Lauren's Halloween Fun!!

On Wednesday afternoon Lauren invited three of her friends from school over to have a halloween cookie party. I baked up a ton of pumpkin sugar cookies and had them all ready for the girls to decorate when they got here after school. I had each of the girls bring a cookie topping. We had three different colors of frosting, candy corns, chocolate chips, M&M's, and sprinkles, yummy!! The girls had been talking about this all week and were so excited to just be together. They had a lot of fun and did a great job decorating their cookies. After they were done decorating they played barbies and did a lot of giggling. I am so glad Lauren is making such good friends in school.

Hannah, Gracyn, Libbi, and Lauren

Then on Thursday Lauren had her halloween party at school. She was so excited to get all dressed up. I bought this green face paint and Lauren has been dying to put it on her face. So finally we got her face all painted up and ready to go. I happened to look through Lauren's backpack and found a paper talking about the party and it mentioned that facepaint was not allowed. I told Lauren that she was probably OK with hers since we already had it on her and it was more of a see through tint on her face so nothing too dramatic, but Lauren said, no mom Mrs. Hatch will get mad at me if I wear face paint, so I will have to take it off. I was very proud of her for making the right choice even though her mom was trying to tell her differently. She was right and I should have followed the rules better, even though I know she would not have gotten trouble. Thanks for the lesson Lauren. Here she is all dolled up and ready to go.

I got to go and help in her classroom for the party and it was a lot of fun. They started out by singing this fun halloween song Witches Brew that they have been learning all month. It was cute. They then went around to each table and did the different activites. I was in charge of helping them make their candy necklaces. I really enjoy my time spent in her classroom. I think everyone really had a great time.

First Snow!!

So this morning we woke up to our first bit of snow. I decided to get out the kids snow clothes from last year to see what still fits them and what I need to go and buy. After trying everything on, the kids insisted they go and play in it. I figurged since they were already dressed, what the heck. They didn't last out there for very long, but they had a good time. I think it will take a few snow storms to get used to this cold weather change. I remembered why I am not a big fan of playing in the snow though, I hate all the wet clothes they come in with.

First snow angels of the season!!

This is only the beginning. I am sure there will be many more snowy days to come.

Pumpkins, pumpkins and more pumpkins

The Halloween season is among us and with that comes all kinds of pumpkin opportunities. Over the past couple weeks we have had three fun encounters. The first encounter happened at my grandparents. They have several acres of land that they lease out for someone to farm cause they are getting to old to do it themselves. One of the many things they grow is pumpkins. My grandparents are allowed to let any of their family go and pick whatever they want that is growing, so for the past couple of years we have gone to pick our own pumpkins. The kids have a blast picking out their own pumpkins and seeing who can find the biggest one. Before we left Tyler said to me make sure you have the camera. So I grab the camera bag and even grab some extra batteries. As soon as we got there I went to pull out the camera only to fine that the camera is not in the bag. Dang it, I hate when that happens. I had the kids all cute in their halloween shirts and ready for their photo op. Oh well, these pictures are from later with the results of our pumpkin picking. I just love a portch full of pumpkins.

Our next pumpkin encounter was at Black Island Farms. We went with my friend Jenny and her kids, thanks again for the invite. The kids had a great time. There was so much for them to do there. First we started out with a tractor trailor ride into the pumpkin patch, where the kids got to pick out their own pumpkins.

Next we went into a big play area for the kids where they had these fun slides built out of hay bales for the kids to slide down. They could have gone up and down these things all day.

After awhile on the slides, they did pig races. It was kind of fun watching those little piggies running around there. The kids got a kick out of that.

On to more fun stuff in the corn pit and the big pumpkin bounce house.

And lastly was the little train ride that took them all around and weaved in and out of the corn. As I said before, the kids could have stayed there for hours but unfortunately Lauren had to get to school. We will definately have to plan to do this again next year, it was a blast!!

And our third and final pumpkin encounter was the Syracuse pumpkin walk. I have heard about this in years past, but never gone before. I am glad I was reminded of it early enough this year to get it in. They have hundreds of pumpkin carved and donated to display. They line them all up around this park and light them up at night for people to walk through and look at. It was fun seeing just how creative you can get when carving them. This too will have to become a tradition each year, especially because it is free which is always good.

One more week til Halloween and with atleast three Halloween activites on the calendar for the week I am sure we will have many more pumpkin encounters. From now til the end of the year is super crazy, but super fun. I love this time of year!!

Crazy hair day!!

This week at Lauren's school it was red ribbon week, which means say no to drugs. So each day this week they had different things they were supposed to wear, like red day and jersey day. Well Friday was crazy hair day. Lauren was really excited for it and decided she wanted to have braids all over her head. We added a hairbow to each braid to make it look a little crazier. It was fun picking her up from school that day to see all the fun crazy hairdo's.

Happy Birthday Tyler!!!

Today is Tyler's 34th birthday and we just wanted to wish him a very happy birthday and remind him of some of the goodtimes over the last 34 years.

Happy Happy Birthday Daddy Dear, happy days will come to you all year. If I had a wish then it would be, a Happy Happy Birthday to you from me.

Lauren says, "Happy Birthday Daddy, you are turning 34 today in the fall!! I love you daddy, happy birthday today!! I hope you like the birthday presents we bought you."

Logan says, "I love you, and I like your transformers. Happy Birthday, you get your new transformer show today, I hope you like your presents."

Mommy says, "Happy Birthday T, I love you so very much and hope that you have a wonderful day. You are the BEST!!

HaPpY bIrThDaY!!