Family Pictures

 For a combined Mother's and Father's Day gift, my siblings and I decided to schedule family pictures with our family. The last time that my entire family had a professional picture taken that was not at a wedding was before my brother left on his mission-when I was 12. So I guess it was time for an update. We had the pictures taken in August, and just got them back a couple weeks ago. Based on the experience, I wouldn't be surprised if it's another 18 years before we get more taken. But for now, for your viewing pleasure...

Happy Halloween!

I pretty much love trick-or-treating at the stage that we are in right now. My kids only last for about 10 houses before they're done, so they don't get too loaded up on treats, and I don't get bored going door to door. Our neighbors are always so nice to my kids, and the neighborhood that we live in, we get just the right number of trick-or-treaters. They are not too old, and they don't come super late. Plus, we have neighbors that always have a fire with hotdogs and smores, so in Meili's mind that trumps trick-or-treating any day.

Happy Halloween from our beautiful Butterfly Fairy...

... and Marshall from Paw Patrol

Trick or Treat!

Half a Decade

 To celebrate Meili's birthday, my parents came up on Friday night the 30th. My dad was going to the football game with Josh and it didn't start until late. My mom and I stayed home with the kids. As a note, I would like to add that that was the day of Meili's friend birthday party, and a Halloween Carnival at gymnastics. But in the morning when I asked her what day it was and if she knew what was happening that day, she said, "It's Friday and Grandma and Papa are coming to stay at our house!" Also when we went to Build-a-Bear Workshop, she was more excited about staying the night at my parents' house than she was about building her animal. I'm glad that she loves her grandparents, but I need to stop planning other events apparently. 

We had a Halloween themed dinner. I provided noodles, sauce, meatballs and bug juice-which was about all I could muster after throwing a birthday party. And my mom brought a Jack-o-Lantern with carrots, olives, and cucumbers, witches' brooms with pretzels and string cheese, worms with grapes on skewers, spooky mouths with apples, marshmallows, and peanut butter, and snake bread. Needless to say, we had WAY too much food. But it was fun. Although Grant would have been content with just bug juice, and I was worried that he would always want bugs in his drinks. It obviously would have been cooler if I had taken pictures, but who thinks to do that at the time?

The next day we went with my parents and brother to Texas Roadhouse. I thought it was fitting since Meili is a cowgirl through and through.

 

She had no hesitation about sitting on the saddle and having everyone sing to her.

 Here she is telling our server that she is 5 now.

 And Meili was all-around spoiled for her birthday. She loved all of the presents from her friends and we've got Barbies galore at our house now. My mom got her this shirt-because that's got Meili written all over it.

 My mom also made a bed for her 18-inch doll, Lilly Anna. But when I say that she made her a bed, I mean that she made her a bed, a mattress, a bed skirt, a sheet, a pillow, a quilt, a unicorn blanket for Lilly Anna and a horse blanket for Lilly Anna's horse Cooper Cream. (And slippers for her new unicorn and pajamas for Meili.) Sheesh! But that's how my mom rolls! I will say it was pretty awesome to see Meili opening the present saying, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"

 Then Josh's parents came over and brought a present for Meili as well. It's a Barbie and her horse. The funny thing is, that I had seen the exact same thing when I was shopping for Meili's birthday, and thought, "Oh Meili would love that!" But I couldn't justify it, with everything else we were doing for her birthday. So yes, Meili loves it! The people who love Meili sure know her well!

Words cannot describe how much I love our spunky, horse/pony/unicorn loving, pink, princess, smart, sassy, sweet 5 year old. I'm her mother, so it's okay that I think she is the most beautiful person I've ever met, and I'm pretty sure she's the smartest 5 year old on the planet, and she also knows just how to get under my skin. I'm so proud of the little person that she has become, and I'm so excited to see all she has ahead of her in her life, because I know she will do great things! Happy birthday Sweetie Pea!

Friend Birthday

 

Since Meili was turning the big 5 this year, I decided it was time for a friend birthday party. We invited a few of her friends that there moms are really my friends-so therefore, she friends with them, we invited a couple cousins, and a few friends from preschool (which was pretty tricky since I have never met their moms, and just had to take her word for it that she was good friends with them.) But since she spends a good amount of time with them every week, and talks about them, I decided it was worth to see if they could come. When all was said and done, we ended up with 8 little people in my house on Friday afternoon (and Grant when he woke up from his nap.)

Of course, with Meili's birthday being on Halloween, costumes are a must. I love seeing all the kids in their cute costumes. 

 The pictures are out of order, but we played some games: Pin the face on the Jack-o-Lantern, Pass the Pumpkin, Bingo, and Four Corners. I had lots of ideas for fun Halloween foods, but since I feel like kids load up on too many treats anyway the week of Halloween, I decided to do healthier foods instead of treats and cake and ice cream.

 

 

 We had banana ghosts, hotdog mummies, spiders on logs, bug juice and olives (that look Halloweeny :) (Really the skewers were supposed to have olive, cheese, olive, cheese, but my cheese froze so when I tried to cut it, it crumbled.) Aside from that mishap, the food went as well as I could have hoped.

And yes, kids have too much sugar, but they still need a treat at a birthday party. So we decorated sugar cookies :) because that's what I do for everything. (Every holiday, for activity days, and for birthday parties.) Overall, everything went as well as I could have expected. William didn't want to leave his mom at first, but it was his first birthday party, and he did eventually warm up, and Isaac was mad when he realized that Meili was the only one opening presents, but besides that, I thought it was a lot of fun. I love watching Meili grow up, and enter into this new stage of life!

Carving Pumpkins

 This year we decided to free-hand our pumpkins. I had gotten this long skinny pumpkin that I was excited about. Originally I was going to write "Happy Halloween," then I decided that was too big and would take too long, so it was going to be "Halloween," until I got to the O and decided there was no way. So "Hallows" it is.

 Josh is the world's fastest pumpkin carver. He had 3 faces carved out of two pumpkins, in the time that it took me to scoop the guts out of Meili's. I tried to stick to the face that Meili drew on her pumpkin as much as possible. Her's in the top one.

 And Josh carved this face on one side of Grant's and Mike Wazowski on the other side. Grant spent his time climbing on the table trying to stab pumpkins with as many sharp objects as he could. Meili drew the face on her pumpkin and helped carve a little bit of it. None of them would have anything to do with the guts inside though.

 It's worth it to carve pumpkins just to get pictures of Grant in that shirt, right?