I LOVE the couples and kids that live in Tuxedo Park apartments! They had the funnest (I know, not a word) progressive Halloween party at the complex so all the kids got to play and go trick or treating together. It was such a fun and busy night, one we and the kids will not forget any time soon! I know the pictures aren't great, but you can tell how fun it was right?
At the Youngs we had a cake walk, Bekah won first and was way excited about her cupcake! There was no time to sit and eat it though, because from the cake walk we went right to the professional portrait session by Jason. He had a spooky halloween backdrop all set up and took each of the kids' pictures. Bekah's turned out cute, but Topher looked drugged up-of course he was drugged up-he had a nasty cold! Poor kid! It didn't seem to affect his willingness to eat a cupcake and go trick or treating all night!
After the Youngs we went to the Goodmans-see post below, then the Johnston's for some pumpkin paintin fun, then we went out trick or treating around the neighborhood before heading over to the Perkes, see the other post below, then to the Mollenhauers for spoooooky stories from Lance. It was a fantastic night, and we want to thank all of you who planned and put this together for such a fun night for us and the kids! Loved it!
At the Goodmans-we played the mummy wrap and a candy corn relay. Bekah wrapped up Chad and I wrapped up Tabitha. Bekah actually won the competition for unrolling the toilet paper roll first of all the kids who were playing at the time and won a bag of gummy bears-she still thinks she is pretty much the coolest ever! I don't think any of the kids got the candy corn relay-about keeping the candy on the spoon anyway-but it was funny to watch them!
I love cowboys backsides-especially this ones!
Bekah is starting her 3rd week of preschool this week and she is still just as excited if not more about it than she was on her first day. They talked about families today and she made this little creation-and said it was me...do you see the strong resemblence?
Pumpkin shaped sugar cookies! This has to be Chad's most favorite treat, maybe even more than vanilla ice cream. I like the decorating part, but I can't eat too many of them-Chad and my kids don't have that problem though!
My mom and Tabitha were on a baking hiatus last night to make some halloween goodies to send to Trae in Quitar. They made these, pumpkin bread and the richest brownies you have ever eaten!
If you are a major sugar junkie you should try these, they are a Paula Dean recipe-You put greased foil in the bottom of a 9x13 pan, put half a brownie mix on the bottom , place 3 king size symphony bars side by side on top of the batter and pour the rest of the brownie mix on top. Then bake-the candy bar gets melted inside and has bits of toffee too. SOOOO rich, I could barely eat a tiny square of one, and I like rich desserts. A little tip, they are a little easier to eat after they have cooled down, they don't seem soooo creamy and rich that way!
What do you get when you get about 200 geese on one big area of lawn besides a whole lot of poop? 2 insanely happy kids! They have no fear, they chased them forever until all the geese were in the water, and that was A LOT of geese. Bekah was right next to them and didn't even flinch when they would take off-me, scared senseless at the dumb things, (bad experience with a goose at Adventure Land Park as a kid). I tried not to let my fear get in the way of my kids having fun, I just didn't get too close to take pictures!
On our walk on the waterfront we stopped at that Merrytime Musuem-which is just an old boat that is docked on the waterfront and they have turned it into a musuem. It costs $5 per adult, luckily the kids were free. It had some interesting things and a few wheels for the kids to turn, but taking a couple toddlers aboard, you couldn't really read or look at any of the history on the boat. Plus it was just kind of a disorganized mess all over the place. The kids had fun though, climbing the stairs and pretending to steer the boat-so unless your kids are HUGE boat fans, I wouldn't recommend paying the entrance fee-you can walk aboard for free, you just can't go inside. On the other hand, the movie Maverick was filmed there, so it has some pictures of what they did to the boat to make it look like an expensive gambling ship, so I guess it would probably be a little cooler if you were actually able to read and look at some of the stuff in there without chasing after a 1 year old who thinks it's a good idea to go swimming in the Willamette!
We went to Saturday's Market with my mom and Tabitha while Chad was off playing golf with some chiropractor buddies. Usually I love this place, with all the bustling and different people to watch, but I just couldn't get into it this time. My kids were being a little difficult-I know Topher looks happy in that picture, but it's only because I was tickling him to get him to stop throwing a fit about being in his stroller. Bekah was alright, just a little cranky, she got woken up from her nap in our new car! (Oh yeah, we got a new car Saturday Morning, I will take some pics and post them later). After our short shopping trip and some delicious philly steak and cheese sandwiches we headed over to the waterfront for a walk.
It seems we have been collecting these mini pumpkins all month, so we finally decided to do something with them. I decided this year to not get big ones and carve them for three reasons- one, my kids are too young to help carve. two, it is just so messy and three, because we live in a complex that I'm sure the pumpkins wouldn't last through the night without being smashed. Plus I just really like to play with my paints! Apparently so does everyone else!
Christopher and his pumpkin were turning into the incredible hulk. As soon as his pumpkin was nice and green he turned the paint brush on himself. He had so much fun and made such a big mess-but that's why I love acrylic paint-it just wiped right off the table and right off his skin. He was so proud of his little creation.
I think Bekah actually made one to be proud of! Look how cute that little face is on that pumpkin! It makes me smile just looking at it! This girl has got some artistic skill if you ask me! Am I just biast or is that one adorable pumpkin!
Tabitha was over-and there were plenty of pumpkins to go around. After I snapped some pictures of everyone working-she got a hold of the camera and when that happens-just know there will be lots of self portrait shots to follow-luckily she's pretty darn cute, so she can get away with it! 
Okay-and then there was me-I know I am looking a little scary-I hadn't slept for the past 2 nights reading Twilight and then New Moon, and I was laughing before these pictures were taken. I am known for not being able to keep my eyes open when someone takes my picture-(ask my cousin Jackie, who took my senior and wedding pictures), I was trying so hard, and the pictures always resulted in me with huge wide eyes, crying eyes because we were all laughing so hard and lots of closed eyes. I don't know why it is so hard for me to not close my eyes-and it's not all the time-but once it starts, it just doesn't stop. 
Finally Chad and his "totem pole", he loves doing this kind of thing-don't let him fool you. He was just as into it as the rest of us. He cut a hole into the bottom of the smaller one so they are connected. hee hee hee-silly guy!
...and the little one said, "Roll over"...That is one of Bekah and Tophers favorite songs and when I saw this picture it just reminded me of it. I couldn't get them to all look at me, but you can tell they are having fun hanging out on the top bunk in the playroom. We had Jordan and Jaycie over on Tuesday and Bekah had school, so Mandy was a life saver and picked up Bekah. Rilee and Jordan were having lots of fun playing dress up and house while she was gone, and when she got back she brought Taylor in to play for a bit. The kids all had so much fun together. I love having all these kids around that are my kids' age-and their moms ain't too bad themselves! How lucky we are!
{Thanks again Mandy for the favor and for the books-I'm waiting on the third one! But patiently because I did enjoy the nights sleep I had last night-although for some reason I was dreaming about vampires and werewolves hmmm......} :)
SO I took a good week off from Blogging-it was an eventful week last week, and an emotional one, so I had to prioritize and blogging was not one of those things at the top of my list! (Sorry mom!)
