Happy Halloween!

Saige and Quincy both had Halloween parades this morning.  I ran from one town to another trying to catch them!   

I was successful!  I even managed to get Hillary  and Donald to shake hands!  Seriously, these two crack me up.   I have never gone trick or treating and had so many people ask to take pictures with the kids before!  

This afternoon, Overbrook had their parade.  Saige helped Jim hand out candy.  I have watched Jim hand out candy for years and it always makes me nervous.  This year, he literally had 10 pieces left. That is just too close for me!  

I do absolutely love the parades and seeing all the kids dressed up.  Such fun!  

My nephew was excited to see us!  

This evening, we all enjoyed some trick or treating!  My group is getting smaller!   

Mallory really wanted to come with us.  Unfortunately she just couldn't.  So we face timed her into part of the fun.  We tried to get her in the group photo as well.  

Cameron worked with his FBLA group at trunk or treat in town.  We went over and it was a lot bigger than last year!   

Halloween is exhausting but awesome! 

Anniversary

Jim and I have been married for 23 years today!  I can't recall the last time we had a decent photo taken together!  Life is busy.  This is the closest thing I could come up with!  Just ignore the kids in the middle!   

When I was a young newly wed, I had this image of what our life would be like.  Man was I wrong!  It is so much more.  More love, more kids, more crazy, more laundry, more blessings than I could have ever imagined.  This is not to say I have never plotted his demise, or wanted to throw a skillet at his head, but I am sure he would say the same.  There have been far more good days than bad, more blessings than I deserve, and much more love than I knew I was capable of.  

And the crazy.  Always chaotic.  Luckily, I thrive in chaos, and Jim is good at keeping me sane.  So what does a crazy couple do for their 23rd anniversary?   Well, I took some of the kids and went to my nephew's 6th birthday bowling bonanza.  Jim took Colin to catch his ride back to college, and took Quincy to basketball practice.  He offered to take me out to dinner, but we chose to go to lunch tomorrow instead because I needed time to make Halloween treats for school parties and catch up on laundry!  

The bowling party was fun.  The kids had a great time with their cousins!  Clayton seemed happy, so that makes me happy!  

Saige couldn't believe she didn't hit a single pin!  She actually bowled pretty well.  My kids are just a little bit competitive.  ;)

The resident bakery school kid was a tremendous help with getting party treats made!  Between her and Pinterest, my baking is going to have to step up a notch!  Now if I can get them all delivered without dropping them!  

Saturday schmatterday

 

Well....if you finish football season, that must mean it's basketball season.  Nobody really needs a Saturday to sleep in do they?  

Quincy (#15 in white) is playing in the early session this year.  She hasn't had very many team practices yet, and although it's the same team she played on last year, today they looked a little rusty!  

Quincy played aggressively, and did a good job though.  She said she learned an important lesson....."never underestimate the little, tiny team!"  I had to laugh.   I had thought since our team was overwhelmingly bigger it would be an easy game too!  So we were both wrong!  

Quincy wanted to be Hillary for Halloween.  We looked yesterday, but everywhere was sold out.  After her game, we ran over to Party America, but all they had was Bernie.  She decided it would have to do, and we bought it.  

This afternoon, I went to get groceries and they had Hillary and Donald.  Her bff was really wanting Donald so that they could have a theme!   I ended up getting both half off!  I had not even thought about looking for Halloween costumes at Dillons!  Colin is home and was happy to use the Bernie mask to go to a costume party tonight.  So it wasn't a complete waste of money!  

Quincy was super excited with my find and it was just in time to go to the 4-H fall party!  

I don't know if Hillary or Harambi is scarier!  

The 4-H club started out their evening reverse trick or treating at the nursing home.  

Aunt Geraldine was really excited to see the kids in their costumes.  

After the nursing home, they met up at the fairgrounds for a camp fire, food, fun and games!   It was a good night!  

Last weekend, the last kitten met with an unfortunate accident.  This is Casper who is going to live in the house until he is a big cat.  Saige has claimed her ownership rights on him, but Mallory postponed a dinner date with fiends so she could stay home one more night to play with him.  Slice loves him.  I was worried but they are already the best of friends!  

Other photos from this week

The cheese successfully separated, and was drained.  The next step was making a brine and letting it sit in the refrigerator for 3 days.  We can try it soon.  Quincy has volunteered to be the tester.  Madison bought some store bought feta so we can compare.  

Cameron's FBLA group attended business and career day at ESU this week.  Cameron said he didn't have a chance to catch up with Mallory, but he did really enjoy the day.  Cameron spent part of his day off today meeting with the governor for FBLA Proclaimation day.  He said the governor recognized him from last year. (Last year Cameron asked if he could call him Sammy B and the governor replied "well I've been called worse I guess!" ). He sure is getting a lot of nice experiences from being in FBLA.  

Preston tried hard all week to win spirit week.  He failed.  He had a great time trying though!  

I had to work at the last football game.  Jim and the kids went along to cheer on the team and Cameron in his last marching band performance for this year.  They put on a great show! 

This evening, I went to a meeting.   Jim, Mallory and Madsion supervised the pumpkin carving.  Nobody got stabbed and all the pumpkins are beautifully carved!  Bonus points for them this evening!  

Who would have thought you could sit outside in shorts 3 days before Halloween and carve pumpkins?  Not me!  But I am definitely not complaing!