BYOP and Halloween 2016

The only pics from the school fall festival.  It was a blast and the kids would have stayed forever if they could. 

Avery is a Burks Ambassador so she had to go early to help set up, so she missed out on the photo op.

Then on Saturday we had our second annual BYOP and it was so much fun!

 

Monday was Halloween and Ben was a paleontologist, Sass a vampire, Shea was Ariel and Avery was a french girl.

And Jeff was Shea.

(Or her eye brows at least)

 

We went to Jan and Bob's and ate hot dogs and handed out candy more than actual trick or treating, and it was perfect.

Shea was scared at first, but then started handing out candy and recognizing every costume.  If she got scared, she would cover her ears and then tell me "it's just pretend" and talk herself into it.

I am so so thankful for these neighborhood nights.

I am really trying to create more community with every person around us.

I have made friends with the people in the apartments just around the corner and really have been trying to invite people into our lives that just walk by our house.

I know that not everyone wants to come know us, but I just want everyone to feel welcome here.  And loved.  And I want to learn from everyone around us.  I want to open my circle wider.  Lately, I have been reading a lot about that from Shannan Martin's new book Falling Free and it just was so encouraging to me. 

Having a party is not necessarily helping any one, but you know I love a party.  

Hall's Pumpkin Patch

We met the Harrisons at Hall's pumpkin patch a few weekends ago and it was a blast.

And the corn maze was no joke.  We felt truly victorious when we made it through (after asking for someone to literally lead us out.  Either way, victory is victory if you're lost and afraid you may run out of diet coke and become too dehydrated and its getting dark.  It was touch and go.)

They had a hay ride and we fed the animals and the kids ate it up.
We went to their house afterwards and shea and aves could not get enough of that gorgeous baby dylan.  I dont think shea ever left him alone.  She was all ahhhh and ohhhh and so many kisses the kid was wet with drool.  I love her passionate spirit.  We may just have to tame it.  She is definitely a lover.

On the way home, shea was crying and avery is usually the one who sits next to her and consoles her. She does an incredible job.  She plays with her and sings to her and gives her everything she wants.  She is always patient and always so sweet.
But on the way home, shea would not give it up.  When I looked back I saw Aves with huge tears just streaming down her cheeks.  She was so upset that she couldn't make shea happy and it just broke my heart.  I am so thankful for siblings and for ones that never hurt or pain to come on each other.  It isn't always rainbows and no fights, but I always want to remember how heart wrenching it was watching her care for shea that night.
So thankful for sisters- mine that didnt live in my house but came in the form of friends and my kids who hopefully will support and encourage each other their entire lives.  And share clothes.  Isn't that the best part of sisters??!

Halloween 2013

Right.  SO, a little late.  But here's what we did for halloween.

We carved pumpkins for the first time letting the kids have carving knives.  (We like to live on the edge); We went to a petting zoo and carnival at their school and it was so much fun; we made jack o lantern cookies; I made them shirts to wear to school that glowed in the dark (for real this time! Not like that martha stewart "glow in the dark" paint I tried last year on the pumpkins); and we made teacher gifts with the candy corn shortbread cookies to take on halloween (and the twins teacher was sick, so who knows if she even got it…)
Oh and they went completely unrelated or thematic as a snow queen, a swamp monster and repunzel.  I need more control.
We went downtown on the square for actual halloween and then they ended up liking handing out candy more than getting it, so they were very generous with their handfuls of candy and we only trick or treated to my in laws and back.
Overall, I would say it was a success.

Halloween Happenings

I love Halloween. Not the scary, creepy side of Halloween but the dress up in whatever theme you want and eat candy all month  day part. My girls love it too. When we first started talking about Halloween costumes, Ella's first pick was a princess. She hasn't ever really been into princesses stuff so I was surprised that's what she said. I know that she is at the age where I can no longer pick for her so I tried my best to come up with a creative spin on a princess. I threw out the idea of Rapunzel. I wanted the girls to coordinate which I knew wouldn't be an issue since McKenna wants to copy every move Ella makes these days. I thought Ella could be the "before" Rapunzel with her long blonde hair and then McKenna could be the "after" Rapunzel with her shorter brown hair. I was excited! The girls were too. For about 5 minutes. Then Ella realized she didn't like the puffy sleeves on Rapunzel's dress. So the princess idea was out the window. Next on the list was Doc McStuffins and Lambie. They were both very excited about the idea and McKenna would have made the most perfect Doc McStuffins. Ella was thrilled about being Lambie too. Once I began talking about how to create the lamb costume she kinda lost interest. Not McKenna though. She was still stuck on Doc McStuffins. Ella then one morning came to be very excited with the idea of being a Care Bear. So random and we don't even watch Care Bears. She loves a rainbow so she was very excited about being the Care Bear with the rainbow on her tummy. She said Kenna could be the sunshine one, I could be the heart and dad would be the one with the rain cloud. Ok. I could do Care Bears. I was worried about a hot costume so I was thinking tshirts and bear ears maybe. I was ready to roll with it though. Then one night during dinner the girls started putting on a song number for Bob and I. Ella introduced McKenna and her as the Sister Rock Band. I mentioned how that could be a cute Halloween costume idea and all they would have to wear was a bunch of sparkle. Sold! They never looked back. Well McKenna did go back to the Doc McStuffins every now and then but in the end picked Rockstar like her big sister Ella. So thats the history of our Halloween costumes. I'm sure everyone wanted to hear all those exciting details. I just love to have stuff like that recorded so I can look back and remember all those fun details. (to me at least)

The only thing I made was the guitar strap for their costumes. Everything else was either bought or we already had. We are never short on things that sparkle and shine. The guitars are from oriental trading company. They were the perfect size and so light weight because they were inflatable. I sewed a strip of black fabric into a tube and heat pressed their band name onto it. I then just sewed the strap right onto the edge of the plastic guitar. 

I love a full family costume so I made shirts for Bob and I to wear. We loved being part of the Sister Rockstar Band!

We had a trunk or treat with our church last weekend so the girls got to rock out twice. We did the Candyland theme just like last year again. Since we still had all the stuff from it we thought it would be easier to just do a repeat. It poured rain the day before so the location got changed to church parking lot last minute. It ended up being great but not so great for all our lollipops that we stick in the ground. It was still so much fun!

Actual Halloween night was a blast! We had a group of friends over for a soup pot luck dinner and ate it outside while the kids passed out candy. I wish I would have gotten a pic of all the kids together. We are missing Charlie Brown, Super Hero Camdyn (you can kind of see her in the background) and Rockstar McKenna in this pic. 

How fantastic are those rockstar boots?! The smallest size they made in them was a 9/10. McKenna is a size 7. She lasted a couple hours in them which was impressive.

After passing out candy for about an hour, we loaded up in Bob's truck and he drove VERY slowly down the street where the trick or treating was much more hoppin than our street. 

Suni had a ton of glow sticks leftover from her kids party this last summer so she brought them along. Somehow Bob became the glow stick man and passed them out to kids walking by. He was very popular! It was fun to see how excited kids got when they found out they could have one for free. We might have to order those in bulk and make that a tradition. 

We ended the night with a sugar filled bedtime snack and maybe started today with a sugar filled breakfast. 

Until next year,

rock on sisters.