Hanging Out with Good Friends

This post is long overdue but I'm happy to finally get the photos posted. A few weeks ago, I met up with my good friend Lisa and her three little ones for a play date at the park. We met at a park a little closer to her. One that I had been wanting to visit for a while. We let the kids play and packed a lunch so we could just stay there. In between, watching the kiddos and running this way and that, we were able to chat and reconnect :0)
This is her oldest. He is such a sweetie and was so good to Erin.

And here are all three. Her middle son is the spitting image of his daddy who is Mike's best friend from high school and a good friend to me as well :0) Their little girl is an absolute doll. So happy and friendly :0)

Of course, Erin had to bring baby along. I love shots like these where some day we will be able to look back and remember when they were little together.
Erin trying to put up Gwen's hood.
Gwen is so little and petite like Erin. They are two peas in a pod :0)

And Erin loved playing with the steering wheels. Always a favorite.

And swinging
And like I said, just hanging out.
But she really loved running around with Eli who is the oldest. And she really some how managed to keep up with him. I think it's because she has an older brother.
So great to have such good friends in our lives :0)
Hoping to get together again soon!

Halloween Night!

We hosted the annual neighbors with kids Halloween potluck this year :0) Such a great tradition we started with a group of families we became friends with on our block and the one behind us. This year a few extra friendly faces joined us such as Brooke's mom, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law Regina's family.
Lots of fun laughing, talking and eating going on.
We had almost thirty people :0)
There's my mother-in-law in her fairy "grandmother" costume :0) After dinner everyone started heading out for trick or treating.
Yoda made her return.
As did Darth Vader.
Erin upon seeing daddy coming out dressed as Vader yet again.
Aunt Regina decided to stay and go trick or treating with us for a bit.

Brotherly love :0)
And I love this next series of photos with Mike and Erin. I definitely see a scrapbook layout page in the making!



So sweet!
Erin trick or treating at our friends' house. Here we have Molly and Ben. Simon was off with his daddy.
And if you were wondering where Evan was the whole time, he had taken off trick or treating without us realizing at first with his friend Kate and her parents. We tried to stop him at first but we could tell he was having so much fun with the kids we hated to stop him. And Brooke and Pat being the great friends and neighbors they are said it was no problem.
Although we did try to get one family photo with him but he was a little sulky. He was so sick of pictures.
We did end up getting one of Mike, myself and Erin though at least.
And it's kind of a tradition as well for Brooke and I to get a picture with the kids. It used to be Evan and Kate with us, but now it's the Erin and Sam who are good friends already :0)
Here is the first batch of candy Evan collected. He dumped this pile here before going out for round two of trick or treating with Evan and daddy and friends. I on the other hand stayed home and passed out candy enjoying the relative quiet and peace. And even getting a chance to flip through my new scrapbook magazine that had come in the mail.
All in all a very Happy Halloween :0)

Halloween Cookies and a Scrap Project :0)

Anyone else shocked that I've managed to post every day this week so far? Well, one more day to go after this one so we'll see, but I think I'm going to make it :0) And I'm really wanting to place a photo order soon, so this is giving me a good excuse to edit photos as well!
I decided to bake sugar cookies (some with frosting, some not) this year for our Halloween neighbor potluck. I usually save making these cookies for Christmas cause they are quite a bit of work. But I wanted something a little extra at the dinner and a treat to bring to my friend Suzy's house the next day for wedding program assembly volunteer duty :0)
Evan and Erin basically helped me with the frosting part. Here is Evan making his purple ghost. And let me tell you, we had a minute of panic when we pulled out the food coloring box and each bottle inside was empty. Yet replaced in the box. Someone forgot to mention to me that he had used up all of the food coloring in a science experiment - Evan (cough, cough)
Once again thankful for neighbors who come through :0)
Erin did a lot more tasting than frosting of course. In fact, by this point I think we had given up all pretense of cookie frosting. Hence the lack of cookie in front of her.
A few of the finished results done by me. And I have to give credit to my sister-in-law Michelle. Because if it wasn't for her, I would not have this recipe. She is the queen of sugar cooking baking. And her icing jobs are always fabulous! So let's just say in the past she was my sugar cookie making inspiration :0)
As for scrapbooking, I really have been working on it. I just don't have as much time to really focus. I'm grabbing ten minute increments here and there, but it's getting the job done. The project I am working on right now is a little "Find the Ladybug" mini for Erin. See the cover up there on the left. We had a combo of photos of just plain flowers and a few ladybug close-up's that Mike had taken. Plus, inspiration from a very cute ladybug book at the library, Erin's love of anything ladybug and an idea was born.
This is just a sample of two of the pages. Each left side is decorated with paper, embellishments and words. The right sides are photos, some with ladybugs, some without.
I'm hoping to scrap some Ireland layouts soon in between working on a few more mini's.
Unfortunately I don't enjoy the whole take a photo of the layout, edit it and post it process. Which is why there are very few posts about scrapping lately.
But I promise to share a few when I get them finished!

