halloween happenings at school

we started our halloween morning off with a family trip to ken's school for the halloween parade! what a fun treat! ken got to wear her costume to school and loved seeing her friends dressed up. the entire school paraded to "thriller", monster mash", and other halloween tunes! the girls LOVED seeing their big sis at school!

we headed back up to school for ken's p.e. time to see her participate in an obstacle course to grab a baby pumpkin from the "patch". so cute! :) we are so excited that these will now be part of our halloween traditions!

we headed to mck's school in the afternoon for her halloween party . . . 17 three year-olds and TONS of junk food! it was fun to see her with her friends. she's kind of quiet and shy . . . totally different than home! :) she loved having us all there and ken and kam loved eating some of her goodies!

after that it was home to chill before our big night!

crazy hair day!

in celebration of red ribbon week, each day at ken's school has had a different theme. wednesday was "crazy hair day". i found these really cool feather hair clips for halloween at hobby lobby awhile ago and showed them to ken. she said, "mom, those are crazy. i'm not wearing them until crazy hair day!" i thought, "perfect."

well, the morning arrived and we fixed her hair and she said "i'm not wearing them. they look dumb." okay . . . she's five, not 13. how are we having these issues already?

anyway, i tried to convince her that she looked cute and spouted off my usual things . . . "do you think i would make you look dumb?", "i promise people will think you look cute!", "i bet the principal will even notice how cute you look!" . . . blah, blah, blah. i made her pose for a picture on the way out the door . . . she left for school in "a mood.

well, picking her up was another story. she was beaming! "mom, i won a coloring book and a pencil and a ribbon and crayons for the best crazy hair girl in kindergarten. my teacher took my picture with the other crazy hair kids . . . ms. foss even liked my hair. it was cool."

i smiled and tried not to say it, but i made repeat to me, "mom, you were right!" :)

cupcakes with kenzie

okay, just another reminder of why i need to spend time with the girls individually . . . mck was soooo excited that she got to make the halloween cupcakes all by herself. she kept saying things like "i get to pour the water?", " only i get to do the sprinkles?". so sweet, but also made me realize just how often she has to share. poor middle child.

she did an awesome job on the cupcakes, taking extra care to position each ghost on top "just right"! she was so excited to share her cakes with friends at the park and with her teachers at school. they were DELICIOUS! :)

our kitty ballerina

ken's halloween ballet performance was tues. night. it was really great. so different than a couple years ago. she actually danced through the whole thing - with a smile! dressed in her fancy cat outfit she was having a great time! :) mck and kam really enjoyed watching her. kam just stared the whole time! :) she is waiting for the day she gets to head out on the dance floor.

still working on the video . . .uhhh.

early pumpkin carving!

after a yummy dinner of mummy dogs, bat brains, eyeballs, witch hair and a side of gooey blood (hot dogs, mac cheese, grapes, broccoli, and ketchup) we pulled out the carving tools and got to work a little early on our pumpkins this year . . . bailey will be out of town until halloween and new we couldn't squeeze it in before trick or treating . . . so, today it was!

bailey was late getting home so the girls and i started the "yucky part" as they refer to it! :) we gutted the pumpkins . . . well, actually i did, they said they were helping when they took turns daring each other to touch the "gross stuff"! even kam wanted no part of the pumpkin innards! ken decided to start taking pictures for us! :) so the pictures are courtesy of ken! :)

kam's pumpkin was first . . . ken and mck helped her choose a cute and chubby "girl bat".

mck decided on tinkerbell with sparkles (farkles in her case!)

ken had a crisis because every design she chose wouldn't fit on her short, fancy blue pumpkin. . . so, mom and ken switched and ken chose a funky witch design!

my pumpkin is a mouse motel! (thanks for the idea, mom!)

and bailey's. . . a spooky ghost face (i think he was tired by this point!)

we did some research on preserving pumpkins . . . vaseline seemed to be the best, but we opted for the easy, less messy idea of spraying them with lemon juice . . . we'll see if they make it until friday! :) (if not, we can turn it into a science experiment!)

our fairy ballerina

mck had her first ballet "performance" this morning! her class (of 15!!!!) performed two halloween songs. she did such a great job! i loved watching her . . . she really concentrates hard! :)
i am working on putting the video on here . . . uhhh. so frustrating!

the acm cats and bats ball

dressed in full costume the girls headed to the austin children's museum's cats and bats ball! we met our "bestest" friends and started with a parade from city hall to the museum . . . the kids loved showing off their halloween duds! it was so much fun watching them! :) so cute!

the museum had lots of activities for the kids - face paining, tootsie pop ghosts, slime, balloons, icky stuff to touch, eyeball races, and of course the regular exhibits to explore! ken loved "everything", mck really enjoyed the balloon creations (she had a butterfly hat to match her fairy outfit!), and kam just loved being with the big kids! :)

on the way home we made a very late pit stop at mcdonald's and the girls got happy meals. ken commented "this is the best day ever!"
me "how come?"

ken "mom, we got to wear our costumes, we're watching a movie in the car, and eating mcdonalds ! it's the best day ever!"

me - smile!

two fun evenings out, two traditions "down", and only a handful of days until the big day!

halloween fun at the "y"

the kids had so much fun saturday with a visit to the "y" for games, rides, and bouncies! this year we went with our "bestest friends", so it was extra fun! :)

ken and mck were in heaven with the games . . . okay, more the picking prizes than the actual game! (not sure what was up with ken, but she kept picking "treasures rather than candy! yeah!) ken had a flower complete with sparkles painted on her face while mck had a heart, with farkles, of course! they had fun with all the bouncies and took a train ride driven by a CRAZY driver . . . way out of our sights! they came back with big smiles though!

