Happy Halloween!

My sister Julie, threw her annual Halloween party last weekend for my family. Here's a couple of photo's from the evening.

Gwen is Raggedy Ann
(thanks to my sister Michelle for giving us her old costumes!),
I'm a witch
(yeah, I know, reserve your smart alec comments . . .
thanks to my sister Julie for letting me borrow her costume),
Devlin's Horatio Hornblower,
Maxson's a dragon
(thanks again to Michelle for recycling her kids costumes!) and
William's a robot
(again, thanks to Michelle's creativity and kindness in giving us her old costumes!)

A close up of our doll.

Richard and Stephanie as "Hansel and Gretel"

Dad and Mom as a scarecrow and bunny rabbit

Tiersa as a trekkie and Brooks as Brooks

Julie sporting a mermaid costume made by myself!
Yes, that's right, I actually sewed something!
Matt as a fisherman, Cole as a shark, and Claire as a mermaid.

Cornbelly's

So, my dear sister, Julie treated my kids to Cornbelly's last week. We had a blast! It was a perfect weather to be outside and have fun. I've never been there before-and I was impressed. There were so many fun things for the kids to do. There were no lines either. I think we could have stayed there all day, if my little Gwen could have fought not having a nap a little longer.

Maxson at the water duck races. My kids would have stayed here all day if I had let them!

Maxson and William in the "Corn Box."

Maxson, me folded in half, and Gwen in the cow train.
By the way, I think this is the first picture I've posted with my new hair cut. I cut 8 inches :-).

William and Maxson on the cow train.

William on the ATV trike.
I think I would purchase one of these if I had the extra funds.
They were really fun.

Bragging

These pictures were too cute not to post! I remember my sister telling me when she took her daughter, Claire, to Kiddie Kandids to get her picture taken she was sure they would ask her daughter to be the next model for their store. She was seriously disappointed when she left and there was no special comments made about her child. I guess that's what happens when you're a Mom. I'm totally biased. I think my children are the most beautiful kids in the world, inside and out!

Visit to Idaho

We went a couple of weeks ago to visit my sister, Michelle and her family. We had a good time hanging out. William asked several times if we could stay there forever. Unfortunately, I had to say no. Anyhow, here's some pics of William and Maxson and their cousins making spider cookies. Eventually, they couldn't resist the licorice and began to drape it on themselves. They were dying of laughter at how funny they were.

Farewell Neha!

A dear friend of ours recently moved to California. Neha was in Devlin's Computer Science program and she recently graduated with her PhD! She's totally awesome and has been a very dear friend to our family. She recently moved to take a job with NASA. This is us being treated by her family at the Indian Palace in celebration of her new beginnings. Can I say, "Samosa!" (Okay, so my spelling may be completely off there, but they were divine!) Devlin was lucky enough to see her this last week on his business trip to Cali. I hear he was again treated with yummy homemade Indian food. I must admit, I'm jealous of his seeing her and the food he was served! What ever will we do without you, Neha?! We miss you!

Maxson's First Day of Joy School

So, Maxson started Joy School this year! He started almost 2 months ago. So I'm a total slacker for not posting this earlier. I'm beginning to realize what a tall kid he is. He's the youngest in the group, and is as tall as the oldest in the group who is a year older than him. He grew 4 inches in the last year and is already wearing size 10 shoes. Do you know any 3 year old's that do that? He's wearing all size 4T clothes that William was wearing only a year ago. William and Maxson are 2 and 1/2 years apart. I think we're in for an all-star height in 10-15 years!