October 2013 Summary

Ok I have decided that I really need to catch up with all of 2013 so I can get my blog book printed for the year. I am already about 4 months into the new year and still haven't written anything about Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. Pretty sad. So here it goes....

Every Fall we love to take a trip to the pumpkin patch. This year we attempted to do that and go through the corn maze too, but it didn't quite work out. It was too dark and late at night by the time we got there and we didn't want to risk having tired and scared kids to carry through the mud all night. However we did get a nice family picture out of the trip (courtesy of "uncle" Ben May) and enjoyed walking through the Dark 3D harvest display.

Our pumpkins may not have come from the patch this year, but at least we got to carve some still. I just ended up picking some up at the grocery store. We had "uncle" Ben and "aunt" Kara over for the fun too. The kids really like the roasted pumpkin seeds this year too. I don't think they lasted the night.

The Jack-o-lanturns turned out pretty fun too. From Left to Right:  Dan's Pumpkin Jack, Ethan's Pirate, Brittany's Spider, Kiera's vampire, and Emma's ghost.

We also had an Adult Only Halloween party one night. We had a costume contest with prizes and ate homemade chili with some other potluck goodies. We played "Minute to Win It" games and had a really good time. We had about 4 couples show up and it was a lot of fun. We hope to be able to do this yearly.

 

From left to right: Ben and Kara May, Dan and Brittany (us), Lauren and Paul Hansen, Sam and Steve Rushton, and Kristen and Nathan Frogner.

 

 Halloween night we met up with a couple of our friends from our ward and went trick or treating around our neighborhood. Emma lasted a lot longer than I had suspected! She and I came home just a little earlier than everyone else so Dan and the kids could finish up their candy collecting.

Here's our Harry Potter crew. Mommy as Professor Trelawney (loved the glasses), Dad as Hagrid (pink umbrella and all), Ethan as Harry Potter, Kiera as Hermonie, and Emma as Luna Lovegood (although she is dressed up in the wrong house colors. Didn't have time or fabric to make a "Ravenclaw" scarf and badge).

Trip to Disney!

Towards the end of October we had a fabulous family vacation to California! We even got to have Grandma and Grandpa Glenn along for the ride. It was so nice having them there with us too!
We went to SeaWorld, Lego Land and Disney Land. It was so much fun and we made lots of fun memories.

Before the trip I made t-shirts for everyone to wear on one of the day we were at Disney Land and for the second day we bought costumes for each of the kids from the Disney store. We had to borrow one suitcase from our friends Ben and Kara May and I also personalized one of the suitcases I picked up from Goodwill so it would be more Kiera friendly. It was so nice to have an individual suitcase for everyone and for this trip I put each of the kids outfits for the day (including underwear and sock) in a gallon sized ziploc bag. This saved on any confusion in the mornings and kept the suitcases nice and organized. The ziploc bags were also great for putting wet swimsuits in when changing hotels part way through the trip and were good for carrying our own snacks into the parks.

 And now for the photo heavy portion of the post...We had so much fun!

On the Airplane on our way to CA!

On the shuttle bus to go pick up our rental van

We went and saw the pets show at SeaWorld and afterwards they brought some of the animals out for the kids to pet.

Shamu Show. The Largest Crowd of the entire park!

We had to break up our trip a bit and instead of doing Sea World, then Lego Land with 2 Days of Disney at the end, we went to Sea World then Disney for 1 Day and then Lego Land and back to Disney Land. We didn't notice when planning the trip that the day we had planned for Lego Land the park was closed! oops. Oh well it actually ended up working out nicely and broke it up in such a way that the kids didn't get tired of the same thing 2 days in a row.

No better start to our Disney Trip than with the Tiki Room! This also ended up being the last thing we did before leaving on our last day there too. The Pineapple Whip was yummy too!

One of the big highlights were the princesses. Emma actually dressed up like Princess Tiana on our last day there so it was fun for her to see the matching princess.

Moments like this made me cry.

The girls finding all the hidden fairies while we waited in line to see our most anticipated Character "Tinker Bell" in Pixie Hollow.

The BEST character meeting of the entire trip! I was teary eyed the whole time watching the kids excitement. Worth EVERY minute of that long wait!

Emma driving our car in Radiator Springs

Having Grandma and Grandpa Glenn there was the greatest! It was so nice to have the extra 2 sets of eyes and was great to be able to take the other two on rides Emma couldn't go on. I was able to go on a ride or two with Dan that none of the kids wanted to go on as well. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

A gorgeous sunset view from the Airplane on our way home. What a great ending to an amazing trip! Hope to do it again in the future!

I Officially Became a Soccer Mom

This past October (WOW I AM SOO BEHIND!) Kiera and Ethan were signed up to play soccer through our local Boy and Girls Club. It was a lot of fun for them. They got their own soccer cleats, and shin guards, They got their own jerseys and even got Medallions at the end of the season. Emma and I spend many an evening rushing to the soccer fields before dinner time sitting in the rain on our camping chairs and watching the kids practice. And Saturdays were spent watching their games. The kids enjoyed it all and it was good family time activity.

I packed the car with umbrellas, raincoats, snacks and waterbottles, and our trunk permanently became "soccerfied." And ya know I loved it all!

I really enjoy watching my kids play. It doesn't matter if their team wins or looses. What matters is that they try their best and have fun. And there is a certain joy that comes from watching my kids play that I can't really explain. I am just one proud soccermama! I hope they'll want to do it again this next fall.