October Fest!

October marks the beginning of my FAVORITE time of year, FALL and the Holiday season!

I LOVE any excuse to celebrate, create tradition, memories, bake special treats, get together and watch movies and

spend time doing things we love.  Here are a few of the things that marked this years October fest!

I found my favorite childhood Halloween movie!  The kids loved and and so did I. It was as good as I remembered, it will be tradition from now on!

We made "mummies in a blanket" to watch the movie

...they loved them!

"because you can't reason with a headless horsemen!"

Instead of carving we did these pumpkins with friends, Caleb did a Pirate

Khloe a witch

and Pia

Cookie Monster SO.MUCH.FUN!

Then onto costumes.  Pia LOVES foxes right now so what better than a Momma made Foxy Loxy

(I made it Halloween day, nothing like last minute )

and cupcakes for Trick or Treat!

Polar Princess, her Daddy is Alaskan and she will make her first trip there this year in just a few short weeks!  I think she added the red lips bc of Taylor Swift's new album RED :)

and our lil Fox

Last but not least, he waited so patiently for this costume, over a month for the Skeleton Ninja! The bones glow in the dark!

Just a few kids from the hood

Treat!

T or T 2012

Princess and the Skeleton

8 years old and out on her own the WHOLE night!! She said is was awesome, she felt so FREE and had the BEST.NIGHT.EVER!

Best haunted house award! Spooky music, dropping spiders and a smoke machine.

Halle the Troll and the lil Fox

Raiding candy while children sleep. I get ALL peanut butter cups :)

Happy October Fest!

See you in November!

He LOST a tooth

Caleb has had a wiggly, loose tooth for quite sometime.  Recently after eating an apple (that will do it)  It became very loose and annoying to him.  We decided it was probably loose enough to pull.  My husband has been the designated tooth puller in our family and he does a great job!

I tried my hand at this one first because it seemed so loose but it was a TINY tooth and my son has a large lower lip that kept getting in the way.  Daddy to the rescue again was able to give it a light tug and out it came!

He was SO EXCITED to have lost a tooth and mostly to get a visit from the tooth fairy and be able to put a "tooth" on the I lost a tooth graph at school!

Pictures of the pull!

Last picture with all his baby teeth :) age 5 1/2

Mommy trying to get that tiny tooth out.

Daddy to the rescue the tooth is GONE!

Fall is in the Air

SNAP SHOTS IT'S FALL

The first cold night we threw on coats and hung out on the trampoline

Fall means flag football in the rain!

Naps on the couch with Daddy watching football.

Garage sale

We ROCKED the sale

She quit the sale...break time

Fall means nut collecting, bug collecting, leaf collecting, feather collecting.

Fall if for COLLECTING!

BOYS of Fall the Packers (The PACK)

Hudson, Caleb and Caleb

Fall is for crafting outside in OK LA HO MA!

Fall is for sweaters and closed toe shoes.

Fall is for pumpkin bread, two fresh loaves.

Fall is for hanging out with friends on the sidelines.

Fall means football and so many other wonderful things.

We LOVE the fall

SMILE IT'S FALL!!!!!!

The Doll Gets Glasses

It all started with the words, "If I can't see the word on the board Mama, I just shut this eye."

Whaaaa??? Let me first start by saying the only person in my family to wear glasses in my mother.  My father not only until he got older my sisters neither one.  My husband no!  So for my daughter at 8 to be saying things like I can't see that or if I can't I close this eye, who does that?  Oh someone who can't see!  Poor thing!  I just assumed because my husband and I have great vision my children would.  I also assumed however because we are both right handed our children would be that too and we have for sure one lefty and possible another one!

Anyway all that lead to two eye exams and a visit to Empire Optical for new specs for Khloe.  She was anything but excited.  She actually cried...several times!  She wore them out of the shop and took them off as soon as we got in the car.  Anytime we were going to see friends she asked to not wear them.  If someone saw her she immediately took them off.  Daddy got home from work and saw her sans glasses and said somewhat harshly, "Put your glasses on." Those four words sent her sobbing for an hour.  She finally confessed she just wanted her eyes to be normal like everyone else.  She didn't want to wear glasses and be the only one.  She wants hawk eyes or eagle eyes :) I don't the conversation Daddy and the Doll had but it was a good one because ever since she wears the glasses no problem!  I even have to remind her to take them off ;)

I must say they are pretty darn cute on her and she picked them out all by herself.  

Black Nike specs

Trying glasses on at Empire Optical

Sizing the specs.  They dip them in HOT sand to bend the rims and frames that part was cool

Standing outside right before she took them off!

Please smile so I can take your picture, eyes filling with tears :(

School Days

School has been in full swing for about a month and a half now.  I am going to say this is our best year yet!  I have changed our homeschool curriculum to Living Books, Saxon math is the same and we have added and intense Language Arts, writing and grammar program through IEW.  Our school hours went from about 2/3 hours of work a day to around 5 hours but all worth it in the end to see Khloe REALLY enjoying all of the subjects and things just sort of clicking for her this year.  It really seems to be her year, which makes me so happy and proud!  

On a sad not her long legs out grew our kid size school table so we had to rearrange our school room to fit her and her new needs.  It has been fun but a bit of a challenge with keeping the smaller ones occupied while we carry on with school.  Luckily I have two younger children with great imaginations and pretty good self-displine that they find fun, adventurous, eventful things of their own to occupy the time we spend doing school.

Khloe's first day of school 2012, 3rd grade

Little bird LOVES to paint and do her own work

and then put the dog down for a nap ;) sweet Roxy always such a good sport 

(yes, she is covered in a quilt with her head on a pillow pet)

Caleb then attends a twice a week school so we have two days without our boy and BOY do we miss him.  Pia probably the most.  She asks at least three to five times, "Where's Caleb!"  every day he is gone and when it is time for pick up we are ALL happy but I must say she is the most enthusiastic.

Here he is on his first day of school. ABC Preschool and Kindergarden 2012

He punched through the front door!

Big stuff on his way to school

We could not love our boy more!!

Khloe went to the same school and said when we left she felt like such "big stuff" when she was in school there and now she looks at the kids that were her age and thinks they are so small :) funny how that works!

Found his spot at the round table!

Always a character with the faces, pretty sure Pia thought she should have a chair right by him!

This is the beginning of the year for us full of hope and anticipation and excitement!  Getting back into routine, early bedtime, early rising and days filled with papers, pencils, books and homework.  We will miss you summer but are so looking forward to all of the great things God has for us this year.  Let us not take for granite a single day lived.  Let our hearts always stay thankful and focused on you and in ALL we do let it draw us closer to knowing you and making you know.