A Happy Halloween Party!

We had Katelee's Halloween party yesterday, and it was a GREAT success! Katelee had a fabulous time, and so did all her friends. Since we are not trick-or-treating this year (Halloween is on Sunday), we decided to have a party instead. This, combined with our ward party/trunk-or-treat, made for a very fun, very busy holiday!

The party guests.

(Minus those few who left early.)

The party decorations.

The party entrance.

The pumpkin patch.

We took turns picking a 'pumpkin' and on the back was written a game or activity to do!

The mummy cake.

The activities.

We did a Halloween craft,

went ghost bowling,

played 'pin-the-eyes on the bat,'

had a 'ghost hunt,' (like an easter egg hunt but with paper ghosts),

played 'freeze dance' to Thriller,

played musical tombstones (like musical chairs),

and watched Little Bear's Halloween.

The kids loved the cake.

We had so much fun!

Thank you friends!

And Happy Halloween to you all!

Katelee's Halloween Costumes

No, that's not a typo. Katelee had more than one costume this year.

Or, in another sense, she didn't really have a costume this year. :)

This girl owns so many dress-ups that we didn't buy her anything new. She originally decided she wanted to be Jessie from Toy Story, which was perfect because we had everything we needed for that costume at home.

In the end, she wanted to be something different for every one of our Halloween events. And since we hadn't spent any money on the costumes, we didn't care!

So here is Katelee, dressed as...........

Jessie the Cowgirl! (For her preschool Halloween party!)

Sleeping Beauty! (For our friend's Halloween party!)

Tinkerbell! (For her own Halloween party!)

A Ballerina! (For our ward Trunk-or-Treat!)

In the costume parade.

Thank goodness for a trunk full of dress-ups.

P.S. Isn't that 'ballerina' pose that Katelee came up with classic?

For Sale

Sad, but true. We've loved our Nissan Altima, but it's time for it to find a new home. If you know of anyone looking for a great car - send them our way!

2004 Nissan Altima 2.5 S

Automatic

Mileage: 79000

$8200

Pumpkin Carving

I'm not a big fan of pumpkin carving.

Too messy. Takes too long. Too much work. And then the pumpkin dies.

But this year, Gerald and Katelee carved her pumpkin patch pumpkin in about 30 minutes with very little mess. So maybe I'm changing my mind about pumpkin carving. :)

This is Katelee's design for her jack-o-lantern's face:

The most important things in this design being LOTS of eyelashes and a big smile.

Getting to work.

Gerald is a serious pumpkin carver, as you can tell by his face. He always does a great job!

Katelee thought the pumpkin guts were soooo gross.

But she was still having a ball!

The finished jack-o-lantern! My favorite part is the eyelashes.

Have a happy Halloween!

We're Planning a Party!

Because Halloween is on Sunday, and that's lame.

Because throwing a party is soooooo fun to do!

Because we love extra reasons to wear our costumes.

And because we love friends.

Katelee and I have decided to throw a Halloween party this year!

First, we made a guest list. Katelee chose her closest friends to invite.

Then Katelee and I handmade her invitations.

Didn't they turn out so cute?

Katelee did all the coloring herself.

Inside the invitation we wrote our own poem to invite the friends to our party. Katelee totally helped write the poem. The poem goes like this:

Trick or Treat!

Smell my Feet!

Come to my HALLOWEEN party,

It will be sweet!

Your costume you should wear,

If you DARE!

We'll play games, watch a movie

and have treats to share!

After all the info, such as date and time and so forth, we listed the RSVP information, and asked people to RSVP. Under that we wrote:

If you don't,

We don't care!

Come anyway,

We want you there!

Katelee has the poem memorized and enjoys singing it around the house these days. :)

This past week we delivered all the invitations. Katelee had a great time taking them to her friend's houses and inviting them each to her party.

Next week, we'll post pictures of the party - we hope it's great!

Family Fall Farm Fun!

A couple of weekends ago, we went to the Fall Festival at the local farm. :)

We had a complete blast!

It was a perfect crisp, sunny fall day.

We actually had several groups of people we planned on meeting up with while we were there. First, we went with our FSA (Families Supporting Adoption) friends, which is always a ton of fun! Then, we also met up with Geoff & Bonnie and Bonnie's family for awhile. Finally, our friends the Macks and Hansens were also there, and we couldn't miss out on hanging out with them for awhile, too. In short, it was a great day of friends, family, and fall fun!

The FSA kids all lined up to watch the apple peeling.

Sampling the grape ketchup - blech!

Looking at the farm animals. Katelee wasn't quite so scared of the cows this time. :)

We played many pioneer farm games, which was a blast.

Some of our favorites were the running hoop:

Sack races,
and walking stilts.

(Gerald was a pro!)
(We girls need more practice!)We also visited the pumpkin patch!
Where Katelee went on a search for the perfect pumpkin.FOUND IT!

Fall is fabulous.