Glowing Twins

Well, the new pj's that I bought the kids were a hit! The scary faces on the pumpkins glow in the dark, and it was a lot of fun to run in and out of their rooms, turning off the lights to see it glow. There was a lot of running around before bedtime the other night!

It's not very often, but when I get pictures like the ones where they so cute stand and spontaneously put their arms around each other- moments like this blow me away!

Fall Decorations

In the beginning of October, it was time to get a few boxes out of the garage, to dig out some decorations. Not just for Halloween, but for Fall. I don't like the really scary, bloody, vampire, ghosts and too spooky decorations that are EVERYWHERE around this time of year, but I do like to bring in the warm feeling of Autumn and maybe even more so since we live in a climate where we don't get to see and enjoy these colors of orange, red and yellow out in the nature.

I like to bring the warmth, the candles, the pumpkins and if I could, the leaves and the chestnuts inside. Most of my decorations, are not just for Halloween, but for the whole Fall. The few direct Halloween inspired decorations get tucked away after Halloween, and instead of Jack-o-lanterns, turkey and harvest decorations will be taken out for Thanksgiving. The colors are the same - and I love them! Here are a few pictures that I took around the house the other day.

In my kitchen window...

 In our dining room:

Halloween School Dance

On Monday night, it was time for the second school dance for the year. Halloween Costume School Dance! Cassie was excited, and we were a bit stressed after her coming home from school, as homework still needs to be done, and I had a physical therapy appointment in the afternoon, and I wasn't home until after 5pm. The School Dance was between 5.30-7.30pm, and there was a lot that needed to be done. Cassie had already planned how she wanted her hair and makeup, so when I came home it was just time for me to get started and help her out. She looked pretty awesome when she was done!!

There was an absolute "no mask policy" for the kids according to school regulations, and Cassie was a bit upset about it as she wanted to wear her peacock mask, but with nice make up eyes and putting the mask up in her hair as a headpiece, she was happy with the result!

The dress I had been sitting with for a few hours to take in on both sides, as it was way too big for my little girl. Not the easiest with out a sewing machine and this kind of fabric doesn't really allow you to sew in it too much, so it was a bit of a struggle. But, it did fit in the end, and she looked stunning!

I drove her to school, and as we weren't there at 5.30pm on the dot, a lot of her friends had already arrived, and I managed to get a few pictures with her and some of them when we came inside the gym. 

I tried to get a few of them in a group photo, but that wasn't the easiest, as many of them were running around and being all giggly as girls are supposed to be at this age on an occasion like this.

They all had great costumes and apparently they had a costume competition later on. Of all students there, 10 of the nicest costumes were pulled out from the dance floor to get on the stage and then were voted for. Cassie was one of them, which she was very excited about!

I had taken Isabella along with me to drop Cassie off, and she was so amazed with all the commotion. She could easily have stayed and danced on the dance floor, the music was loud, smoke machine was on and lots of fun costumes to look at. But, when Cassie had said "OK, bye mom" about 5 times, we did get the hint...it was time to leave and let her get on with the evening with her friends.

Halloween In The Park

Yesterday, after a quick break at home after the first Halloween event, we picked up Cassie's friend K and went to the Halloween Party in the park nearby. The turnout wasn't the best, but the kids had a lot of fun anyway, and everything was sponsored, so the Bouncer, Face painting, Snacks and Drinks were all free!!

 Cassie and K snapping a few pictures..

 Ben didn't want to do face painting, as he had his mask, 

but he waited patiently for Isabella to get hers done.

Ben wanted to change costume from being a Knight in the morning, he now choose to be Batman. A good choice I thought, as it would have been way too hot with the long sleeved thick armor costume outside in the heat and for jumping around in the bouncer. The girls choose to stay in their costumes, but Isabella took hers off (she had clothes underneath) when she went jumping.

