Halloween With My Adorable Fairy Princess and Cute Little Monkey!

We spent the evening at my mother's house (Nams). Some of our friends came there with their kids to have dinner and trick or treat (Amanda, Jon, Nathan and Alex, Ashley, Eric, and Hannah, Courtney, Scott, Taylor, and Hudson). We started out with pizza followed by birthday cake. Out of everyone who came we had 5 birthdays in the next 2 weeks.

Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday Hannah (10/30), Ashley (11/8), Erik (11/11), Me (11/5), and Aunt Pat (10/31)!

Lauren really understood Halloween this year. She was so excited going door to door. She walked up to the door, said trick or treat some of the time, said thank you EVERY TIME (yes, she has amazing manners), then ran off yelling next house!!! It was just too cute for words. Michael was so hot in his costume so he only made it to a few houses. He got the idea of taking a piece of candy but wanted to go into every persons house when they opened the door. He rode in the stroller for the rest of the time.

My Beautiful Fairy!

Mommy's Little Monkey

Hannah and Lauren

The Dads!

Off to the next house!

The closest we got to a group photo (Alex, the pumpkin. Hannah, the black cat. Lauren, the fairy. Nathan, the pirate. Taylor, the cowboys cheerleader)

Time for bed! Daddy was enjoying a beer- Michael kept trying to get it!

Hannah's Birthday Cake

I spent tonight with Ashley making Hannah's birthday cake. This was really our trial run for the big cake we will be working on next week for her party.

Some early Halloween fun!

Today we went to a Halloween event at Deck 84 in downtown Delray. They had face painters, people doing fake tattoos, pumpkin painting, and a few other things set up. Michael stayed home with John since it started at 2 and that's nap time and I took Lauren with my mother, Tammy, Brian, Haylie, and Brody. The whole ride there Lauren was talking about how she wanted to get a butterfly painted on her cheek. When we got there she was a little nervous because she doesn't like strangers, to try to convince her my mother got a butterfly painted on her hand. The minute Lauren noticed what she was doing she put her hand right up on the table to get it painted too.

After that Lauren went over to another area where they were doing tattoos and got a butterfly tattoo on her arm.

The pumpkin painting wasn't a huge success. They had sharpees for the kids to color the pumpkins with. Needless to say I was a nervous wreck about Lauren using a sharpee while wearing her Halloween costume. It didn't work well becuase the pumpkins were cold which caused condensation and the markers wouldnt write on the wet pumpkin. I let her finish her pumpkin at home.

We ended the afternoon with some appetizers. Lauren enjoyed some sweet potato fries and some of my mothers iced tea.

Learning Time!

We (the kids and I) spent some of the morning today doing some educational work while John slept in (lucky him!) But, I had a lot of fun with them and I'm happy I was awake and spending this time with the two of them. Lauren did some worksheets with colors, shapes, and numbers that I had printed out for her. Her favorite one involved gluing (she really enjoys using glue sticks). After working with Lauren alone I took out the crayons and paints and just focused on colors with both of them. Michael of course ate the paint (I was not surprised by this!)

Lauren is very serious about coloring

And there he goes, trying to eat the crayon!

Time to paint!

If you look closely you can see the red paint on his lip... yes, he tried to eat the paint too.

Victory Christian Center Fall Festival

Tonight was the annual fall festival at our church. Since I am doing a bible study with the family life group I was asked to volunteer at one of their booths. I figured since I was going to be there with my kids in the toddler area anyway why not make myself useful. I was set to volunteer from 6 to 7 which worked out great. My mom was coming with us then planning to take Michael home at 7 to get him ready for bed while John and I walked around with Lauren. Michael spent the hour with me in the toddler area while Lauren and my mother explored. They went and had a balloon animal hat made for Lauren and they did spin art. At 7 my mom came and got Michael and it started to rain! We ended up staying in the toddler area and hanging out talking to friends for a while but the rain didnt seem to be letting up. After grabbing a bite to eat we headed home.
I expected to walk into a quiet house and for Michael to already be asleep- I was WRONG! There were kids everywhere in my house. All of our friends had parked at our house and came back because of the rain. It was ok though, we enjoyed hanging out with everyone. Michael ended up going to bed around 8:30 and Lauren layed on the couch watching Cinderella (the only movie she watches) until 9:15!!!! I don't think she has ever stayed up that late. I'm a little sad it rained and I didn't have an opportunity to fully enjoy the festival with my kids but there will be another one next year and hopefully the rain holds out then.

Laurens fishing hat- she thought it was great having a fish dangling from her head. I am a little unsure of how she ended up with such an odd balloon animal when other little girls had  wands and tiaras- I'm guessing she saw someone else with it and decided that's what she wanted.

Michael liked playing with all the toys from the room he stays in when we go to church.

EXHAUSTED!!!

Out with Nams

Lauren and I spent some of the day with my mother shopping. My mom always tells me how good Lauren is in the car with her (she is much better than she used to be with me but she still has her moments). Today I found out why she behaves so well in my moms car!

My 2 year old can probably work this IPad better than I can!

A 2nd Visit to the Pumpkin Patch!

We never made it back to the pumpkin patch during the week to ride the hayrides so we went today. What a mess it was! It was so much more crowded than it was when we went a few weeKS ago. We ended up waiting in line for the hayride for almost an hour today and once we were on it Michael did not enjoy it! He was not a fan of having to sit still so most of my time was spent dealing with him (oh-well thats the life of a mommy!) John was busy so I picked my mom up on the way and a few of my friend met us there. Overall it was a fun morning!

Rocking with Nams.

Lauren waiting in the VERY long line for the hayride.

Michael (who as you can tell is NOT happy to be stuck on the hayride) and Nams

Friends! Brady, Traci, and Jacob

More friends: Hannah and Ashley

A little more content standing on the seat looking out.

Backyard fun with Daddy!!

It's Finally Nice Outside!

It was finally nice enough out today to put the kids in jeans and t-shirts and spend a comfortable day at the park without sweating the entire time!

This is the best I could get of the two of them together- as you can imagine they dont sit still at the park!