Happy Halloween

 Here are our trick or treaters!  Don't they look great?

We had a belly dancer....

 A zombie referee....

 And a hula dancer....

 They trick-or-treated at the outlets, then went to the trunk-or-treat at the church and then hit the neighborhood.  Busy kids! They had a lot of fun and we all loved the fact that the rain stopped just in time for the fun to begin!

Trick-or-treat!!!!!

Carving our punkins

 We broke out the power tools this year folks.  It's easy, it's mostly clean, and it's safer than giving children sharp knives.  The kids drew faces and emptied guts and Jason cut faces.  I supervised.  Practically perfect.

You know you want to try this next year!

Guy's night

The guys  decided it wasn't good enough to go thru haunted houses, they needed to be apart of one.

 They had so much fun!  They yelled and screamed and scared and scared and scared all night long.  I'm glad bringing terror into someone's life brings these 3 joy.  Mike was a zombie, Jason was a mad scientist (a mad cow scientist) and Brandon was a demon.  I have to admit, they do look like they had a lot of fun.

Boo!

Pumpkin patches

 What do you do if it's raining cats and dogs and you don't want to slosh around in pumpkin patch mud?  You go to the local pool and die for pumpkins there of course!

Our pool did a pumpkin night where they had dozens of pumpkins floating around in the pool just ready for the pickin'.

 We only left with 3 pumpkins but the kids collected dozens.  We just kept throwing them back for others. It really was a lot of fun.

 Of course we had to hit up the local pumpkin patch as well and of course we found great pumpkins there.  Enjoy the pics!

 (Ansen and his class)

 The ladies after school.

Happy fall everyone!

Braley's 1st swim meet

 I wish you guys could have come to Braley's swim meet.  It was so fun to watch her.  She was totally excited to the point in which she finally declared "I'm so excited I' m going to puke!"  She is most definitely my daughter.

 Brays swam 3 events: 100 Free, 100 Back, and 50 Free.

She did amazing for being brand new to the sport and Jason and I could not be more excited and happy that she is our lil' fish.

 Look at her go!

Great job Braley!  We love you and you did awesome today!

Bring on the next meet!

1,000 post

In April 2007 I started a family blog. 

 "What the heck?" I thought. "Why not?"

 Today, 1,000 posts later, I am so grateful that I did.  Over the past 5+ years I have recorded as much about our family that I could. Our big things and little things. Our happy times and our sad times.  Our first days and last days of school.  Our family adventures, far and near.  Our joys and our sorrows. Our family of five and our everyday adventures. Our friends, our family, our pets, ours teachers, our community leaders.  All recorded here.

Here's to 1,000 more!

Fright night 2012

 As always, dinner first.  We have to fill our bellies with food so that as we experience gore and scares our tummies feel even more unsettled.  This year we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and ate lots of guy food.  LOTS of guy food.  I don't think there is a veggie in that place.  It was yummy tho.

 We went to FrightTown in Portland again.  Hey, if it ain't broke.....besides it's inside, warm, and there are 3 haunts to go in.
Our group:

 Jason and chain-guy having a moment.

 Me and zombie chef having a moment.  I think he ate my cooking.

 Jason and Brandon being shown up by a girl.

 The boys and Baron VonGoolo

 Seriously this chick had to be on steroids.

 

Chain-guy was just so pleasant to be around. 

 Actually, after a week full of kids his company was kinda nice.

 Quick story for posterity's sake:  First thing first-I cried in one of the Haunted Houses.  There.  I said it.  I'm not even embarrassed even though I should be. It wasn't a full cry more like nervous tears. One haunted house was call Contagion.  Me, being me, didn't get it.  People were coughing and then all the sudden there were zombies everywhere.  I don't really like zombies.  At one point there was a long hallway to walk through and someone (*ahem, Jason) stopped everyone from coming with me EXCEPT for some creepy girl who was right on my back!!!!  I was by myself and scared.  She was making eating noises and breathing all over me and thennnnnn..........

She said: "I want to eat you."
and

I: Cried.

There you have it folks. I'm a scaredy cat.  Not a surprise is you really think for more than a second about it.

 

Fright night tradition states we must hit Shari's afterwards and get Pie shakes to calm our (read: my) nerves. It's one of my favorite times because we just sit around and laugh.

On Sunday a friend who missed Haunted Houses to celebrate her anniversary instead (I know, how dare she?) gave me a pack of tissues with a little note.
Soooo funny.  Actually it really is.

Also on Sunday I figured out the whole coughing person/contagion thing. It was like a lightbulb went off.  I guess to become a zombie you get bit and then sick (hence coughing) and then we "want to eat" people. Disgusting.

I hate it.

But I'll do it again next year.

Because I love my husband and friends and I'd pretty much do anything for a night out.