 Batman & Cinderella

They played a game with walking around the chairs with numbers on them. Instead of the normal game, where there is always one more person than chair, and you take the chairs away, when the music stopped, you were supposed to just sit down on the chair next to you, and they would draw a number 1-10 and the winner got a cake! Isabella won once, and we got to bring home a chocolate-chip mega cupcake for 4 persons, and Benjamin won once where he got two spider cupcakes. 

They had a costume competition in the end, and all the kids were divided into different age groups. There was a winner and a runner up in each group. The winner received $20 and the runner up $10 I believe!! Not bad!!

In Ben & Bella's age group the clown was the winner and Ariel the runner up.

 In Cassie's and K's age group the punk rocker to the left in the picture won and the girl in the colorful costume to the right in the picture was runner up.

 Such a cute winner!!

After a lot of fun, hotdogs and snacks, the kids received trick-or-treat candy and then we left to go home. Leaving the park behind us with a common sight in the sky, a couple of choppers out training.

K came home with us for dinner, and the kids played and watched a movie until K was picked up at 9pm. Such a sweet girl! I'm really glad that Cassie has gotten to know her, as she has had a few aches with friendships here lately. Her two "best friends" have become a little difficult. One has more or less dropped her totally, and the other one is always busy, hasn't done her chores and therefore is not allowed to come over to hang out etc. Difficult. But now, Cassie is expanding her circle of friends and last weekend she was invited to a sleep over/birthday party at K's house, and this weekend she was invited to another friends house on Friday night. Both really sweet girls, and I hope that she can focus a little more on them instead. No need to keep trying and trying with the ones that don't seem to care too much. Cassie has had that experience too many times, and we now have told her that it's OK to say that you don't want to. A girl that she used to be friends with, dropped her over summer, and was pretty mean to her and always made sure to tell her how much more fun she had with another girl..Cassie stopped seeing her, and there has been no contact from that family at all. Now that new girl has started to be home schooled, and therefore Cassie's old friend apparently doesn't have anyone in school anymore to hang out with, and NOW she wants to go back to Cassie.

I talked to Cassie about this, and she doesn't want to be second choice all the time, and has said that she will be nice to her and all in school, but that she doesn't feel like hanging out privately. A good decision I think.

Halloween Events All Weekend Long

Last weekend in October, and a lot of Halloween events are going on. We went to the Pumpkin Patch last weekend, and an entry about that will follow, I just haven't had the time to catch up here on the blog. We did have a great time, the kids had fun and the mommy got some cute pictures of the kids among the pumpkins.

This weekend has been very busy. Last night, Cassandra was invited to a Halloween Sleepover at a new friends house. They had been telling ghost stories and watched movies and lots of other fun stuff. As Chris has been working this weekend, the little ones and I picked her up this morning and went straight to grocery shopping afterward. She had had a great time, and it is nice to see so many new friendships develop recently.

At home, it was time to get the kids ready for the first Halloween event of  the day, the Halloween Party at the library. We had decided not to use this years Halloween costumes until the "real" Halloween, meaning on the 31st, so Cassie dug out a costume she had a couple of years ago, that still fit her. Isabella decided to be Cinderella and Benjamin was a knight!

They had games and crafts. There was a dance competition, which Cassie won and to finish it off, they had a parade through the library, where a few secret judges took notes for "The scariest costume" and the "Cutest costume". We had a winner in the family even there!! Guess who!?

 Making monster bags for a few snacks.

 Let's Dance!

 Halloween Parade!

 Isabella was waiving and smiling to everyone in the library to make sure she didn't miss the secret judges....

Ben won one of the awards!!!

My pretty ladybug!

 My very handsome knight!

 My sassy little Cinderella!

The winner!!

The kids had fun, we hurried back home for a late lunch and then it was time to get ready for Halloween party number two, but more about that tomorrow. It's been a busy day and my back/hips are letting me know that it's time to take a slower day tomorrow..Not it's time for the sofa for me!