HALLOWEEN

I'm stirring and stirring and stirring my brew. Ooohhh, oooohhh. I'm stirring and stirring and stirring my brew. Ooohhh, ooohhh. Tip toe, tip toe, tip toe, BOO! Three witches haunted our house on Halloween (and the night before at the Trunk-or-Treat). We had a pink witch, an orange witch, and a purple witch. I wish this picture showed the costumes better. Isabelle has on bright pink tights and a pink belt and Eva has on orange and black stripped leggings and they both have awesome dresses and capes (that I made myself).

Daddy and Jack decided not to join with the theme and opted instead to dress as a fireman and a soccer player (he's been looking for a reason to wear this jersey since he got home from his mission). We all had fun and brought home loads of treats. Happy Halloween!

Storybook Character Dress-up Day

No Halloween costumes were allowed at school but on Friday (Oct. 30th) the kids were allowed to dress-up as a favorite storybook character (had to be a book first if it was also a movie). And they had to bring the book with them to school.

Jack decided to be Max from the Max and Tiny books. He looked fabulous despite the fact that he has too much hair to make it all stand up straight.

Isabelle has been reading the American Girls books and picked Kit Kittredge to dress as. She, too, looked fabulous. And we didn't have to buy anything!

Belle's 6th Birthday

Belle had an awesome birthday whose celebrations spanned almost 10 days! To start with, on Friday Oct 23rd she had a GNO (Girls' Night Out) with 3 friends. Allison Greenwood, from her primary class, Kacie Padovich, a long time friend, and Kailey Choi, who is in Belle's class at school and lives on our street. Dad took Jack to the YMCA so that it was just us girls at home, we had cheese pizza, Belle's favorite, and some cupcakes while we watched the Hannah Montana movie, also Belle's favorite. The girls all had a blast and when the movie finished they taught each other cool dance moves and did cartwheels 'til they were dizzy. This was the simplest and best birthday party ever. Unfourtunately I forgot to take pictures of the event. Oops!

The following Wednesday, her class celebrated her birthday (the teacher was scheduled to miss the actual birthday so they did it early) and she received a book from Ms. Conine. Then on Thursday (29th, actual birthday) Jack, Eva and I had lunch with her at school and brought her a bouquet of flowers, she got to be on the announcements with the principal in the morning, she wore a birthday hat all day, and she had an overall fantastic day. Her friend Kacie came over to give her a present (Miley Cyrus t-shirt) in the evening and we opened all her gifts. Jewelry was the theme, and Christopher and I gave her a new jewerly box to keep it all in.

The best gift was a locket with pictures of Christopher and I that she loves (we watched A Little Princess recently and she fell in love with the idea of the locket which went perfectly with our theme for her birthday very conveniently). She says her locket holds hugs and every time she needs a hug she can just hug the locket and know that it's really a hug from us. After presents we went to CiCi's for some pizza, and since it's a buffet and they have dessert we put off cake until Sunday.

Sunday my cousins Daniel and Kat Herring came over for dinner and brought yet another present, Tinkerbell. Then we all enjoyed some Angel Food Cake with whipped cream and strawberries. Isabelle's not a big fan of icing on cakes so I was more than thrilled to introduce her to my favorie birthday treat. And it was yummy!