine. They had one minute to try and catch as many dollars and certificates for prizes as they could. Very exciting!

We also got a party room complete with disco lights, pizza, ice cream, soda/punch, and my favorite part 2 hostesses that served everybody and cleaned up the mess afterward : )

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The day after Lauren's birthday/party we went to get her birthday present done...EAR PIERCING. She was going to get them pierced last year, but decided she wasn't quite ready. This year she was nervous but was determined to get them done. She had said all along that she wanted her friend Bailey, who had her ears pierced last year, to go along with her. Bailey was not feeling well on Saturday and had to miss the skate party so we didn't think she would be able to make it the next day either. Lauren was so excited when Bailey's mom texted that she was feeling much better the next day and could go with Lauren to get her ears pierced afterall. Once we got there we had to wait a little while for the second employee to come in so they could pierce both sides at once. They first measured and marked Lauren's ears and then got her approval on the placement. Then they got into position and told Lauren to count to 10.......and on 3 they pierced. Lauren didn't even know what happened since she thought they were piercing on # 10. She had no time freak, no time to chicken out, no time to even cry. She just had this startled look on her face that she couldn't believe it was over already. Then she just couldn't stop looking at them in the mirror. She chose gold hearts with a diamond in the middle (I use the word diamond very loosely)...the same selection Bailey had made when she got hers done. So now we are in the middle of the 6 week process of cleaning them with alcohol twice a day and turning them at least three times a day. Lauren has been very good about taking care of them and she can't wait until she can start changing them out to all kinds of fun pairs.

Patiently Waiting.

I have been patiently waiting for the rainy drizzle and the 40 degree and below weather to subside so I can finish up Lauren's 8 year old photoshoot. It looks like tomorrow might be our day...crossing my fingers that the forcasted sunshine and high of 58 holds true! I couldn't stand it any longer though and just had to open up and play with some of the images we had captured so far...before the light faded on us. Here is a sneak peek of what's to come in her slideshow...doesn't she look so grown up!