Some Serious Carving Competition

The Teams and Planning Sessions......

Team 1:  Ginger and Gilli            

                                                          
                                            Team 2: Ryan and Mom (me)

                                          Team 3: Don, Davis and Ethan

The Carving..........

The Results.........

They all turned out great and we were all declared winners!  It was really fun.  I thought Don was quite clever with his "moon and stars" pumpkin because it allowed the boys to be involved without using knives!  They got to hammer the pumpkin with a screwdriver to poke holes all over it and loved it.

Halloween 2010

Hallowen is always loads of fun, but a little stressful for me as the mother when your children are changing what they want to be every day the week before Halloween! Here is what they finally decided on....

Little Red Riding Hood (you sure are lookin' good)...

A Punk Rocker (the exact opposite of our sweet, innocent Gilli),

Superman, (very appropriate for our little superhero)

Belle (or "Beauty"), definitely a princess,

And Dash from Incredibles. He had to show me (over and over) how fast he could run any time he put this costume on.  He came up with this pose for the picture all on his own...

Don and I had a party with friends the week before Halloween and.... don't ask me how Don talked me into this..... but somehow he persuaded me to dress-up as Violet Beauregard from Willy Wonka, while he got off easy as Mike Teevee. He did create some pretty amazing Golden Tickets, but still, so embarassing.

So, for the Trunk or Treat a week later I had to redeem myself as something much cooler...

We love the Trunk or Treat every year.  Dozens of families gather in the parking lot of our church and decorate the trunks of their cars. (Obviously, we are lame and didn't do any decorating, but it's an accomplishment that we were there on time with 7 costumed people and tons of candy to pass out, right?!)  Anyway, the kids go from trunk to trunk filling their buckets with all sorts of candy.  Usually this is in addition to regular Trick or Treating so we accumulate WAY too much candy every year.  Fortunately, (for the sake of our teeth) Halloween was on Sunday this year, so we didn't Trick or Treat, but how could the kids be sad when they made out like bandits anyway?!

A few of the girls' friends in their great costumes....

We weren't planning on having any sort of Super Heroes theme, but I guess it sort of turned out that way.  We had a lot of fun that night.  I love my cute little family.

The Pumpkin Patch

Ethan's Kindergarten class had a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch and I was definitely going! My babies are growing up and I fear that trips like these are going to be over much too soon.

It was a beautiful day complete with a hay ride...

feeding the animals (although Ethan was terrified to let the animals eat out of his hand)...

good friends (his little buddy, Jaxon)...

and busy, little kindergarteners that made for an exhausting, but very enjoyable outing!

Rider of the Week--Ryan!

As you recall from a few posts ago, Ethan was the Rider of the Week at school and set the example for Ryan to follow by being confident and willing to stand in front of the school on a live camera and introduce himself. Now it was Ryan's turn and she had already refused 3 times over the past 2 years. Would she do it? Well, when she came home to announce that she had been chosen, she immediately said "and I'm going to do it! IF I can have waffles that morning like Ethan did!" Funny that waffles and ice cream and candy and everything else never convinced her before, but now that her baby brother had shown her up, she was ready!

I still wasn't sure if Ryan would actually go through with it. I had seen it several times before. She said she would do it, then she would come crying to me and refuse. Here she is in the looooong line awaiting her turn and you can tell she was a little anxious.

Well, her turn came and she did a great job! I was so proud of her and I could tell she was proud of herself for conquering her fear. "My name is Ryan and I am in Mrs. Hensley's 3rd grade class!" Way to go, Ryan Jane.

Future Homemakers

For Gillian's Skills For Living Class she was assigned to make cinnamon twists. She invited her friend over and they rolled the dough, twisted it, bathed it in butter, and dipped it in cinnamon and sugar.

Then they threw them in the oven and Voila! Yummy!

Can't you just see these two as future Moms doing cute things with their kids?

Rider of the Week--Ethan!

My cute little Kindergartener was chosen as Rider of the Week this week! He came home to share the news with us, but quickly announced that he would NOT be cooperating the next morning when the "rider" from each class was supposed to introduce themselves on camera in front of the entire school. He has seen it one too many times with his older sister Ryan who for the previous two years cried and refused to speak into the microphone. I thought, "oh, great. Not another shy kid!" Well, after trying the same bribery attempts we did with Ryan, Ethan decided he would go on camera if we had waffles for breakfast. Done! So, Friday morning came and Ethan didn't even bat an eye. He walked straight up to the microphone and said with a loud, confident voice, "My name is Ethan and I am in Mrs. Steele's Kindergarten class!" He did awesome. And I know Ryan was shocked to watch from her classroom that her little 5 year old brother had conquered her biggest fear! I was anxious to see what she would do this year when it was her turn....

He was pretty excited about his new pencil and coupon for a Chik Fila kid's meal, but nothing could beat his waffles he had that morning!