kam had some trouble understanding why she couldn't go on anything. she really has the mentality that she is big (hello, she calls 2 year olds she sees "babies"! we're working on this!) she sat soooo still to have her face painted with a tiny pumpkin and finally started having fun while playing in the dirt in the middle of the baseball field and eating cotton candy!

what a fun way to start off the week before halloween!

hsm3 - what better way to spend a friday night?

okay, sadly we've been counting down the days until high school musical 3 hit the theaters (yes, we're a bunch of dorks!)! today was the big day! :) ken woke up and wore her hsm shirt, ate hsm waffles for breakfast, and was in a great mood thinking about the possibility of seeing the movie that night!

at dinner we had jokingly talked about the possibility of the show being sold out . . . but didn't think it actually would be. we arrived about 40 minutes early for the movie only to find a "sold out" sign over our 6:50 show. how sad. i told ken - who looked at me with her sad little pout. i walked up to the window with her and asked the guy if he was sure it was sold out. okay, i NEVER get lucky, but he must have felt sorry for me. he sold us 2 tickets! yeah! :)

we stood in line for a long time with a bunch of moms and pre-teens, and the occasional boyfriend or dad that got dragged to the show. ken was in heaven! :) girls were screaming, everyone was clapping! she loved the movie. i loved the time i got to be with just ken. what better way to spend a friday night?

our little scholar

we are so proud of ken - our little kindergarten scholar! yesterday she went to ms. f's office to recite her scholarly behaviors! she was among the first 5 kids in the whole school to recite them this year! wow. so impressive! it is so cute to hear her say them . . . such big words for such a little kid and the most impressive part is she really knows what they mean! :) i'm going to try to get her to do it on video . . . you just have to hear it!

today they said her name on the announcements and she got to wear a special medal! we went to have lunch with her at the school cookout so she got to show it off! :)

mck had her first school lunch and loved being able to pick "pink milk" to go with her hot dog! :) kam just wanted to show off to the parents and get smiles! ken was so happy to have us all there. what a great day!

time with family

yeah! we all had a nice weekend with grammy and grampy in houston. aunt sarah was home from college for the first time (the girls and i hadn't seen her since before she left for england!) and uncle tim, aunt missy, and baby sophia came over too!

sarah was so "collegiate" and really seems to love school and her sorority! the girls were so happy to see her. she even brought them treasures from england! :) straight from harrod's!

sophia is growing so quickly! she is such beautiful baby! she is so smiley and so happy! she looks sooo much like missy it is unbelievable! they are such a beautiful family. the girls always refer to sophia as "baby sophia"! super cute!

we had a nice time just "hangin out!", watching the red sox, and playing at the park! real quality family time!

mck in the kitchen!

today mck's cooking group met at our house for some halloween treat making! :) mck and i looked through all the magazines looking for some fun ideas . . . she settled on three . . .

1. "hootwiches" (because i said she had to pick something "healthy") these were cute english muffins topped with cheese with an owl face - made of pickles, black beans, and a green bean for a beak! :) mck picked off and ate all the toppings and left the cheese covered english muffin. weird!

2. "witch sticks and wizard wands" - pretzels dipped in orange or green chocolate and covered with sugary goodies! mmmm . . . these were gone in no time and she wanted to make more after we picked kennedy up! :) (okay, the base for it is a pretzel, so how bad can it be?)

3. "slimey snacks" - a four layer cup of jello complete with gummy worms! :) (we made these ahead of time!) YUM!!!!

we read two fun halloween counting books - look whooooo's counting and one witch - which have joined our list of favorites for the season. oh, and the kids munched on eyeballs (grapes) and witch fingers (cheetos) while we read! :) we also had "bat's blood" (crystal light) to drink! (i think this is mck's favorite . . . i made that up several weeks ago and now she'll say "mom, can i have some bat's blood to drink? ha!)

happy monday

yea! ken had off on monday so after a morning of hanging out at the house in our p.j.'s and playing (which we totally needed!) we headed to radijazz for an afternoon of (free!!!) fun! :) the girls had a great time running and playing.

we ended the afternoon with some music from staci gray (i could be spelling her name totally wrong!) it was nice to hear someone "kid friendly" other than joe mcdermott (i am rather joe mcdermotted out right now!) her last song - about bubbles - was so fun! the whole side of the play place was covered in bubbles! :)

what a happy monday! :)

pumpkin patch '08

yea! :) our annual "trek"to the pumpkin patch with our "bestest" friends was planned early this year, hoping to avoid very hot or very rainy weather! :) well, i think we did great on the weather . . . high 80's with a nice breeze! i think it was the best weather yet!

unfortunately, we had a rough start to the day . . . we were late, kenzie had a cold and a pretty busted lip (from the night before!), and kam was swollen from fire ant bites she had gotten the day before. and to make matters worse, we're there for 5 minutes, had taken a few cruddy pictures, and kam got stung by a bee! holy crow. luckily, she's not allergic, so we continued our picture taking and search for pumpkins with a MORE swollen and slightly drugged up baby. :( what a way to start the day!

the girls already had in their minds what pumpkins they wanted . . . of course, not the traditional orange ones, but specialty ones! :) mck got a cinderella pumpkin and ken's is blueish in color . . . pretty cool! :) ken and mck helped kam pick her pumpkin (a squatty peanut shaped thing!) and then helped bailey and i pick ours! :)

we took the kids through the kid's maze and then headed over for horse rides! :) a great ending to the afternoon! :) all three girls were excited, but mck was thrilled that she could ride by herself this year! even kam got to ride . . . with me, of course. she was soooooo excited to get close to the horse, but then not so sure about riding it. i think she started to like it when we were getting off.

now, bailey is gearing up for some grand carving this year . . . the girls want their princess pumpkins carved with princess images! :) i told him he should probably start a week early . . . this could be complicated! :)