It's Halloween!

We were almost ready for it to be over before it even arrived. Oh, Halloween. We look forward to you alllllll year - we prep our costumes for months, we carve pumpkins, we had Kayla's Fun Fall Festival at school, we had trunk-or-treat - so we were over it. But, we hung in there for round two tonight, and it didn't disappoint.

The story for this year was the wind and the off-and-on rain. Didn't you know that Halloween spelled backwards spells "wicked rain and wind"? It does. It seems we can't have one without the other. The ironic thing is, yesterday was so warm and sunny and beautiful. Is it too much to ask for yesterday's weather today?!?! Today was overcast and very windy. At least the power didn't go out this year! Bonus! We didn't need coats this year! Bonus! And the rain held off for most of the night so we didn't need umbrellas, so that was also a bonus. And, due to the girls being older this year, we covered more ground than ever before - almost the entire neighborhood! Woohoo! After Kayla's bag weighed about 15lbs and Khloe had retreated to the front porch with the boys to hand out (i.e eat) candy, and we were wet enough, the girls and some neighbor friends crashed on the couch to dry off, relax and watch tv, and eat candy. 

Halloween in BFE is no small event - it takes weeks to plan and organize the night long party! Glad we have such great fun friends and neighbors to celebrate it with!

 Beautiful ice princess

Here's how we trick-or-treat'd - in and out of Melissa's car! You can cover more ground in a spread out neighborhood in the wind this way!

 Not to be left out of the action!

Work it, work it! Left knee, right knee! Higher, higher!
80's workout instructors

 Best. Minion. Ever.

Aaron's front porch wet bar

And in memory of our long lost neighbor...Heisneberg

Lost

FINALLY! This moment has been in the making for a month. Kayla was hoping that she would've lost this tooth by the time Cassidy was here; I thought there was a very good chance of it, but here we are weeks later and it just now came out. In fact, we had our family pictures on Tuesday night and the tooth was sooooo loose. I told her "that cannot come out until after 5:00!" Sure enough, five minutes after pictures ended, the tooth came out. Not without anxiety from Kayla though; she knew that when a tooth comes out there is bleeding, but because the tooth was soooo loose for soooo long there was no blood.

Aaron kept saying, "I don't want this to happen". I know his feeling, it means she's growing up. And not a little girl anymore. But she's SO happy! And we think it looks cute!

And so, here you have it. The tooth fairy left her three dollars in her tooth fairy pillow! The tooth beside it is super loose... and so the tooth fairy is about to become broke.

Glowing pumpkins

Okay Halloween, we're ready for you!

Kayla's pumpkin at top and Khloe's pumpkin. For some reason, they both wanted sad faces. Not sure why!!

This was Khloe's first pumpkin carving experience, and she was totally grossed out by the pumpkin guts so much that she cried. She wanted nothing to do with it and watched from afar. She came and stood by me making a sad face.

Kayla imitating Khloe

 When given the choice to carve a happy, funny, silly or sad face, Khloe choose 'sad' face. This is her pumpkin! 

 Mommy's silly pumpkin

Daddy's Heisen-pumpkin

Kayla said "Daddy, I don't get it" and I responded "Don't worry honey, no one does". 

Trunk or Treat

Today was our Trunk or Treat event at church. It was kind of like practice for Halloween! Addie had a sleepover with Kayla last night so we took her and Melissa along too!

In case you want to know about Kayla's costume, she wrote about it in school this week: For Halloween I am going to be a Ice Princess. It is very sprcling and shiney. I think it is very budafle. It is very soft on the shirt part but it did not come with the kape or the necles or the wond but we can make it!

Could you figure all that out?? She's right, we did make the cape, the necklace and the wand to match the dress we bought!

Our very own Ice Princess

Our very own Minion

I can't get enough of this minion! Everyone kept commenting on the minion costume, they loved it!

All three girls

 One of the "trunks" was Despicable Me. Khloe fit right in! Of course we had to get her picture with the other minions and Dr. Nefario.

