Halloween 2015

Hope has told me for a couple of years now that she wants to be a bride on Halloween. But what always happens? She gets distracted by something that sparkles, and bride goes out the window. 

BUT NOT THIS YEAR. 

She said bride, and actually stuck to her guns. 

Do you know how much fun I had with this? Dressing up your daughter and getting a glimpse of a future bride? 

OH MY SENTIMENTAL MUSHY HEART.

You know when Paul and I got married back in 2002 the tiara was all the rage. Now a tiara is so early 2000's, but pretty perfect for a little girl dressing up.

Now Pierce.

"Hey mom, I wanna be a skeleton"

UH NO.

We don't do scary.

But I caved.

I guess it isn't all that scary, especially when the skeleton breaks it down.

We were ready to roll by 2:00

Plenty of time for me to take an unreasonable amount of pictures.

These are the moments.

So we did out traditional Halloween thing

PUMPKIN ALLEY.

We go to Brittany's and kill some time, you know so the kids ask every two minutes, WHEN CAN WE GO?

Finally we quit torturing them and we roll.

Just like riding a bike people.

And Emie who has never tick-or-treated in her entire three years, she got the hang REAL quick.

Hope stopped and ate candy after the FIRST house, but I can't bust on her and not reveal, I JOINED.

The veil didn't make it very long.

Nor the mask.

Hundreds of kids out there

And Hope runs into her bestie. Lots of squeals and giggles when that happened.

I think we lasted a good hour

But towards the end

The walking turned to running.

And eventually come-aparts.

The evening ended back at Brittany's

And that was my favorite part of the night.

Taco soup, fires, friends, conversations....

Like I said, these are the moments.

Carving adventure

While in Indiana there is lots of play with the cousins, because the kids are CRAZY about their cousins. 

You can imagine the delight that was felt when Cody suggested we get together to carve pumpkins. And that was just from me.

But the kids? They were beyond pumped.

When he suggested the carving, I imagined maybe we'd carve a couple small ones.

I imagined wrong. 

We had six massive pumpkins to occupy us.

No way around it, pulling out the middle of a pumpkin is whack.

It just feels wrong.

But you eventually get used to it.

Maybe.

This wasn't just a little kid activity.

In fact I think the grown ups may have enjoyed it more than the kids.

Determined to carve a masterpiece.

I was all, "let's carve a smiley face"

Uh no.

So I mainly sat back and just photographed as it unfolded. 

I think it took three hours?

But they turned out great!

So I did help Pierce with his, and he regretted that decision. He was totally upset with how his turned out. If you can't tell it's a Patriots mascot, but he hated it. Perfection runs through his blood, so all he saw were the imperfections. I can see the pain in his face in this picture, "OH MY GOSH, MY MOM RUINED MY PUMPKIN."

Once his dad talked him off the ledge, I think he came around that it turned out pretty well.

How awesome did these turn out?!

It really was such fun, I loved hanging out with my sister, my nephews, and Megan. We are determined to make this a tradition and already have new strategies laid out for out next carving adventure.

Until next time!

Let's rock 11

Something about turning another year older is just so exhausting. 

But why wouldn't it be? We celebrate for days. 

Doesn't the Queen of England celebrate her birthday like a month or something? WE RUN A CLOSE SECOND.

Of course we went to Indiana to celebrate with the family. PLEASE NOTE, ONLY THE GRANDCHILDREN GET PICTURES ON THE TABLE, IMMEDIATE OFFSPRING KIDS DO NOT RANK.

I'm fully aware I'm biased, but he's just cute.

As always, there was a celebration with his Neena.

Pierce came two days before her 60th birthday.

And he loves sharing a celebration with her.

This is the year he asked for Nerf guns, and all things Xbox.

Mom prefers finer gifts like Target gift cards.

As with all mothers you wonder how life can pass so quickly....

Only a handful of years left and he will driving.

But for now, let's rock 11.

And just because it's mandatory...