Happy Halloween!

Love, 

Nate the Ninja, Riley the Rose, and Benny the Racecar

Trick-or-treating after school at the Sammamish Commons with Ethan and Simone.

Trick-or-treat!

Our sweet little racecar.

Ri also loved handing out the candy, as you can see!

Busy Weekend!

This past weekend was one of those weekends where there was hardly time to sit down between activities. When Benny Ben was born and we had 3 kids under the age of 4, I kept thinking that things would get so much easier/less crazy once Nate was in full day school and Ri was in preschool.  Boy, was I wrong!  With school and age comes more activities, friends, parties, etc.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.  I live to be busy...and we count our blessings that at this point in time we are able to fill our hours with fun activities and that our kids are still at the stage where they want us around! :)

Friday
Right after school on Friday Nate had his first karate belt testing.  He was super focused and did awesome! Then it was out in the rain for his last soccer game.  Afterwards I did what all suburban moms do from time to time - went to a jewelry party at a friend's house. I'm such a mom and loving every minute of it.

Saturday
In the morning I took Nate to a friend's birthday party at the bounce house while Mesh stayed home with the littles.  Then we spent the afternoon at our neighborhood Halloween carnival.  The Ludlows came up for a sleepover that night and the kids had a blast staying up "waaaaaaay late".

The big boys

The girls

The little guys

 

Sunday
We went to church and Sunday school in the morning and then hosted Nate's first grade class for a Halloween party.  It was 2 hours packed with dancing, crafts, games, a pinata, and the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.  Then, we RESTED!  

Sweet treats between Mass and Sunday school

Ri's night

Riley's pumpkin carving night and concert at preschool was adorable!  A classic middle child move, Ri could be heard telling her brothers before we left for the event, "It's my night tonight guys, ok? It's not your night, it's mine." Note-these lines were delivered in the sweetest way, as only Rileybel could deliver them.  We love you Riley, you are a star!

Ri's favorite song of the night

Halloween Fun

What a busy Saturday!  We left the house at 9:30 am and didn't return until nearly 9pm with a fun filled day starting at Nate's basketball game, zooming to Chuck E. Cheese for our annual Peps Halloween party and then heading down to Gig Harbor for a pumpkin carving party.  Today was awesome!

Benny & Lars

Simone, Olivia, Riley

Some of the first-borns from our mom's group: Nina, Nate, Ethan & Ezra

This is my attempt to get a group picture...this was only a small sample of the party-goers, everyone else was too busy to pose! We've come a long way since placing our babies down to take a picture back in 2006!

Dads and kids carving pumpkins! From top clockwise: Mike, Clint, Mesh, Nate, Cameron (looks a lot like Ben!), Matthew, Riley, Ben, Grace. 

Pumpkin head Clint

buddies

Clockwise from top: Ben, Haley, Maile, Cameron, Clara, Matthew, Nate, Grace, Riley

Nonistar and GWL

Noni came for a visit and we had an extra special surprise for the kids - a night at Great Wolf Lodge water park!  We went once last year and the kids have been begging to go back.  It was a howlin' good time!

 The surprise is revealed!

Trick-or-treating and costume parade!

Giant fruit ninja at the arcade.

The boys in ghost costumes compliments of Noni and some pillow cases.

Welcome October!

We welcomed the first weekend in October with the company of great friends and some of our favorite fall activities - the annual Issaquah Salmon Days parade and visiting the pumpkin patch at Fall City Farms.

Enjoy the month and boo to you!!