Happy Halloween!

Ah, the holidays! I am so enjoying the beginning of this holiday season and we loved Halloween! Ali and Logan carved their own pumpkins this year! They're all getting so big!

Cutest trick-or-treaters ever! Ali wore the same Statue of Liberty costume my mom made for me when I was little! As cute as Eli's ghost costume was it was terribly impractical so he only wore it for a couple of houses trick-or-treating and at zero Halloween parties, but being the lover of dressing up he is he didn't mind being a vampire at school, a storm trooper at the ward party and part two of trick-or-treating, and Yoda at our family party. Logan picked out his costume back in September and looked awesome!

Jake enjoyed a two hour nap while the kids trick-or-treated and humored me with a smile for the two minutes I made him wear this while they were gone.

Happy Halloween!

Sitting Practice

We've been practicing sitting. He's still not very good at it, but I'm hoping he'll get it down soon.

And every one of his milestones are encouraged and cheered for by his devoted fans!

Halloween Party

We had our second annual kids' halloween party last Friday, and it was a hit! Eli got to help with some of the food prep.

Here's most of what I made: cupcakes with worms or candy corn, mummy and skeleton gingerbread cookies, jello-mold ghosts and pumpkins, bone bread sticks, mummy hot dogs, tombstone quesadillas, and pumpkin cheeses. There was also punch and spiderweb pizza. 

We had 25 kids here! It was quite a bit wilder than last year, but everyone had a great time and my kids were all super cute with their gratitude and helping clean up when it was over. Family memories and fun traditions? Check and check!

Happy Birthday Eli!

Eli turned five! He is such a cheerful, helpful, easy-going, happy boy and I love him to pieces!

The day before his birthday he got to celebrate in school by making this poster (favorite color: dark green, favorite food: calzones and mac and cheese, favorite thing about himself: "my hands, because they can pick up things"), bringing in a toy (legos, of course), and "reading" the class one of his favorite books (he has it memorized).

For his party we had a Scooby Doo theme. He was super pleased with his super simple bone cake: 

And had a great time with all his buddies, which was pretty much the same group as last year. We had lunch, played pin the bone on Scooby, had a ghost relay (potato sack race with white pillow cases), a ghost tag game, a pinata, presents, and play time!

A week later we had another celebration at Aunt Amy's to celebrate both his and my birthdays. I love getting to celebrate my birthday with my favorite Eli!

Bow Tie Buddies

The young men in our ward often wear bow ties, and my fashion-conscious Logan really wished he had one (sometimes he would wear the St. Patrick's Day one we have), so I finally bought a couple, I have to say, they did look dashing!

Real Life

OK, let's be real. This is how Jake looks often; Eli calls it his "throw up beard." Nice. At least he usually has a smile on his face!

Reading Spot

The tree climbing continued once the kids got home from the camp out with their dad, and our tree has become a great reading spot.