School picture

AHHHHH! First-ever school picture! I love it; it is so sweet.

We practiced "smiling nicely" the morning of pictures, but of course our silly little girl only wanted to give us goofy smiles and faces. I thought, Well if this is how it goes down, then that's cool too because that will show her true personality. Plus, I will definitely show it at her Senior Open House and at her wedding.

Our self-assured, energetic, comedic, huggable beauty! You can't go wrong with this precious smile!

Happy Halloween!

We happily welcomed the arrival of Halloween on Friday! What we did not happily welcome was the 30mph winds and freezing rain that accompanied it. This was the worst Halloween weather in the history of ever, or at least in my lifetime. Just three days prior it was 60 and sunny! Even just the day before was calm and sunny! The best quote of the night was when we were heading to house #3 and Kayla yells (through the wind and rain), "I think it's SNOWING!" Really, we had to have that weather? Well, the snow didn't last but the rain did. Even Khloe couldn't hold up against the wind and rain and after house #3, while running back to our house, she kept yelling, "I.....can't.....keep......up!" and really she couldn't. Our cupcake almost blew away and by the time she got back home, our cupcake was frozen. Needless to say, inside the foyer was a much safer and warm environment with an endless supply of candy, which is exactly where she stayed the rest of the night.

What were we to do? Not cancel trick-or-treating or getting dressed up that's for sure. A little cocktail for the adults, some candy for the kids, and the misery of the weather seemed to disappear. In fact, we did MORE houses this year than ever before! We hit the whole neighborhood! Each year the girls get faster, stronger and more endurance. Way to go Kayla and Addie! We had a BLAST!!! At least we know now the weather can't possibly get ANY worse than it was this year; hopefully it can only get better.

 After wanting to be a werewolf for the last few months and searching for the perfect costume online, Kayla finally decided on a black kitty. Amen, thank you! This was an EASY and inexpensive costume to put together! Just had to purchase the headband and tail, borrowed the black furry leg warmers, sewed the black furry sweater coat the night before, and voila! A cute black kitty that purrrrrrred her trick-or-treat greeting at each door.

And of course our yummy delicious cupcake!

Thanks to the freezing rain and howling winds, these are the only photos I got of the girls on Halloween night.

 Of course, continuing our seven year tradition, Missy, Addison (errr, Elsa) and Aunt Kristy (not our Aunt Kristi, boo.) joined us for the evening. We've got this Halloween rain thing down! The girls pile into the very back of Missy's SUV while Missy and I drive to points in the neighborhood; we all pile out, run around to a bunch of houses, pile back in and move down the road. The system works! This year there were many, many vehicles doing the same exact thing.

Trick-or-treating (and coming in out of the elements) with the neighborhood girls

Kristi and I planned our coordinated outfit months in advance, but sadly she could not make it home. This threw off everyone in the house because they all kept asking over and over, "When's Kristi coming home?" The answer was "Sadly, she's not this year". You better make it home next year Kridi!

So, I went as a solo Indian Spirit, even wearing Aaron's authentic 1980's Indian Spirit bow. Indigenous peoples are not afraid of a little wind and rain.

 

Post trick-or-treating-warm-up-dry-off dance party at the neighbors and costume change #2. 

It was a super fun night!

Halloween parties

Today was a great day with two back-to-back school Halloween parties packed in! First it was Khloe's preschool trunk-or-treat party and then it was off to Kayla's fall fun fair at Michigamme. Let the festivities begin!

 Kayla off to the fall fun fair at school

 Pretending like she is "scared" of the spider webs

 My little cupcake off to her preschool Halloween party

 Spending time with a group of three year old's in costumes will NEVER get old. Seriously, there is nothing cuter. In fact it is so cute I could cry. I will miss this when Khloe graduates preschool next year! There were lots of Elsa's and Avenger superhero's running around this year.

(Check out the kid in the homemade Optimus Prime costume! It was the best costume ever, and it transformed too!)

Ms Karen - we love you!

 After trunk-or-treating we moved indoors for treats, a parade, and story time

"Oh mom, I love this story, It is so funny."

"See? Wasn't it so funny?"

 Khloe's party wrapped up just in time for me to head over to Michigamme for the fall festival. The school does a great job organizing a fun carnival-like day for all the grades. The kids play carnival games, win plenty of candy and prizes, get faces painted (I did!) and make frosted sugar cookies. 

Thanks Grandma for the kitty costume Halloween shirt to match her black cat costume - she thought that was the greatest!

And I got to join Kayla for lunch too! 

