Beginning to Read

There are so many things I love about this little video.  Ali, sounding out words, Ali guessing at words, Ali's expressions but most of all, I love that she looks to her older sister for confidence, encouragement and approval.  Sisters are the greatest and I'm glad that these two are such great friends! 

Ali good job at reading - it is such an exciting adventure!!

Halloween 2013

Look at that - the day after the actual holiday!  I'm finally caught up on the blog!  Hooray!  We've had an eventful week and lot's of fun.  Our friends threw a chili cook-off and fall festival get together last Friday night.  They even had hay rides all set up.  It was pretty much a ward function - and we were all bundled up!  (I'm in the pink hat, Caleb is on my lap and the 3 girls are around me!)  I think it was a warm 38 degree's that evening.  But - we live in the North East - and that is NOT cold enough to host most of the party indoors.

 The next night was the ward trunk or treat.  One thing that I'm not sure is unique to our ward, or just to the New England way - but our activities last only an hour...on the dot.  It's like there's this silent alarm 50 minutes into the event and someone starts cleaning up and people are leaving right on the hour.  It's definitely something to get used to. 

 Andie wanted to be a pink and blue butterfly this year.  I found the PERFECT colored wings at Walmart, but she thought people would think she was a fairy...so I made cardboard butterfly wings, having all the paint and cardboard in stock - so it was free! 

 We also had bat girl, belle and our little orange M&M.  We invited a friend from Andie's school class to come with us.  We had them over for dinner beforehand and then went to the church.  They moved her last year from England and had never heard of a trunk or treat.  It was fun to have them join us!

 Those from my old ward might be impressed....I actually decorated our trunk as a fishing pond and had a sign that said, "Fish or Treat"  Yep....moving up in the world of my creativity. (haha)

 Halloween morning, I made pumpkin/ghost pancakes.  Orange for pumpkins, chocolate chips to make a ghost faces.

 Belle got all ready again for the girls parties at their school.  She has the perfect color and length of hair to be Belle this year.  Don't be surprised if a few posts from now, Belle has a new hair cut.  We have been waiting for after Halloween.

 Here is the group again, after school before going out in the rain to visit a few neighbor's for trick or treating.  I am Andie's room parent and so I organized her Halloween class party.  We did pumpkin bowling, pom/pom races, face painting and Halloween "Boo-go" (Bingo).  I had food assignments out and I think there were more parents then kids in the classroom.  I felt like we had a lot of fun things planned and it was okay.  We started 10 minutes earlier than planned, so I felt like the time was dragging on, and the kids were bored.  It didn't feel very organized compared to Ali's class party - but oh well.  I have a better idea of what to do for the Holiday party in December.  If anything, little Belle enjoyed wondering around, eating all the food and leaving the classroom to get lost and brought back to me.  Maybe being a room parent with 2 little ones tagging along wasn't such a good idea.

 After school, we went to Shawn's classes and went trick or treating - only we took the bucket of candy to his students and shared with them.  They enjoyed seeing the kids dressed up.  As we were walking from one class to the next, across campus, Ali was holding the halloween bucket of candy and yelling, "Say Trick or Treat and I'll give you some candy"  A few people caught on and she would give them come candy.  It was fun to brighten up their day!

 It was raining by the time Shawn was done with class and we were headed home for dinner.  We snapped a few pictures, visited 10-12 houses, ate pizza and called it a night.

 Of course, all while striking a few poses.

Happy Halloween everyone!  Hope it was safe and fun!