Happy Halloween

We wish you a happy Halloween! If you couldn't tell, for the ward Halloween Party, Claire was Cinderella Tahlia was a fairy mother, Jeff was a 70's game show host (notice the extra long, skinny microphone), and Lily was Rapunzel.

For actual Halloween Trick or Treating Lily was Ariel, the mermaid, and Claire was a fairy.  So cute!

Point Defiance Park and Some Pictures of the House

Since today was a beautiful sunny day, we went to Point Defiance Park in Tacoma after church.  I had been there one time with my mom, but Jeff had never been there.  We had a great time exploring the forests and beaches.  There are amazing views of the Puget Sound and the forests are so green its easy to forget its Fall.  If you come visit us, we'll take you there!

Since it was such a nice day, Jeff decided to snap some pictures of our house, our view, and our decorated front porch.  (For some reason, no one else in the neighborhood has decorated for Halloween.)  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pizzas

We made personal "pumpkin" pizzas for dinner tonight and it was really fun.  I just made pizza dough, but instead of the usual - one large - I made 4 small pizzas.  The girls enjoyed decorating theirs to look like a jack-o-lantern.  We used pepperoni, olives, and mushrooms.  Claire ate all the leftover olives and started stealing other peoples. That girl is a lot like her father.

YMCA Halloween Party

I am really loving this Halloween/Fall season.  My kids are getting into it, especially Lily.  She's changed her mind about what she wants to be for Halloween like 16 times.  In fact, I thought she was going to be Rapunzel, but then she decided she was going to be Ariel for the YMCA Halloween Party.  We'll she what she decides for the ward party and for the actual Halloween day.  Claire decided to be Belle and I only had to redo her hair twice...that's pretty good for Claire.  She looked really cute.  For some reason I didn't take any pictures, but a YMCA employee did and promised to email me so when that happens, I'll post a picture.

Lily likes to hear about spooky things (but not too spooky) and has been drawing ghosts and vampire costumes.  Claire HATES spooky things and if things get even remotely spooky she starts to cry (like when I pretended to be a witch).  Good times.

Lily's Joy School Halloween Party

Lily has really been enjoying Joy School once a week with the kids in her Sunbeams class. This week they had their Halloween party. The parents were invited to the end to see the kids sing their Halloween songs in their costumes.  It was so cute.  Lily had a little bit of stage fright and danced really timidly and sang really quietly even though she knew the song really well. Oh well!  Here's Lily in her Rapunzel costume.

Pumpkin Patch

One of our friends had some extra admissions to a local pumpkin patch she got from Groupon and invited us to go with her family. We had a great time getting lost in the corn maze.  The hayride was so muddy that it felt more like a monster truck ride than a hayride.  The girls each got a coloring book and mini pumpkin to take home. Such a fun fall day!

Oh yea, and those awesome pumpkin shirts were made by me!  It was really easy.  I sewed a long straight stitch along about half a spool of thick orange ribbon and then gathered it.  I pinned it in a circle, working from the outside in and sewed it in place.  I sewed a loop of brown ribbon for the stem in place first.  It took me about 2 hours to make them both.  Most of the time was spent figuring out that I should work from the outside in (and not the other way around).

Swimming Lessons

Lily has started swimming lessons because she is pretty nervous around the water.  I was worried that swimming lessons would be traumatizing for her (because they were for me as a little kid)  but she is doing great.  We practice what her teacher is having them work on in open swim time and I think that is helping.  Claire is a little sad that she's not in swimming because she has no fear of the water.

Here's Lily at her first lesson.