HappY HalloweeN

A Sweet Day

Aren't sugar cookies the best? Especially, thick, soft, frosted sugar cookies with sprinkles. They're absolutely heavenly in my book. I love making them for any occasion, so to mark another Halloween Melissa and I made some and let 6 goofy kids decorate them.

(side note: it was snowing when I took this picture)

First, we had to feed those goofy kids lunch. To counter act the sugar overload they were going to be on later, we feed them a nutritious lunch - mummy dogs, mac & cheese and pirate veggies. Ha!

They could hardly wait for the announcement that it was cookie decorating time. We passed out 2 cookies, 4 different colors of frosting, sprinkles, chocolate chips and candy corn to each kid and told them to make one really good for Jason to judge.

Here's the awards they received
Most Festive - Ryan

Most Gross - Ashlynn
Most Classic - Kennedy

The Battiest - Abigail

The Most Sugarful - Luke

And The Happy Pumpkin Award went to - Cody

To end their fun together Melissa surprised the kids with 3D chalk. That kept them busy while we finished decorating the other 40 some cookies and cleaned up the mess left behind from our afternoon of fun.

I hope if you asked the kids about their day they'd say, "it was one sweet day!"

Costume Parade and Party

Ashlynn, aka go-go dancer, and I went to Abigail's school for her costume parade and party. The kids looked so adorable all dressed up. Here's Abigail with her friends, Kennedy and Jaclyn. I just have to say, I think Abigail is stinkin' cute as a pirate.

After the classes paraded up and down the hall, it was time for the class party. Last week, the kids had all brought in pumpkins for pumpkin math. (Abigail's was the smallest and she reminds me of that everyday. They did a graph of all the pumpkins weights and Abigail's was under a pound.) At their party they got to decorate their pumpkins to take back home, decorated a sugar cookie, make a spider and play bingo. There was even enough of everything that Ash got to participate and go to all the stations with Abigail.

While we were cleaning up, their reading buddies, a 5th grade class, all came in to see the kids dressed up. I love that the first graders have older friends/reading buddies that take a part in their learning. Abigail talks about her reading buddy, Riley, all the time. I was happy to meet her. Abigail looks up to this big kid and is excited when she gets to see her. I also think it's important that these older kids are there to help with the younger ones, it impresses an importance of community among the kids. I am a big fan of the program. With two classes now all in the same room, at the end of the day, with kids trying to gather all their stuff to take home, it was very chaotic, to say the least.

Mrs Brilz was able to get them all back in order and out the door in an orderly fashion. Teachers are truly amazing.

Tomorrow, we have another *sweet* day planned. Halloween sugar cookies, purple and orange frosting, sprinkles galore ... I can't wait.

A Walk

... in the rain.

After dinner, we usually take Jakers for a walk.

Last night we still went, despite the rain. Jake loved it. And the girls, I think they loved it more.

Water plus my girls always equals drenched. If the rain and splashes through the gutters didn't get them that way, lying down in the huge puddle sure did.

Oh how they make me smile and the cup of hot cocoa and whip cream, when we got back home, made them.

Pumpkins

Pumpkin Patch - check

We've made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch last week. The girls were so, so excited to go. It took some convincing to get out the door but I knew once we got there, they'd have fun. And, this mom was right, the girls loved it.

We feed the animals.
Took a hayride.
Picked pumpkins.
Bought mini doughnuts.
And, enjoyed our afternoon hanging out together.

Now our pumpkin family is sitting at the front door, greeting all those who stop by. I found these cute stencils and think it's the perfect theme for our pumpkins this year. Can't wait to get them carved.

Happy Harvesting!

Mental Pictures

Did you watch the big wedding on the office? Wasn't it funny! Anyways, Pam told Jim that they should take mental pictures of the high points since everything about weddings goes by so fast. It was hilarious to see them, throughout the chaos, taking mental pictures of each other.

With Jason home last week, I knew it'd fly by, but I made sure to take mental pictures of our time together.

Here they are...

• Making pumpkin cookies with the girls on rainy Tuesday afternoon. The girls sat on their bar stool asking if it was their turn to add the ingredient. Jason was at the kitchen table hanging out with us, his girls. Jake snuggled up on his blanket right there too.
• Abigail learning to ride the motorcycle ... she's shifting gears, turning around, and going up and down the curb.
• Jason dancing with the girls to the music at the end of a movie. My band teacher use to say, the best part of a movie is the end when all the music plays during the credits. I think he's right.
• Seeing how excited Jake got when Jason called him into the garage and told him they were going hunting. Seriously, Jake didn't even come to me to be loved on, he ran right over to Jason to get in the truck.
• Finding Abigail in a sea of 1st graders, seeing her jump out of line, waving at me and calling me over. I felt so loved in that moment.
• Jason playing BrainSurge with the girls, the winner gets mom to put them to bed.
• Cuddling with my girls on the couch, early in the morning.
• Abigail talking to Pastor Cook about getting baptized.
• Walking Abigail into her new decorated room.
• I want to remember the many time I thought, throughout the week, I have the best husband in the world.

Ducky Weekend

With October 10th being opening day of Duck season, our weekend became very ducky.

My dad, Clay, Jason and Jake came home Saturday with 14 ducks. Jason said it was a great day and that he was so proud of Jake. We originally weren't going to have Jake go, he's still so young, isn't marking nor use to retrieving ducks but Jason was glad he took him. Like my dad said, "what better way to get him trained then to take him out to do the real thing." When it was time to retrieve the ducks Jake did a great job "hunting em up". He found many that Jason walked past and couldn't see in all the brush, but Jake sniffed them out and would get all excited when he found one. Jason said Jake was one happy dog and loved being out there. He got right out there and started to work. I was so excited to hear it went well. I was an anxious momma sitting at home waiting for the phone call to hear about his first hunting trip. To think, he got it, he knew what he was looking for ... ducks. He still has a lot of training to go, but man oh man, we're proud of him.

Sunday, Jason went again but left Jake at home (since two other dogs were going to be there). Jason called again that afternoon and said it was another great day of hunting. He got 2 more ducks and was excited to bring them home to use for training Jake. When Jason got home Jake was so excited, he liked the birds but was still wasn't picking them up.

No worries, today he did it! He's retrieving them.