Halloween

We were all looking forward to Halloween!

It was on a Friday and Gramps was coming over to celebrate with us!

We carved pumpkins earlier in the week....

And Annalise spent some time practicing applying her make-up. 

(Still needs more practice....)

But they were both ready for Friday night trick-or-treating.

The black cat....

And Minnie Mouse....

They made quite the haul on candy....

They even shared some with Gramps!

Happy Halloween!!!

Annalise

Annalise is growing up.

She is really enjoying first grade and her reading is just starting to TAKE OFF!!!

We figured it was time for her to get her first library card!!!

She's SOOOOO excited!!!!!

Notice the picture of the cat on the card?

This kid LOVES animals!!!!!

She checks out books on animals....

And even sleeps like one....

She's still trying to decide about her Halloween costume....

Park Ranger is still in the mix, along with some sort of animal! :)

Birthday Weekend

My birthday was on a Thursday this year.

Avery had been wanting to go to a Ferndale High School volleyball game with her volleyball team and it just happened to be the night of my birthday.  Mark had Open House that night anyway, 

so Annalise and I tagged along with Avery to the game! 

It was fun....and it was super cool to see Avery get excited about what she has to 

look forward to if she sticks with volleyball.

We waited to celebrate until the weekend.

Geoff and Robin came up and helped!

We had a fun dinner at Kyoto....

 

Annalise especially loved it when the table side chef threw food in the air or lit something on fire!

Then it was home for my favorite birthday dessert....Baskin Robbins Grasshopper pie!

YUM!!!!!

I felt so very loved and celebrated!!

I was definitely missing my Mom.

She always made me feel so special on my birthday.

I hope our girls know just how much I love them.

The weather was so nice the next day we decided we had to get out and take a hike around Hovander....what a beautiful Fall day!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

We were so happy to have a fall visit from Grandma and Grandpa!

The weather held and we were able to go out to Cloud Mountain (appropriate name!) for their fall festival.  We'd never been and it was super cool!!!!  They had samples of all of the different fruits and vegetables grown in their co-op.

LOTS of things for kids to do.....

like making apple juice

....doing crafts and EATING caramel apples!

Yum!

Such a great fall day!

We played some games while Grandma and Grandpa were here and Annalise had the urge to do some baking!  So we pulled out Avery's Easy Bake Oven and googled a recipe.

Annie made a yellow layer cake with pink frosting.

It took a while (you know...cooking with a light bulb and all!).....

but she really persevered!!!

And the end result????

Thumbs up!

 Did I mention that Avery was almost as tall as Grandma??

She may just be as tall the next time we see them at Christmas!!!

It was so nice having Grandma and Grandpa here!