Khloe was so in awe of the fact that you could hold a bucket out and candy would get dropped into it! She was so excited. The first piece went in and she immediately ate it. She knew exactly what to do to keep the candy flowing into her pumpkin. After awhile her pumpkin got heavy and she just settled for eating the candy instead. I think we're ready for Halloween!

Yup, sounds about right

Half birthday

Wow Koh-lee! It just occurred to us this weekend that your half birthday was on Saturday! How did you spend your half birthday? Well, if I had realized it was your special day, we might have celebrated more ceremoniously, but instead you did some of your favorite things, which is the way you'd want it anyways I guess.

Playing on my iPad (You sure do know how to make yourself cozy! Pillow, blanket and a fire!)

Painting a project

We call you Khloe, you call yourself Kol-lee.

Your life motto's are: Life's more fun and interesting if you act first, think second; and Where's the party?

The irony about you turning two and a half is that in your mind you're already four. You have no idea you're not two! And I"m not sure who is going to break that news to you. Even if someone did have the nerve to tell you this, you wouldn't believe them anyways. You insist on doing everything Kayla does, going everywhere Kayla goes, eating everything Kayla eats, you get the picture. Kayla goes outside to play with her friends, well you go outside too. Kayla rides her bike to her friends home, so do you. If Kayla's sitting on the driveway with her friends, there you are right in the middle of it all. Nothing gets by you, I mean nothing. You make sure not to get left out of or miss a n y t h i n g. This is your full time job. You have no concept that you are the "little sister".

Speaking of little, this is no indication of how rough you can play. There are many times that you and Kayla are goofing around and Kayla ends up crying and you end up apologizing. I even caught myself saying once, "Khloe, be careful with your sister" and then laughed to myself. You're two, and she's six!  You've been known to hurt your Dad and I too. We're certain that roller derby, soccer and field hockey are in your future.There's not much that holds you back!

You are not easily intimidated. Kayla's older friends, new situations, new foods, don't intimidate you. You jump right in... to anything! You have no problem looking directly into our eyes and telling us "DO NOT" if you don't like something we're doing.

You've turned into quite the little crafter lately. You love to paint especially, but you're open to any type of craft and will sit for any length of time it takes to create one. This comes from me.

You have an advanced sense of comedic instinct. You are such a ham! You like to make silly faces, you like to make people laugh with your jokes and general silliness. You like to trick us with pranks. You like to make up stories just to be funny and tease us. I swear, this all comes from your Dad.

You have an advanced sense of risk taking. This has put us in severe heart attack range several times. The most daring was when you climbed on the outside ledge of the stairway all the way to the top. Yes, the very tip top. Hanging on the outside of the railing. Perched on a tiny ledge. Talk about heart attack! You suffered some serious repercussions for that one, especially since that was not the first time you tried that stunt!

You insist on doing things by yourself. "I DO IT!" or "HOW 'BOUT ME!" are what you like to tell us or Kayla if we try and help you with something. You and Kayla both had this sense of independence at this age. You can insist on brushing your teeth by yourself, washing your hands, getting dressed, getting your own drink of water, putting on your shoes, even changing your own diaper, and the list goes on.

Playing outside is synonymous with popsicle. You can't have one without the other.

Your transition to your big girl bed has been seamless! I thought for sure that we were opening up a can of worms that we would regret since you were doing so well in your crib, but you are doing great in your big girl bed - you sleep through the night, you don't get out of bed, you often sleep with three or more blankets piled around you, two or more babies, always your Strawberry Shortcake book and sometimes a pair of shoes. Ha, don't ask me why! Since you went into your big girl bed three weeks ago, you have slept on the futon in the office, with Kayla at Grandma's house and Kayla has slept with you in your bed twice. You're a pro.

You love Strawberry Shortcake, gymnastics, playing outside, riding bikes, and your "slippin sluppin" pajamas (the footed ones so you can slide on the kitchen floor!). We'd take more mini versions of you in a heartbeat Koh-lee! Happy two and a half years of life! Thanks for keeping us on our toes and keeping us laughing!

