Trunk or treat

I had to get a picture of these cute starch Ghost me and the kids made with our friends. It was so easy, we'll look forward to making more next year. Thanks Emily for the great idea.





Here are a few late pictures from the night of our wards awesome trunk or treat. Elliot was a wingless butterfly, Caleigh was an artist, Griffin was Count Dracula, and Miles had to be forced into wearing his Anakin Skywalker costume, which he took off halfway through the party. We had a great time.

Our Halloween day came and went with no photos, but it was a fun night with "Mummies" for dinner and yummy homemade chili. It was so warm the kids didn't even have to wear coats. And as usual their favorite part of the night was handing out candy after they had gone trick or treating. And are only costume changes were Caleigh traded in her easel for a monkey costume, and Elliot became a nice witch.

A personal challenge.

I thought I would get a jump start on my new years resolution to finally loose my baby weight from Elliot (can I still call it baby weight even though she's about to turn 3?). Anyway, so my personal challenge is to go Sugar-Free from the day after Halloween to Thanksgiving. This has got to be the hardest thing for me, and I'm not 100% sure I can do it, but I really do want to be healthier and this will help me. Why am I telling you all this? Well, I figured I would have much more success if I made my goal public on my blog. Look forward to a Sugar-Free counter.

Knight family Par-ty!

Every year the incredibly generous Knight family host a Halloween party. This year was especially fun, since they had Madam Zucchini and Madam Panini come and tell fortunes, paint faces, and play music with the children. They set up a tent and brought small groups in at a time. They were so funny and creative, never breaking character. The kids had so much fun playing carnival type games, eating pizza, and shoving in as much candy as possible.


Aren't these women adorable. Jen York and her sister were the gypsies for the night. Madam Zucchini told Miles he would be tall and handsome, he would have to be nice to the girls, since he would break all of their hearts, and she also said he would serve a mission one day. On the way home he said to me, "Mom, I don't know if they were real gypsies, but I am pretty tall and cute, and I mean, I do want to serve a mission."
Everyone is waiting patiently for their turn. Thanks Michelle for all the hard work! The kids had such a great time.

Jack's

This year carving Jack O lanterns was great. The kids did most of the de-gutting, and all of their own carving. It was a bit frustrating for Griffin, but he had a good attitude about it. I think the sense of accomplishment overrode his frustration. They turned out great.

What can't Caleigh do? She is so super-crafty, and creative. Her pumpkin turned out so cute.

No, I don't clean Elliot's face.

GUTS!!!

Keene Pumpkin Festival!

Before we even moved to New Hampshire we knew about the Keene, NH pumpkin festival. The town of Keene is an hour and 45 minutes away from us, but it was totally worth the drive. The town is so charming, and the festival is HUGE! Mike and I are waiting for the website to come up with the official count of pumpkins, but there were so many, I don't envy the guy who's job it is to count them all.

These were some of our favorite pumpkins, you could literally spend hours seeing all the different ones. There are some pretty creative people out there.

Somehow we ended up forgetting Elliot's stocking hat, so we bought her one of the pumpkin ones, so cute. We enjoyed just walking around looking at all the pumpkins and eating. We ate pumpkin spice donuts, fried pickles, pizza, hot dogs, and chili cheese nachos.

The pumpkins were most impressive at night. We ended up skipping out early but fireworks were scheduled for 8:30. We all had a great time. We hope to go again next year.

October Fun!

Monday, Columbus day, we all had the day off, and decided to have some October fun. We found a corn maze close by to us, and it was on a charming New England farm. The shape of the maze was in a skunk smelling a sunflower. Throughout the maze they had mailboxes with questions about skunks and sunflowers. All the questions were multiple choice, and each answer led you in a different direction.

We all agreed Uncle Jeff would appreciate the Haunted maze they have there also. Some of the characters looked like something He would create.

And of course we couldn't walk away with out some pumpkins.

Lotsa Locks of Love

Caleigh has been growing her hair out and I have been begging her to cut it (not herself, we've had problems with that in the past). She has gorgeous hair, it just looks scraggly half the time. This morning she decided she was ready, they cut off 71/2 inches which means we will be able to send it of to Locks of Love. I love this little pip-squeak with short hair. Too cute.

Crafty-Crafty Me!

Some how I got the rep of being crafty. Mostly, I just LOVE a project and making new things.

Our ward had a fall pot luck, and Sue Cane( the greatest activity leader) asked me to make center pieces for the tables. I happily took on the challenge (things like center pieces never come easy to me.) I wanted metal lanterns, but couldn't afford real ones, and what would I do with them afterwards? I ended up making my own out of paper. Sorry to Kata who called right after I finished my first one, and couldn't stop telling her how cute I thought they were. Anyway, they were really fun to make, and I love them.


