Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Cinderella & Doc McStuffins!

The girls had a great Halloween!  They didn't dress up/celebrate at school, however, after dinner they had some fun!

First stop was to the neighborhood Amenities Center where they had a little Halloween Party for the kids.  There was face painting, pumpkin decorating & lots of yummy treats.  We came too late for the costume contest, but *I* think they wore the cutest costumes of the whole group!

After some fun & a visit with our neighbors, we headed out to trick or treat.  Unfortunately, there are still too few completed houses in our neighborhood, so we headed to the neighborhood across the street where there were plenty of homes for the girls to choose from.  The girls were in heaven & I told Marc I felt like this was the first year BOTH girls really got into trick or treating!  Not to mention, it was the first year we didn't have to traipse through the rain nor layer the girls up nice & warm to battle the cold WA weather.  We definitely enjoyed the nice, dry weather!  

The girls had a great Halloween & got a lot of treats!  And I spy some yummy chocolate candy that may or may not be snatched up & {secretly} eaten!

And just for fun, here's a look back at the past few Halloweens!  My, how they've grown!!!

Pumpkin Carving

Tonight Marc, the girls & I carved pumpkins.  The girls found a princess pumpkin carving book at the store awhile ago & were dead set on carving each of their pumpkins with a specific princess.  Have y'all seen how intricate & difficult those pictures are to replicate back onto the pumpkin?!  And of course Ashby chose Jasmine, probably the hardest princess to carve.  Poor Marc had his work cut out for him!  Luckily, Kennedy changed her mind & decided that she wanted to create her own special masterpiece on her pumpkin.  And Marc thought to himself 'fine by me!'  Ha!

Like previous years, the girls wanted nothing to do with the insides of their pumpkin.  Ashby's face above says it all.  They each picked their obligated ONE pumpkin seed & then wanted nothing to do with cleaning out their pumpkins.  Mama to the rescue!  I cleaned them out & then Marc got to work!

After taping the picture on the pumpkin, Marc got to punching holes into the pumpkin to create a 'pattern'.  See his hole punched pumpkin on the left of the above picture?  Yeah.  He had his work cut out for him to get it to look like the picture on the right.

For the next while, he got to work on his & Kennedy got to work on hers.  And Ashby watched some Disney Channel to stay out of their way.

I was so impressed with Kennedy!  She drew her own design, punched holes to create a pattern so it would be easier to cut, and only needed Marc to cut out specific parts.  You can tell from the above picture that she took her job VERY seriously!

And without further adieu, here are the girls Halloween pumpkins!

Kennedy's adorable pumpkin:

And Marc's Jasmine masterpiece for Ashby:

Bwhahahaha!  In Marc's defense, the little pumpkin knife that comes in the kit broke & he had to try & use a small paring knife to finish cutting out the pattern.  And those crazy hole punches were so close together that it was near impossible to figure out what was to be cut & what wasn't!  He definitely got an A+++ for effort!

And just to be clear, per Marc, Ashby's pumpkin wasn't supposed to look like the original picture.  He created a unique & special Scream Jasmine pumpkin for Ashby!  Ha!  

Lucky for us, Ashby doesn't seem to care & hasn't said how different it looks from the original pattern.  

But I have a feeling that Marc will encourage BOTH girls to create their own unique pumpkins next year! :)

Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend we took the girls (and Giraffey) to the pumpkin patch.  It was a super windy day & unfortunately half of the pictures I took were trashed.  Either Kennedy's hair was completely covering her face or Ashby looked like she was being blown away by a wind gust.  Ha!  But here are some cute ones that I got of my sweet girls.

They had so much fun jumping in the bounce house, going through a hay maze & on a hayride, and picking out the perfect pumpkin.  Unfortunately, we did not realize that the pumpkins were to be purchased by donation (cash only) and we only had a $1.00 on hand, so we had to hold off buying the girls' pumpkins until we had more cash on hand.  Oops!

But we still had a great afternoon together & the girls cannot wait to carve pumpkins this week & go trick-or-treating!

