Pumpkin Carving

As we do every Halloween Eve, we carved our pumpkins tonight. This was the first year that I actually let Lily help carve, instead of giving her stickers to decorate a pumpkin.

It was a little difficult for her to carve, so daddy had to help out.

But since she is a stubborn little thing, she had to do it all on her own.

Rolling up her sleeves to get the guts out.

Not so sure about this. . . . she ended up saying she didn't want to get messy. So I cleaned out the inside.

Telling me to stand back so she doesn't cut me with her knife. I was honestly a little more concerned about her cutting herself or falling off the chair!

When all was said and done, she had the most fun playing with all the guts on the counter.

Us and our pumpkins!!

The one on the left is Lily's and the one on the right is mine -- it will be part of our party tomorrow.

Halloween Baking

This afternoon Lily and I made cupcakes and cookies for our Halloween party tomorrow.

Lily loves to help me bake!

Multitasking -- adding sprinkles and licking the
spatula at the same time.

Another Soccer Game . . .

This morning Lily had another soccer game. She tried telling me she was too cold; her foot hurt; her ears hurt; and that she felt like she had to throw up -- all to try to get out of going to the game. Finally she said she would play if Daddy came to watch, since I think she knew he had to work, but I called him and he was able to get away from work to come to her game!! She was excited and said she would play for him. My Mom came too, but she is used to Grandma being there and knew that wouldn't get her out of playing. She didn't practice this week either. We went to practice and I made her watch, but she refused to play. I think she had fun once we were there today, but this is definitely our last year of soccer for awhile.

Holding hands with Christy during the game. It was sweet, but they should have been playing. :)

She did get to kick a few times and she is really good at that. She even hustled and ran after the ball some. Like I said earlier, once she got there I think she had fun, but it is definitely not her favorite past time.

Getting to kick off again.

Apparently bowing to the ball or maybe smelling the ball helps for a good kick. :)

Go Lily!

Lily and Emily

On Thursday we watched Emily for 4 hours while Patti studied for her insurance exam. It was actually REALLY nice having a buddy here to keep Lily entertained. They had fun playing and I got a lot of work done and cleaned out some of my DVR. It was great since they are old enough to play by themselves and besides the few times someone wasn't sharing, I didn't hear much from them. I need to look into renting a sister, or babysitting more often!! :)

We Got Boo'ed!

Up until last week when my friend Jenn got Boo'ed, I had NEVER heard of this before. But apparently there is a tradition where neighbors anonymously leave bags of goodies at your front door during the Halloween season, then it is your turn to leave a treat at someone else's door to keep the chain going. It is called being "Boo'ed". On Wednesday night we came home and found a bag full of candy, glow bracelets, silly bandz, an activity book, a mini lantern and a pumpkin stamp at our front door -- all in a Disney Princess bag! It was so cute!! We were all excited!

She is a nerd.

Snow White's Chicken Stars

Tuesday after dance we had to head up to Anna to get chicken stars and tequila. Since we live in a dry county, you can only buy beer and wine at the local stores. But, for our Halloween party on Sunday we are making margaritas, so we had to drive about 20 minutes for alcohol. It would be more annoying if I required alcohol more than twice a year. :) Lily LOVES going on a booze run since that means Carl's Jr and chicken stars! My dad got Lily addicted to chicken stars in CA and we don't really have any Carl's Jr around where we live -- so this mini road trip is always a treat for everyone. :)

Halloween Ballet Class

This morning Lily got to wear her Halloween costume to dance class and they had a little Halloween party with games and activities.

Lily and Carys.

Both were pretty tired today. Last night Jenn and I went to Carys' house to hang out with Rhiannon, and Carys Matthew and Ben came over to our house to watch Monday Night Football with Chip, along with Makayla, Madison and Pete and Emily and Bryan for a little while. The kids didn't get to sleep until after 11pm and I didn't get home until after midnight -- so we were all dragging some today. :)

Lily's pre-ballet class!
They all looked so cute.

Trunk Or Treat

This afternoon we went to a Trunk-Or-Treat at the church where Emily goes to preschool. They had tons of games and candy set up in the back of people cars for the kids (hence, the term "Trunk or Treat"). There were also bounce houses, a hay ride, face painting, animal balloons, crafts, food, etc. Normal Fall Festival stuff. It was fun!

It wasn't really cold out, but Lily had to wear the shirt underneath since her costume is too "itchy."
Lily and Emily at a Bean Bag toss.

Silvermist and Tiana were too cute.

That gnome was pretty adorable too! :)

Fishing Game

We hadn't been there very long when a storm cloud blew over and just started pouring rain. So we all ran inside the church for cover. They set up the Sunday School music and band in the gym and we all rocked out. Lily LOVED it. She was having so much fun dancing to all the songs.

Dancing to the "Life is good. Eternal Life is Better." song.

Petting a HUGE bunny.

The storm passed pretty quickly and we were able to go back and play more games. But the bounce houses and hayride were way to wet after all the rain.

My favorite activity of the day was the roping game out of the back of a truck!!

How cute is she getting ready to lasso?

Yee Haw Cowgirl Tiana!

It was a fun little outing, rain and all.

Soccer

We had another soccer game on Saturday morning. I was hoping after the last game, that Lily was starting to come around and enjoy soccer more. I was wrong. After she found out that we had another soccer game, she hid her shoes and shin guards in the front room and told me "All my soccer stuff is lost. We can't do soccer today." Little booger!!! I tried to explain the game more to her and get her excited and it kinda worked -- she was willing to get dressed and go. And really, at this point, that is all I ask for.

Playing with Charly before the game. If only she was this excited to run around the field when she was supposed to!

Slowly walking over to where the rest of the girls are actually playing the game.

For a big part of the game, she found the string on her shorts much more interesting that anything going on on the field.

Finally, at the very end of the game she got into it a little bit and actually kicked the ball during the game!! She has kicked off to start the game/quarter and kicked off after the ball has gone out of bounce, but never kicked a moving ball in play while all the other girls were trying to kick it too -- but she did during this game!! So that was great! Of course, once we got home and I told her we only had 4 more games she perked up and said, "Only 4 more?!? Woo-Hoo!"

Fall Festival

Friday night Lily and I went to the local elementary school (and Lily's future school) for their Fall Festival with Courtney, Paul, Trent and Elise (Chip stopped by later after work). It was fun. They had a chili cookoff, bounce houses, train rides, balloon animals, face painting, etc.

Walking to the school with Elise and Trent.

Hotdogs, chips, ice cream and cake for dinner!

Hoola hooping to the DJ's jams.

On the little train.

LOVE that smile. 100% happiness.

Before we went home we walked the halls of the school. Trent will start kindergarten next year and he is a little apprehensive, so we wanted to check it all out and try to get him excited. Chip and I got excited. We hadn't been inside the school before and it is SO different from the schools in California. First, it is all indoors! And it is SO nice. All new and pretty and clean. Huge library, a science lab, a gym and a cafeteria (vs just the "cafetorium" I had at Rio Hondo Elementary). It was pretty impressive for an elementary school!

The kids had fun running around and checking it all out.