~Fright Fest~

The day after Boo at the Zoo, Mike and I took the kids to meet my parents out at Six Flags for Fright Fest. Some of Evan and Erin's cousins were with them - Dominic, Brenden, Madi and Emily.
Erin was delighted that Scrappy Doo was there, as you can see in the first few pictures in the collage where she went in for the hug. No, Scrappy isn't as good as Scooby but he was the perfect size for the younger ones :0)
Of course Erin had to go on her favorite little carousel. Mike took her while Evan and I waited to ride Shazaam! My parents and the cousins were practicing for the big Thriller dance to break the world's record of most people dancing Thriller at once. My mom, dad and the oldest nephew Dominic were the only three that actually ended up doing it out of the family. Apparently every six Flags did it at the same time that night and they did indeed break the record.
We spent a lot of time in Looney Tune land since the lines for adult rides were pretty long. Madi and Evan always like to share a plane...
while Erin flew her own little plane :0)
This little girl sitting on the Taz ride is a complete stranger but was oh so sweet to Erin. When the ride started up, the three big kids started spinning the little teacup so fast and Erin just clung to that girl for dear life. And even though we shouted for the kids to slow down (which they did) Erin didn't let go until the ride was over.
Brenden and Evan on the balloon ride.
Erin rode with my mom. Mike was shooting photos while I went on the Tony Hawk roller coaster with my dad, Dominic and Emily.
As far as "FRIGHT FEST", it wasn't really. Mike jokingly said it was probably due to budget cuts that there was really not much going on as far as costumed characters or decorations. But I think he was probably right. And really that was ok with me because having the younger ones with us made me glad it wasn't scary at all.

And even though most of the photos were in Looney Tunes land, Mike and I did get to go on a few adult rides since my parents were there. So it was fun if not a little crowded. I think we probably won't be going back anytime soon though for Halloween festivities.

Boo at the Zoo

On Friday, October 24th, my friend Kelly and I decided to take the kids to Boo at the Zoo.
Erin, Zach, Evan and Carter.
I have to say for the most part the decorations weren't that scary. But I guess that's good because it's mostly aimed at the younger crowd. A little boring for the older ones though.
Of course we had to get head shots. Evan completely refused but everyone else joined in.
The headless horseman's graveyard.
Love the look on the boys' faces when the Headless Horseman's voice started talking.
And there was a lot of smoky special effects.
Last group shot I promised them and told them to make silly faces.
Trying to get a shot of Evan and Erin together.
More decorations.
Carter and Erin wanted to go on the Carousel so I took them. Kelly took the two older boys over to see...
this house which Evan later proclaimed the scariest part of Boo at the Zoo. I had to say something about it was a little freaky actually.
I loved the Phantom :0) And the organ music was a nice spooky effect. Unfortunately they used more of the smoke, too which made it hard to photograph.
And lastly we went to the Lakeside Cafe for snacks and a mask making craft project. We had a good time and it was fun to go with friends! Plus the added benefit of supporting our Zoo which we love! :0)

Trunk or Treat

Well, I am going to try and post photos from our multitude of Halloween festivities every day this week. In no particular order either. So here goes starting with Trunk or Treat at Evan's school this past Friday (Oct. 30th) And Mike being the great dad he is, volunteered to be one of the trunks passing out candy in the school parking lot.
Any guesses to what Mike turned his truck into? Here is a clue. His costume was Darth Vader.
If you guessed Darth Vader's Tie Fighter you would be correct. Cool huh? We had people stopping to take photos of the truck all weekend long. Regular cameras, camera phones, it didn't matter.
And I will say this, he deserves humongous dad bonus points for this one. He put about 8 man hours into these panels not even sure if trunk or treat would happen. It was raining up until about an hour before the activity started but he pushed through not wanting to let Evan down. It was not easy putting these suckers on in the pouring rain. But Mike said it was worth it to see Evan's reaction when he saw Mike and the truck.
Erin dressed up as well to help. Our little Yoda. Everyone LOVED her :0)
Mike passing out candy to the kids in costume.
He also had the Star Wars soundtrack playing from his truck stereo for a nice effect.

Erin was a little surprised at first because she was napping when he left the house in costume. But she wasn't scared. She knew it was her daddy in there.
You gotta love them :0)
A far away shot.
Yoda gets a hold of Darth's light saber.
Evan gets to pose with dad.
My three.
Yoda raiding the candy.
Something you don't see everyday. Yoda and Darth in a peaceful moment :0)
Thanks, Mike for the wonderful job you did! You are the best Darth Vader in my book and the best daddy for our babies :0)