Giraffey the Giraffe

Ashby's preschool class has a class pet.  A {stuffed} giraffe.  The class took a vote on what to name it & Giraffey beat out all of the other suggested names.  Ashby was so disappointed that her suggestion, Rainbow, did not win.  Rainbow the Giraffe has a nice ring to it, don't you think?  Apparently the rest of her class did not agree, so Giraffey the Giraffe it is!

Each weekend a student gets to bring home Giraffey the Giraffe.  Giraffey gets to partake in all of the fun activities that the student does & we (the parent) get to document through pictures & words (with the help of the student) what Giraffey did during their special weekend together.

Last weekend Giraffey made his (or is it a her?) way home with Ashby & here are some fun things they did together!

On Friday night, Giraffey cheered on the home team at the school's Homecoming football game!

On Saturday morning,  Giraffey got family pictures taken in the *freezing* cold!

On Saturday afternoon, Giraffey had fun playing outside with Ashby & loved riding on her bike!

On Sunday, Giraffey had fun going to the Pumpkin Patch & going on a hayride, jumping in the bounce house & picking out a big 'ole pumpkin!

And on Sunday night, Giraffey beat us all in an intense Hello Kitty game!

As you can see, Ashby had a super fun weekend with Giraffey & was very sad to see him go back to school on Monday.  She is already making plans for his next visit and asking when Giraffey gets to come spend the weekend with her again!

Ashby {hearts} Giraffey!

Homecoming Week

Last week was Homecoming Week at the girls' school.  They had a lot of fun things planned for the students & the girls loved all of the activities!  And, of course, not having to wear their uniforms all week!

Monday kicked off Homecoming Week with Patriot Day!  The girls decked out in their red, white & blue!

Tuesday was Screen Icon Day & the girls dressed up as their favorite TV character.  It was also Red Day for the preschoolers as they had firefighters come visit their class!

Wednesday was Sports Team Day, and the girls wore their Seattle Seahawks jerseys with great pride!  Ashby also had a super fun tailgate party with her preschool class.  They enjoyed hot dogs, chips, cookies & a piñata!  To say they had fun would be an understatement.  Ashby was in heaven, as were all of her preschool friends!

Thursday was Future You Day.  Kennedy wanted to be a doctor & Ashby wanted to be a princess.  I should point out that first Ashby wanted to be a Mom because moms don't do that much work.  But she quickly changed her mind & decided to be a princess because they don't have to do any work at all.  Ha!  I'm so glad she has her priorities straight!  Lord help me!!!

Friday was Spirit Day & the girls wore their spirit shirts. They also had a parade & pep rally to get the school ready for the Homecoming game on Friday night.  Ashby was asked to ride in Dr. Harmon's golf cart & Kennedy helped carry their class banner in the parade.  Both girls had so much fun & I loved watching the parade & pep rally.  Go Eagles!

Friday night was the Homecoming game.  We had yet to take the girls to a game as the games don't usually start until 7:00 pm or so, and that is close to the girls bedtime.  But since Ashby was one of the Little Eagles of the week & was going to be announced at the game, we decided to go & stay for part of the game.  And I'm so glad we did!  It was so fun to watch the LCA football team play & dominate their opponents!  And it gets me so excited for when they girls get older & we start going to them regularly!

Such a fun week!!!

October 15th

Today is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Day.  Today I pray for all of the babies that left this world way too soon, for the parents that are grieving with empty arms, and for our sweet baby boy, Jackson Edward, that we lost almost 8 years ago when I was 27 weeks pregnant.

Big Orange Pumpkin Patch

Last week I went with Ashby & her class to a local pumpkin patch. The weather was beautiful & all of the kiddos (and parents) had a great time!  

It was so fun to see Ashby interact with all of her school friends, and to put faces with names of the little girls she is always talking about.  
After we fed the animals, went through the corn maze, on a hayride & ate lunch together, the kids were all able to choose one small pumpkin to take home.  You can see the little pumpkin that Ashby chose, however, she would not pick it up or touch any part of the pumpkin except the stem.  Miss Priss didn't want to get any dirt on her little fingers. She's definitely a girly girl!
The pumpkin patch (and field trip) was super fun & I cannot wait to take Kennedy back there as I know that she would have a blast too!