hallo-WAAAA-n

We had a fun Halloween season! This was at a great party hosted by some friends.
Dorothy and Rapunzel! Costumes compliments of Brad's mom's friend, Debbie. She is an awesome seamstress and whipped up both of these costumes from scratch. They are amazing! The detail on the Rapunzel costume is incredible and it has so many layers...it is heavy! Thank you so much, Debbie, we LOVE them!
How perfect is this picture? Follow the red brick road....
My gorgeous girls :)

And my fearless Captain America with his cheeseburger sidekick!
This is where the title of my post came from. My kids were all crying and ornery when we first tried to take pictures in their costumes. How is it possible to be so sad with promises of tons of candy coming?! (Click on this picture to see the poutiest princess)
But we finally got them to smile...
...and I think they enjoyed...
...the "fruits" of their labor.
Here is the wreath I made from an old pool noodle and scraps of fabric I had.
Here is Brad's spectacular pirate pumpkin!

mathematician Finn

Finn is seriously doing so well in Jr. Kindergarten. They have a class "pet" named Manny the Monkey that they get to take turns bringing home and Finn thinks it's so cool when it's his turn. This is, like, the only picture I could get him to smile in for months. He wouldn't even take school pictures. We sent him to school with his money in the envelope and told his teacher to see what she could do (short of a melt-down), but he completely refused to go near the camera. Oh well, I guess he saved us 20 bucks.


They had a jog-a-thon that Finn thought was pretty awesome. When isn't it awesome to run through a balloon arch?!

We have definitely seen a great advancement in Finn's academic (and social) skills. After school everyday when Galla is whining and crying about not wanting to do homework, Finn is on the other end of the table begging me TO DO homework! He doesn't actually have HW, so I ordered a little workbook for him from amazon and he powers right through those worksheets. He also likes to walk around quizzing everyone one math problems like: "what's 2+2+1?" or "what's 3+3+3?" Sometimes I have to think about it for a second, but he always has the answer at the tip of his tongue!

Paisley's playgroup

Paisley is in the sweetest little playgroup-o-girls! We meet just one morning a week and rotate houses and have the most girly-good time. They are so cute and Paisley loves going to "school!"

it's a bling thing

If you have a little girly girl, then you might appreciate this little gem of a trick:Stick some little plastic jewels to mini glue dots and simply adhere to the ear!Give a little squeeze to the earlobe and they will stay for quite a while. Ours have even been know to last through bath and bedtime sometimes! They work out to be cheaper than traditional stick-on earrings and have a big bling factor!

party in the back {sept 8}

I'll admit, Ryken's hair had gone beyond unruly, but it was hard to bring myself to chop those baby locks! So I followed him around with the camera for at least an hour capturing every angle of that sweet mess of hair. Then I plopped him in the bumbo seat with an otter pop and started snipping. I had to work fast because he lasted about as long as the popsicle and then it was game over.
I think it turned out pretty well. And I'm so pleased with the single curl on the back of his head that decided to stick around...can you see it?
There's my handsome man! All grown up and ready to get back to business of tearing the house apart!