Halloween Fun

We had so many fun activities surrounding Halloween this year. I wanted the kids to wear their dragon costumes again (it would have been the third year in a row), but Lily refused and Jack couldn't fit into his anymore. So we had to improvise with last minute costumes. Lily had a red riding hood dress from a couple years back so I made her a little cape and she was happy with it!

The weekend before Halloween, Luke and Jack went camping up in the mountains with the boy scout troop. The girls and I spent the day together. We went trick-or-treating at the local shopping center. One of the shops handing out candy was a reptile store and they had real cockroaches mixed in the with the candy. Lily didn't want their candy.

 Afterwards we came back home to decorate pumpkins

 Then we went to a friends birthday party

 Papa surprised us with a visit. He took us out to pizza

 And then we went trick-or-treating again around another shopping mall. It was Papa's first time trick-or-treating in 50 years or so. Everyone had a blast!

And later that night, several girl friends came over to my place for a girls night of games. It was a great time!

The next day (after the boys got home from camping), I took the kids to the farm for their version of trick-or-treating. They have several large doors set up where kids can knock at the door and get candy. It was pretty packed, but the kids had fun

The whole gang with their candy

Also, this month Jack has started doing the challenge spelling words. The regular list was too easy for him, so he's been getting tougher words. They are pretty hard, but he aces his test every week! We are so proud of him.

 The kids spent some of the warmer days in the backyard making leaf piles. I love watching them play so nicely together.

 That week Jack had a Halloween party at school on Friday. Since his dragon costume didn't fit, we had to improvise. Here he is in his skeleton jammies with some face paint:

 Josie even had fun at the party

 Jack's class dressed up for Halloween

 After school, we met Luke at his work for their work trick-or-treating. The kids got to go around to all the cubes and get candy.

After that we dropped Jack and Lily off at Nani's house for a special night. Nani and Papi had tickets to VeggieTales on stage and then the kids were spending the night.

Luke and I took advantage of this and planned a really fun date night with some friends. We all decided to dress up for the evening. I dressed up as my favorite beer "Snowdrop" which is a version of Snow White. My mom made me this great costume!

Josie was my poison apple

She couldn't take her eyes off my black hair!

First we went to dinner with friends downtown and then we headed over to the Enigma Room. It is a room where they lock you in for 60 minutes and you have to escape. It was amazingly fun and we almost didn't make it out. Luke ended up finding the last clue with one minute to spare. We learned (after the fact) that only 15% of the groups escape. We were pretty happy:

Most of the other couples had to head home afterwards to relieve babysitters. But we were FREE! We hit up two more bars and it was 2am by the time we got home! Here are Luke and Leif at one bar:

The next morning we were able to sleep in a little, but Josie still woke us up around 8am. Luke and I did a 5mile run together and then we had lunch and went to pick up the kiddos. We took them straight to Loveland for a Walk in the Woods with some friends. Here are the kids before the walk

Starting the walk

Along the walk, they are greeted by several fairy tale creatures. Here they are with a wolf

And Dorothy and the Scarecrow

And Alice with the Cheshire rabbit

A fairy

At the end the kids got to meet the Big Bad Wolf. Lily was too scared to pose with him, so the other Red Riding Hood (Charlene) posed instead.

Why is it so hard for kids to smile nicely at the camera?

After the walk we headed over to Grimm Brothers Brewery. These are the beers that we fashioned our costumes after. You can see the pictures of the beers in the background. I think we did a pretty awesome job with these costumes but they didn't give us free beers...

We were so exhausted by night time that Luke just took the kids around the neighborhood for a quick trick-or-treat session and I turned off all the lights and hid at home. 

Video overload

I am so behind on uploading videos. Here are several from the last few month:

Jack is doing great in his piano class. He can read music and play with both hands. 

Here is a video from when Josie first started walking. I love watching her jiggly thighs:

Here are the girls playing in the house. 

This video is from when we went to California and Lily started swimming all by herself!

And here is a video from when we were camping with our friends. The kids had so much fun together

Lily loves to dress up and strut around. I caught a quick glimpse of her strutting on camera

Josie is already trying to get into Lily's things. Whenever Lily is at school, Josie will make a beeline for Lily's room and start playing with Lily's things 

Jack has started a diving class and he loves it. I have never seem him so happy to participate in an organized sport before.

The kids and I love to have dance parties. Almost every day we dance together: 

Lily is such a caring sister. She loves to sing to Josie in the car. Most of the time she will sing and Josie will fall right to sleep. 

I peeked into Lily's preschool class one afternoon

October happenings

October has been a fun month! It is one of the most beautiful months in Colorado. The weather is still warm enough where we can be outside every day but the mornings and nights are cold! 

The kids had some swim lessons and Josie started her first baby swim class with Luke. She loves the water and has no problem submerging her face: 

It is Broncos season. Just about every Sunday you will see us all wearing our Broncos gear:

Jack still misses his best buddies who are no longer going to school with him. We try to set up playdates out side of school when possible. Jack was able to meet up with his best buddy Will one weekend. We went to a fundraiser for one of the local farms. There was face painting:

And kids crafts. It was a fun time and the boys were excited to see each other again.

Little Josie is growing day by day. Her hair is getting really long and I can finally make a (tiny) ponytail

The kids have had to spend some cold afternoons inside already. Their favorite games include making tunnels and tea parties.

One weekend a friend invited us over for a backyard party. Jack showed off his volleyball moves

Josie had fun playing with the other kids

We try to spend as much time outside as possible. Not only is it good for the kids to be outside, but it also is my attempt to keep the house clean.

Josie was especially cute one fall afternoon so I tried to snap a couple pictures of her in pigtails before she pulled them out.

Even her shadow is cute!

The kids in their Halloween jammies

Luke and I have a date night with four other couples and somehow it turned into a costume date night. I decided I wanted to dress up like my favorite beer Snowdrop whose mastcot is  a version of Snow White. I was planning to do something simple, but when I mentioned the idea to my mom she volunteered to help me make something more elaborate. We went shopping and gathered material

And my mom went to work making my costume. It turned out really cute... stay tuned for pictures.

Here are the girls at the park before Lily's soccer class

Lily getting ready to practice

This is a funny picture of a light I got stuck at in town. I was trying to turn right.

Lily is doing great in preschool. She really seems to love it. Her teacher has commented that she is very smart and a natural leader. This is a picture of her before "crazy hair day" at preschool

Her class took their first field trip last week to a nearby farm.

Lily has turned into quite the jokester when I try to take pictures

It was a fun field trip and I loved seeing Lily with all her preschool friends

Josie had a pretty good time too... licking dirty pumpkins