 What happens to a three year old after a HUGE candy high early in the morning? A HUGE candy crash before lunch. That is a picture of ultimate relaxation! I'm with ya Khloe!

Date day

Kayla and Daddy had a bowling date and Khloe and I had a carousel date!

 Khloe was very excited to have a Mommy Daughter date! She wanted to call it a Mommy Baby date though, because she wanted to be the baby. :) I told her we could do whatever she wanted and she choose the carousel and get candy. Okay! We rode the carousel just once - I thought she would want to ride it more - but she was mostly interested in the candy part of the date...

 ... the banana candy :)

My beautiful date!

 Kayla had recently tried bowling in gym class and was very excited to go bowling sometime. She was talking about it at home and since Aaron had just been gone on a 4 day trip and wanted to spend quality time with the girls he suggested we all go bowling, But Kayla wanted nothing to do with Khloe and I; she wanted her Daddy all to herself! She wanted to go on a date! She was SO excited. So just Daddy and Kayla went bowling with the promise that next time the rest of her family would be invited to come along. :) After they bowled three games and Khloe ran out of candy, we all met up at at Thumb Coast for lunch! It was a fun date day!

And then date day was followed up with...

Pumpkin carving night!

Life at three and a half

Preschool morning!

We have a three and a half year old! Life is so not dull and fast-paced and fun and ka-ray-zee with our 3 1/2 year old. I wish I could push pause on this time forever. Although I am stuck sounding like a broken record with my repetitive reminders and reprimands that wear me down by end of each day, I wouldn't trade it for anything. She is like the yummiest piece of candy you will EVER eat! I can't keep my hands off her! She is SO kissable and squishable!

So, a slice of our life with Our Kohkee looks something like this...

- She is obsessed, head-over-heels crazy for candy, chocolate and gum all of the time. She would eat sugar all day long if she could, and she definitely is very persistent about asking all day every day.
- Khloe likes to express her feelings by starting her sentence with "I feel like..". For instance "I feel like I'm not hungry anymore" or "I feel like I really need some candy right now". The best line was the other afternoon when I handed down a strict order while putting her down for her nap: "Khloe, do not to get out of your bed at nap time". She responded by saying, "I feel like I'm going to get out of my bed".
- She is 100% goofy 100% of the time; the sillier the better
- She is fierce and impulsive, confident, not easily intimated and loveable and sweet all at the same time
- She loves to paint; painting happens daily in our house
- Her favorite song is All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor, although she says it as "All about the bait". She asks to listen to it several times a day. She asks for it sung to her at night. Apparently it counts as a lullaby if you whisper it.
- The girl has some amazing dance moves; she dances non-stop!
- Has tendencies towards potty humor (probably gets it from her Dad), as in she likes to use words like "poopy" and "pee-pee" quite often. Recently she announced "No more potty talk. Keep it classy Mommy!"
- She loves primping in the mirror, wearing dresses and skirts, wearing her Disney high heels everywhere, lipstick, and doing her hair. For someone who is not that into details, she sure is concerned about her appearance!
- One of her favorite things to say is "I told you so!" even if it doesn't apply to the situation or she wasn't right in the first place. Her second favorite is "NO FAIR!" I suppose when you are three years younger than your sibling, a lot of things do seem unfair.
- I hear about 273 times a day "Mom! Mom! Watch this!" as she performs yet another gymnastics trick.
- She is obsessed with Tikky. She hunts down/stalks Tikky and plays with her all day long. We often have to put Tikky away just to give Tikky some peace and quiet.
- She is not afraid of much. She gets herself up early every morning and goes downstairs in the pitch dark to get her own breakfast -- all without our help. In fact, she insists on not having our help. Then she'll come upstairs, laughing and say "It was kind of scary down there!" Doesn't stop her though.
- Keeping track of grandparents around here can be kind of tricky so the way she keeps track is by calling them "Grandma with the Lucky Charms" and "Grandpa with the basement". That works! I remember having the same troubles when I was young so I called mine Grandma White and Grandma Black (for the colors of their hair). 
- A favorite make-believe game is pretending that she's the Mommy and I'm the baby. Often I have to remind Kayla and Khloe that I'm the mom; they are not and so I will handle the situation at hand. When Kayla was having a meltdown the other day Khloe said "Mom, can I be the Mom now?" Even after I said "no" she still proceeded to tell Kayla what she should do. Always looking for those moments to be the boss!

Fall fun with friends

 Best neighborhood friends!

Sotoria, Kayla and Layne

Oh, and I think Sebastian sneaked in here too

Seeing double