Celebrating One of the Best!

On November 4th we celebrated my mom's birthday. This lady deserves to be celebrated. She is one of the most amazing, strong, selfless people I know and I strive to be more like her in my lifetime. We celebrated with a nice dinner out at Ivar's in Mukilteo along with Jason's parents. It's always hard to not have my dad as a part of these birthday dinners, but he was there in our hearts. (Sad I didn't even get a group picture at dinner with the 5 of us, my mom and Jason's parents).

I guess this kid has moved on from kids meals these days!

Grams and her WA granddaughters

Happy Birthday Mom! 

I am thankful I have you by my side on this crazy thing we call life!!

Being a Tourist

Over the summer I really wanted to take the girls to Snoqualmie Falls. Since we never made it I decided to take advantage of a beautiful fall day and go visit it on Nov. 3rd (while also leaving Jason at home to watch the Seahawks game in peace again). My mom joined me on our little excursion, which was fun. We checked out the falls from the upper viewing area and then we made the little half mile "hike" down to the bottom where the river is, but sadly the lower access to the falls was closed at the time. So there wasn't really anything to see from the falls except the river. The "hike" back up was all uphill and Brielle impressed us greatly by not whining or asking to be carried the entire way!! We enjoyed finding giant leaves and cool trees on the way up and down.

Checking out the falls from up top

Not too big right now

Cool tree to climb in

A giant leaf and a fun stump seat

At the river

The big girls went with Grams to the beach

Halloween for Days!

Halloween never ends up being just one day for us. It's like multiple days in a row of dressing up and doing festive type activities. It sounds fun until you get to the last day and then you are just tired of candy and tired of dressing up! Oh, why do I do this to myself every year?!

On October 25th we went to the carnival at the church where Brielle goes to preschool. It's always totally crazy crowded at this event, but the girls seem to enjoy the carnival games and the special circus acts that they have come in. This is pretty much the beginning of many days of candy and dress up and the start of the SUGAR HIGH!

Waiting in a long line for a game

Like candy isn't enough, we buy them cotton candy!

On October 27th we finally got around to carving our pumpkins! Cammy did hers mostly on her own, Hailey still didn't really want anything to do with it and left it for Jason to take over and do, and Brielle was into it and really wanted to do it on her own with no help (but of course needed that assistance, especially with the carving part). I think we all came up with some cute pumpkins!

Cammy loves this part

Jason helping out

I joined in with my pumpkin

Hailey's face pretty much sums up her feelings about this

Brielle was super helpful

Proud to be carving on her own

Her finished moon and stars pumpkin

My finished jack-o-lantern

Jason did the unicorn for Hailey and she designed the white one herself

Brielle designed and helped carve her pumpkin

On the 30th we went to our local high school's carnival that the different clubs put on. Each club has a different game that sort of goes along with what their club is all about. The girls enjoy this fun little event and of course all the candy they come home with!

The girls with friend, Sydney, making spider cookies

Finally Halloween!!! Both Cammy and Hailey had parties in their classes on this day and thankfully they were at different times, so I was able to help at both of them. It's always fun to be in their classrooms and see their friends.

Craft station for the 3rd graders

Cookie decorating station for the Kindergarteners

Halloween night was dry and chilly...but DRY!!! We headed out after dinner to trick-or-treat in our cul-de-sac and then down the street a bit until the girls complained they were too cold or tired. Sadly by the time we got home we only had like two different groups come to our door, so the girls were a little sad they didn't get to hand out much candy (we don't typically get a lot of people each year, but I feel like we miss the cute little kids because we are always out).

Clark Kent, Wonder Woman, Black Kitty, JoJo Siwa and Cat in the Hat

My mom the Farmer with the girls

Sorting their candy

Had to get the pumpkins all lit up

Halloween jammies to end the night

And just when we were ready to be done with dressing up, we had one last Halloween party with some friends on Nov. 1st. We enjoyed eating, drinking, dancing, hanging out with friends and wrapping up the Halloween season in style!

Prince Charming and Cat in the Hat

The girls with some of their friends

Craft time!

More crafts with friends

And that's a wrap on the Halloween season!!!

One Last Pumpkin Patch for the Season

After frequenting Stocker Farms the entire month of October, I was starting to feel sad that I didn't actually make it to any other farms. So because it was a nice sunny weekend I decided to take the girls to The Farm at Swan's Trail on October 27th. This also allowed Jason to watch the Seahawks game in peace and quiet, which is hard to come by most weekends.

We had such a fun time there and weren't really bothered by the crowds. We loved the new things that they added this year, like the tractor pull and the kids corn maze (although that was quite muddy, but we did it). And we enjoyed the one thing that Stocker Farms didn't have...live animals. When we were there we got to watch a baby chick hatching from it's egg in an incubator. By the time we left it had hatched, so that was pretty cool. And of course we love the duck races, which we happened to catch right as we were about to leave.

Trying to pull the tractor

Baby goats

Hot drinks on a bumpy tractor ride= not the most bright idea I have ever had!

Kids corn maze here we go!

We sent Cammy down the really muddy path to see if it led anywhere

Cammy on the cow train!

I think these pedal cars are more work for me than the kids!

Top of the hay pyramid

All 3 on the horsey swings

I'm always sad to see the farm season come to an end, but at least we enjoyed it to it's fullest this year!

Off to the Pumpkin Patch We Go

October 17th was Brielle's preschool fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch. Our preschool does fieldtrips a little different because they are parent led and teachers aren't there. Plus, since there are so many classes, they all just come on certain days and you hope to find at least a few kids from your class.

We went to Thomas Family Farm but sadly didn't see anyone from Brielle's class. Thankfully we saw another friend of ours though who is a year older and we got to hang out with them. We lucked out with the weather and it didn't actually rain on us while we were getting our pumpkins, but so many of the activities were wet that we didn't last long at the farm afterwards to play.

This was my first time doing this fieldtrip with just one kid (usually we have a younger sibling in tow), but it was kind of nice to have that one-on-one time with just Brielle this time! And she found the perfect pumpkin to take home too!!

Pumpkin time!

She found her pumpkin!!

Brielle and her buddy Josh on the tractor ride back from the patch

School Dance

October 11th was the big family costume dance at Cammy and Hailey's school. We have gone every year since Cammy was in Kindergarten, but this year was by far the best yet! For the week leading up to the dance the kids spent two days each learning different dances that would be done at the dance. This made it so much more fun for the kids because they actually had things to look forward to doing rather than just running around wild all night (and I participated more too because I was there helping with the learning of the dances during the week). Everyone had a great time with their friends and of course they all love a good excuse to dress up in costume!

The girls with our friend, Sydney, ready to go dance!

Hailey with some of her kindergarten friends

Cammy with some of her 3rd grade friends

64 Years of Greatness!

On October 8th we celebrated my dad's 64th birthday with a simple little visit. It definitely wasn't like past birthdays where he was more with it to celebrate with, but we are just thankful that after this past year, we still have him around to celebrate with!

Card made from Cammy

Hailey's card with a treat

The best picture I could get of my dad and mom

Diving into his boy scout popcorn

The birthday boy!!!

Happiest of birthdays Dad! 

You are so loved!