Cinderella

It was a fun afternoon of taking our friends to the ballet production of Cinderella at McMorran Theatre. Kayla asked "Why aren't they talking?" and Addie asked "When this is over are they going to do it again but with words?" Haha! That's why I take Kayla to all types of productions, to introduce her to new types of theater. It was double the fun since Molly was in the show too! She was one of the little blue birds.

 All seven of us out to lunch first at Quay Street

 Best 1st grade friends! Madison, Addison and Marissa

 All of the kids in the audience were invited up on stage at the start of the show

 The cast, and Cinderella and the Prince

First family bike ride

 Kayla's with us, just her usual 50 yards in front of us "racing" to the next destination.

 Can this really be happening? All four of us each on our own bike? Together? At the same time? What a special BIG moment! Khloe just LOVES her Dora bike and insists on spending 75% of her day riding it. Just mention the word "bike ride" and Khloe yells in excitement, jumping up and down, "I ride my Dora bike mom!" making sure I know that she is NOT riding in the bike trailer. I think our bike trailer might be a thing of the past. I'll never get Khloe in that again I was thinking as I unhooked it from my bike for the first time in over a year. Sigh....And just like that, one chapter closes and another one begins.

Orchard time

We wrapped up our vacation with the Jensen's with a trip to the apple orchard. We looked at the weather forecast and picked what we thought would be the nicest day. So Tuesday morning, after Khloe's gymnastics, we packed up all the kids - and Grandpa - and visited an orchard we had not been to before, Blake's Orchard and Cider Mill. We lucked out with the most perfect day! Bright blue skies, warm sun, cool air - beautiful! Days like that in October make me so happy! And what's better, we were on vacation with our family!

 Matching birthday outfits! Even Travis wasn't left out of the coordinating fox outfits.

(Cassidy thought the sun was too bright!)

 To purchase one of these large pumpkins will only set you back 30 bucks.

They had these silly animated characters in various spots throughout the property, playing instruments and singing (think Showbiz Pizza or Chuck E Cheese). The kids didn't know what to think about them; the adults just thought they were creepy.

 There were so many fun activities to do at Blake's; the kids had a ball. And at $8/ person, I'm glad we got our money's worth of activities and fun. What was supposed to be a quick 1.5 hour visit turned into 3!

 A straw climbing mountain. I want one of these in our backyard. This was the smaller of the two climbing mountains, you can see the much taller one in the background. 

 There was playground after playground after playground, it went on and on. Each time we tried to move the kids on to the next activity, they'd say "Awwwwwww! But we want to (fill in the black with:) swing/play/ride/climb/bounce more!"

 The John Deere race track was a riot. These bikes? off road vehicles? dune buggies? were so fun. The seats on them were adjustable so Aaron could ride it, I could and even Kayla could. The track was hilly, rocky and bumpy, making it even that more challenging, and exhausting! I didn't know it was going to be such hard work! This would be awesome to have in our backyard. Aaron's already thinking of a way to construct his own.

 Aaron and Kayla racing. I could barely pull Aaron away from this race track.

 Kayla taking the easy way around, on Daddy's lap

And there was a pint-sized tricycle derby race track too. 

 They had a very large and very nice petting farm area. The girls got a kick out of seeing sheep, goats, horses, rabbits, calves, a donkey, baby chicks, ducks, baby pigs, and peacocks, which is what Khloe is checking out.

 Next was this awesome jumpy pillow, or bouncy. It was so fun! I want one of these in our backyard. How could you not? This was definitely hard to pull the kids (and me) away from! (Hey, check out at the air I'm getting!)

 The fun just doesn't stop! Next up was the train ride. It was a relaxing ride through the orchards and around the property. Another 30 seconds on the train and Travis would've been asleep.

 Just take a look at the size of their pick-your-own pumpkin patch! And this was wasn't the only field of them!

 After Sarah and the kids and Grandpa headed home, we stuck around to pick apples and raspberries. 

 Kayla did a great job of picking raspberries and filling her container. Khloe, on the other hand, not so much...

After 20 minutes of picking and filling their containers with equal amounts of raspberries, this is what was left! Hmmmmmm Khloe, what happened to all those raspberries???