Halloween Times Three!

Halloween is always a major event in our house, but it felt even bigger this year since all 3 girls would be in school with the party.  The girls initially wanted to all be Disney princesses, but I had to nix that right away!  Although I didn't want to replay last year's time spent on costumes I still wanted something that cannot be purchased in the store.  The persuasion was simple - Ady would be a CSU cheerleader (yeah to reusing costumes), Chandler would be Doc McStuffins (yeah again), and Brooklynn wanted to be a dalmatian.  Sweet!  I could do that!

The day before Halloween started with Chandler's party in the a.m. where we had a few craft/game stations and then loads of sugar!

Chandler playing "Pass the Pumpkin" with her classmates

After a quick lunch we were all back for Brooklynn's party.  It was laid-back with the kids hanging out and stuffing their faces.  I couldn't believe how calm they were!

My little dalmatian

 Somehow the little girls were given all the goodies too.  I finally gave up!

Saturday morning we woke up to beautiful weather and headed to the pumpkin patch to celebrate Chandler's birthday (more to come later).  After a chill afternoon we were ready to trick-or-treat.  After rushing through dinner, the costumes were back on.  Ady came down like this:

 She told us, "Now I really look like a Rams cheerleader."  She's such a comedian!

Trick-or-treating time

Wearing our hillbilly teeth and hanging with the neighbors!  Don't let the party end!

Card Sharks

Steve and I have always enjoyed a good game.  Although we've progressed from our college days of King's Cup to more adult nerdy games, like Catan, we embrace our competitiveness and are always looking to win.  Our love of games has been passed on to the girls, but mainly to Chandler and now Ady.  Brooklynn is less competitive and will play the games, but the other two are obsessed!  We started with Go Fish and other kiddy board games but now these two are masters at Crazy 8's, SkipBo, and even King's Corner.

I absolutely love watching kids develop their strategies for games.  It's amazing to watch the wheels turn as they figure out how to play and win.  I truly believe playing games is one of the best activities for kids!

Chandler was home sick with strep throat, but instead of watching TV she chose Crazy 8's.

I had to get a video of our Bubba dealing a hand.  She's so good at it and it helps her work on counting and her 1:1 correspondence.  Bonus!

Our Successful Garden!

I had been getting a little frustrating with our gardening attempts, because it seems every year is a little worse than the one before.  But I've also learned there are just too many variables to really figure it out.  For example, we've been putting tomatoes in the same spot year after year.  Some years we've had quite the bounty while others we've had nada.  

So this year we tried our usual - no-fail zucchini, tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, various lettuces, and butternut squash.  Our newbies this year were cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, and a separate kale garden.  With our wet spring the garden was looking pretty dismal, because we just didn't have the sun or heat they needed.  Then came July and the heat, and everything flourished!  Our tomatoes went bonkers.  I was making salsa almost daily and even got a few batches of homemade spaghetti sauce.  Our cucumbers took off as well, so I knew I had to learn how to can and pickle some batches so they'd be eaten.  Success!  I forgot how much I just love to park myself in the kitchen all afternoon and cook.

So now that it's the beginning of November we finally had to take it all down, but until now we've still been getting juicy, ripe tomatoes.  Here's one of the plants almost falling over from all the tomatoes!

 Our 1 cantaloupe we harvested.  A lot of work for only 1, so we had to savor it, but it tasted amazing!

 Our "kale box", which was handy for all our smoothies and kale salads.  I was able to freeze the remaining plants for future smoothies!