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Griffin's 1st grade fieldtrip

I was so lucky to go with Griffin and all the other 1st grader's to Applecrest farms. It was a change from traditional pumpkin patch field trips. The classes learned all about how apples are picked, sorted, stored, and processed. I loved learning about Bee's and their importance in the apple growing process. I also learned Bee's can't see the color white, and they do actually die if they sting you (a fact I was not sure on). The children got to pick their own bags of apples, and my favorite part were the homemade apple donuts. YUMMY I ended up buying 1/2 dozen to take home, and eating mine and Mike on the way home. Ooops! Don't forget to count the one I got on the apple tour.

Here's Mrs. Weidacher's 1st grade class. Griffin is on the far right.
This was our tour through the farm, we lovingly named her the "General" because she was so good about keeping us all organized and on schedule. I loved her outfit. It was freezing, but she was working those shorts.

Future Photo Ops.

Being renters I can't add too much to the personality of our house. But I did find this cute bench about a month ago at Kmart. It was marked way down for the end of the season, and I just fell in love. My friend Danielle told me once if you want something that bad, then you were meant to own it. I can't wait to take photo's of the kids in their Halloween costumes sitting on my new red bench! Oh and they all call it, "Mom's bench."

Happenings

So we really have been having a great couple of weeks. Aunt Tracy came for a short visit and we had fun taking her to the seacoast science center, then to tour a submarine (Holy Crap, it is small).
Her time was short here, but we love that she gets to come so often. Thanks Tracy for helping with Elliot and her potty training.

Before she left we were able to grab sandwiches at D'Angelo's. The place was busy with it's usual lunch rush and we chose to sit down at a table close to a man filling out an application. Elliot looked over at the 20-something year old guy and said in her loudest voice, "mom, I don't like that boy." He didn't even look up, but there was no doubt to anyone in the place who she was talking about. Uh... I wasn't sure what to say. "what do you mean, what boy?" Wrong questions, because she then repeated her previous statement, "I don't like that boy!" Tracy was quick at covering saying, "Oh, who Griffin, your brother, Of course you like him." She luckily dropped it, but I wonder what offended her?

My name is MUD.

"What did you learn from this Laura?" Mike had that cute sympathetic-but-your-a-dork look in his eye.
He, with the help of 5 UNH students had just gotten my van unstuck from the side of the road. Where I had effortlessly gotten it stuck in 12 inches of mud/water.
To the passer-byer it looked like solid lawn that had freshly been watered. Which is why I chose it to pull over in. Elliot, as a sign of her independence, had crawled out of her seat belt and was standing up in her car seat. When I pulled over, I did notice the car was tilting slightly more to the right than any normal car should, but I wasn't worried until I tried to pull back onto the road and my tires just spun. Reversing caused the same effect, spinning tires. Cursing, I called Mike and told him to come and help. With him behind the wheel (he had his nice clothes on) and me pushing, we managed to get the old van moving. But Mike couldn't get it to turn left or right, and it just went forward, dragging grass, mud, and my hopes with it.
At this point triple A would have to be involved. Luckily 5 UNH students stopped and asked if they could help. Never mind the two joggers who passed by us. Wouldn't you think pushing a car would help you get fit? Apparently they were going for the "long and lean" look.
Back to the story. The 5 boys all got behind the car and "ta-da" my car sprung from its muddy messy spot.
I feel bad about the damage we left behind. But it's not like we were Joy-riding. Although the kids did have a blast!

A place for everything, and everything...

After spending all of last school year tripping over backpacks and coats, I knew I needed a new system. Pottery Barn had just the answer, wonderful lockers, but they unfortunately came at a PB price.
So I started shopping around, and found a store here that would make them for me unfinished, but they still wanted $159 per unit. I knew Mike and I could do better. So after whining and complaining and threatening to "just make them myself," Mike agreed to help out. Truly, it was me who was helping out. My amazing husband build these lockers for me. The wood and supplies cost around a $100 (that included a new sander) and we used paint left over from our friends last project.
I'm so glad Mike took on this project with me. It was fun working together, and they turned out better than I could have hoped for.

Here they are in action, isn't organization beautiful!

1st day of school (oh...Aug. 31st)

This years, back-to-school holds a special place in all of our hearts. It's the first year I will have 3 full time kids. Yeah...Freedom. In fact I have been enjoying my freedom so much I have been too busy to post these pictures. Me and Elliot hit as many stores as we can, and still have time to walk in the morning and clean up a bit.

Griffin LOVES first grade, especially his teacher, Mrs. Weidacher. He was able to have her in summer school, and she is excellent. He loves how she goes to the bathroom to scream when she is excited. Apparently, she does this all over the building. When their at art and they are doing good, she finds the nearest bathroom and screams. Hilarious.

Caleigh, Miles, Griffin, Ethan, and Christopher (who we are trying to not to call Booger anymore, but to me he will always be Booger.)
Caleigh has Mrs. Peck this year and Miles has Mrs. Pankey. They both seem to love their teachers and classmates. phew!

Griff is the only one who would let me get a picture by his desk, but you can tell he's not too happy about it. I think if he knew the other kids refused, he would have too.