Halloween 2012!

We had good times in October with Cole's Annual Halloween/Birthday Party.  We love this party so much more than he does and likely next year we will just call it our Halloween Party.  We ended up throwing him a second party for just his school friends, pics to follow.

Anyhoo...as always, I decorate the house up, theme up the food and require all in attendance to be in costume.  Love how everyone is always a great sport about it!

Here are a few highlights from 2012's party...pictures only as I don't really remember any good commentary from October. ;)

Awesome costumes...didn't get pics of everyone in the photo booth. Bummer!

 

The next day the kids had a birthday party to go to that was also a Halloween costume party, so they decided to go with a super hero theme!

Then we geared up for official Trick-or-Treating on the big night.  This is the saddest pic of Hawkeye and Aurora I've ever seen.  Regardless they got a great bunch of loot!

...and then it was October.

Hard to believe it's already October and I haven't updated the blog since May.  I'm going through pictures trying to pick out those that show what we've been up to.  We've been busy and had a great summer and are happily settling into fall.  I couldn't believe it was 57 degrees this morning.  Ahh...the pumpkin candles are burning and we have the house all decorated for Halloween and our party on the 27th.  So here is what happened the last few months...

Cole celebrated Cindo de Mayo at school with a homemade sombrero and poncho.  Hilarious!

In June Cole, Virginia and I headed to Seattle for a week.  I had to be there for work and they joined me for some fun.  We had such a great visit...Cole loved the city!  We had a chance to meet up with some friends.  Here are Cole and Ellie Chan, my friend Beth's little girl.  They loved Madagascar and I think Ellie thought Cole was crazy!

 We had fun being tourists in a city we used to live in.  Grammy and Cole explored while I worked.  It was a beautiful day up at the Space Needle.

We logged plenty of pool time this summer and Cole is officially a swimmer!

Oh and Kenleigh too... :)  Well, in her own way.

In August we headed out for our annual Sunriver trip.  We were sad to not have my sister's family with us this year, but we carried on tradition with the Reese's anyways.

 

We swam, rode bikes, enjoyed the hot tub, listened to Michael John perform, relaxed and just enjoyed our favorite place on earth.  I still plan for us to spend an entire summer there someday...need to work on that plan soon!

By the time we returned from Sunriver it was time for Kenleigh's 3rd birthday.  Seems like this little one just grew up so fast.  She loves Scooby-Doo, scary monsters, Barbie and make-up.  Her birthday wishes came true with her Barbie bicycle!

So embarassed by the Happy Birthday singing!

 Here are a couple of Seahawk fans enjoying a bike ride on game day.  You have to love fall in Arizona!

Going to try and keep up with this blog now...wish me luck!

Sunny Sunday at the Park

We enjoyed a great weekend with a favorite visitor in town.  Kristi Kendall came in on Friday night and was with us until Sunday.  We were sad to see her go...it's always so fun when she is around.  Somehow we managed to have the whole weekend go by and not get a picture together.  Boo!  Luckily I did get a good one of her and Cole at lunch on Saturday.  Cuties!

We had all kinds of fun this weekend at Cole's soccer game, a girls night out for dinner and a movie (American Reunion was so much better than we thought it would be!), enjoying our favorite wine filled with fun memories and a fun trip to the park with the kids.

There is a hill at the park that the kids love to ride their bikes down.  Miss K has her own special way of riding down which involves no peddles.  You really need volume to give this picture justice...just picture her grinning ear to ear screaming, "WEEEEE!" as she comes flying down the hill.  Then at the bottom she laughs and says, "I need to do that again!"  This repeats usually 10-12 times.

Can't get over these cuties...they climbed up the tree and were happy to pose for Mommy! 

 Sweet kisses from my sweet Miss K!

Valley of the SUN!

You have to love spring living in Arizona...nothing but pure bliss with warm weather, constant sunshine and tons to do.  Here are the kids enjoying a couple of beautiful days.

Cole "painting" the play structure one afternoon.  I think it was 80 that day but he never changed out of his clothes from church, hence the long pants and long sleeves.

A rare moment of the kids playing together without drama.  I think shortly after this Kenleigh threw herself on the floor in a fit because Cole wouldn't give her one of the Playdoh tools.  Ah well.

I'm also excited for my 2nd year of gardening!  We had great success last year with basil, tomatoes, broccoli and jalapenos.  This year we are growing basil, tomatoes, red onions, peppers, asparagus and cabbage.  Here's how the garden looked last weekend.  We've already got tomatoes growing!  We also have a hanging basket filled with strawberries.  Some almost ready to eat!

The kids had Bunny Breakfast at school this week.  Cole was happy to pose with the bunny but Kenleigh refused.  I think it was because they had jelly beans on the table and she was more interested in eating those than smiling with the bunny.  The kids have been learning a lot about Easter at school and Cole likes to remind us all that Jesus died for our sins, oh and that he had 12 disciples too.

Had to throw in this crazy one of Miss K.  Her hair is out of control but I refuse to cut it.  I think because she was bald for so long that I just cannot bear to cut any of it.  This picture proves someone needs to intervene and take her for a hair cut.  Auntie??

Chandler Fun!

Every year Chandler has the Ostrich Festival, which is basically a fair.  It's funny, the handful of times we have gone I don't think I've ever seen an ostrich there.  Hmm...

We packed up last Saturday and headed out...the weather was gorgeous!  Here a couple of monkeys ready for some fun!

On top of the ferris wheel, although he looks scared and appears to be holding on for dear life, he really did enjoy it.

One happy little dude waiting for the roller coaster!

Then we ran into a couple of our favorite people! Holy cow Mom, I thought they lived in California! Too cute.

  After lunch it was funny face time!