Halloween Party!

Our dear friends the McAnallys, hosted a fabulous Halloween party last night and I did the WORST JOB EVER taking pictures.  Andrea's house was decorated inside and out super, super cute, the food was delicious and very creative, and everyone did a great job with their costumes.  Thank you so much Dave and Andrea for having us over!  We had so much fun!

 

Princess Fiona eating a cake ball

My favorite girlies!  Back row, Lori, Sheaffer, Rachel.  Front Row, Andrea, Erika, Me and Manda

All of the kiddos.  Fiona is standing on the hay biting her nails (ugg!) and Shrek is in front next to Carter the dinosaur.

Happy Halloween!

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Spook-tacular Day!

What a spook-tacular day we had yesterday!  First, Kensington's class all wore their pjs to school, so that was just too fun for her, then they had a class pizza party followed by a class Halloween party.  Andrew, Smith and I came up for the Halloween party and had so much fun!



Here she is (in her pjs) working on their Halloween party craft...making a place mat.

This is K with one of her best little buddies Brooke.

I was in charge of bringing dessert...of course.  I brought iced jumbo sugar cookies...and of course, I ate one myself!

For 45 minutes, this is what Smith did.  He is the most low maintenance kid ever.  Ever.

Ok, remember this post about Kensington's first day of ballet?  The thing is...she hated it.  We went 3 times and she cried every time.  I don't blame her...standing there for an hour doing plies is pretty boring (I took ballet for 15 years, so I can say that with confidence), so we tried gymnastics.  Well...it only took about 3 seconds for her to decide she LOVES gymnastics.  Yesterday, was our 6th lesson.  She loves it.  Loves it!  The only hitch is that she still wants to wear her ballet skirt and leotards to gymnastics...so please ignore that :).

I'm holding Smith and taking pictures through the glass, so please disregard the quality...do you see her there doing stretches.  So sweet!

Smith told me to take a picture of him, so here we are waiting an hour for K to finish gymnastics.

Kensington bouncing by us on the trampoline.

I know it's hard to tell but do you see her little feet at the end of the trampoline?  She's doing her front roll off.

This is how Smith sits for an hour every week.  He just sits in my lap and looks through the glass.  He has never asked to get down and run around...never cried...he just watches.  Haven't I mentioned the fact that he's low-maintenance yet?  :)

Walking across the lower balance beam.

Walking across the high balance beam.

Then, last night, Ebby Lee and Nixon came over for dinner while Tab and Erika went to dinner and ran some errands.  Our big plan was to roast hot dogs and s'mores out by the fire on the patio.  Well, it was raining, so we brought our campfire inside (so to speak).  Andrew still cooked everything outside, we just had a picnic inside instead.  So much fun!  I love these kiddos!

Andrew roasting s'mores in the rain for the kids (and me!).

Hope you're having a spook-tacular week too!

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Today, I am 30 :)

Today is my 30th birthday.  I know...sooooo old!  I'm really not bothered by turning 30 at all.  Truthfully, I've been acting like I was 30 since I was 13, so it was about time I caught up with myself.  What did I do on this special day?  Well, I went to the orthodontist and speech therapy.  Isn't that what all 13 30 year olds do on their birthday?  Between appointments, I did a little shopping and visited my beloved Starbucks...then tonight, my parents took us and Sean out to dinner to celebrate.  It was delicious!  This past Sunday, my mom and dad hosted a party for me at their house.  I know they really, really wanted it to be special.  They worked so hard putting it together.  No detail went unnoticed...from the invitations to the decorations, the party favors and the twinkle lights hanging in the trees...I will remember it forever.  Thank you Mom and Dad.  Love you.

Kensington and Uncle Seanie

Smith and Papa Jay

My parents surprised me and cleared out their very large garage and decorated it for the occasion.  (Sounds kind of random but they covered all of the walls, set up tables, a buffet and drink station...it was super cute and very creative.

Grandmother and Ken (they must be really old to have a grandchild who's 30!)

My parents surprised me and included a few extra special "family" members...Kara and Tim were some (I've known and loved them since we were 12).

Me!

Casey and Paisley

The Lowes (my grandparents, aunt and little bro)

Some of the other surprise guests...Whitney, Sheaffer and Erika

My sweet parents who poured themselves into this party.

Yummy dinner!!

Brandon and Sean

Sheaffer and Erika (so sweet of them to drive out and surprise me)

Whitney and Kara (Kara, by the way, got along famously with the McKinney girls...in a matter of minutes she had joined in making fun of Sheaffer being so old and Whitney driving a minivan)

Tim and Rusty (so sweet to come considering the Rangers were playing a World Series game!)

Casey is sooooooo great with my kids!

Sweet friends!

Love you all!

I'm so blessed.

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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I've literally been counting down the days...as soon as my kids wake up, we're heading to Target.  And yes, I will be listening to it 24/7 beginning today.  Buble plus Christmas...nothing could be better.

XOXO,

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Chainsaw Massacre

Let me start from the beginning...a week ago, I told Andrew that he needed a hobby.  His (very sweet) reply was that his kids were his hobby.  After work, he just wants to spend time with his family.  As sweet as that sentiment is...the man needs a real hobby.  You know...fishing, golfing, reading, biking, online gambling...ANYTHING...just a hobby where he can relax his mind and do something for himself.  About two days after our talk, he told me his new hobby was going to be chainsawing things.  Yes.  My husband picked chainsawing down stuff as his hobby.  (Somewhere out there is a psychiatrist who could probably write a long essay on the mentality behind a man picking a chainsaw as a hobby...if you're reading this Dr. Psychiatrist...email me).  Anyway, I digress...for the last week, he's been chainsawing things and really enjoying his hobby (I know, weird and disturbing, right?).  Well, apparently God is in favor of this new found hobby because at 1:30 this morning, it sounded like an airplane hit our house.  It was in fact, our tree in the back yard.  Ahhhh...the perfect (and super unfortunate) thing to happen to a man whose hobby is chainsawing.

This morning, I opened the bedroom window to see my (usually stunning) view.  It looks like a South American jungle out there.

I walked across the house and instead of the golf course, I see this...more tree.

I opened the back door and the branches nearly knocked me down.  Somewhere out there is my patio.

I caught a glimpse of our grill.

The back view.  Our gutter was ripped off and one window was broken.

Andrew and his new friend...the chainsaw.

Smith ate yogurt and watched Daddy outside chainsawing things up.

This is Kensington a little skeptical of Daddy's new hobby.

I cracked up today when my friend Andrea told me that maybe Andrew's passion will take him to one of those lumberjack contests you see on the Discovery Channel.  Oh dear.  I can only imagine where this new hobby will take him.  In the meantime, if you need anything chainsawed, you know who to call :).

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