Halloween Dance

Last night, Cassie got ready for the Halloween School Dance. After much searching for a good costume, she did find this, which was perfect as she loves the books and the movies from the series "Hungergames". Yes, she dressed up as Katniss Everdeen. I think that she looked stunning, and it's so fun when she asks if I can help her with make-up or hair. She was extra happy tonight, when I said yes to her request to borrow my boots! First time in high heels, so that was extra special!!

Ben was nice to let her borrow his bow and arrows, but as they are not allowed to bring anything that could be used as a weapon, the bow and arrows were only fun as a accessories here at home.

My little girl, is clearly not that little anymore...:)

After our photo shoot, we went to pick up her friends Emma and Annie. They were dressed up as twins, and they were all looking forward to the evening. I was able to take a few extra pictures of the three friends before they headed in to the dance. There might not be another school dance for Cassie here together with her friends, so I know that this was very special for her.

Here together with the School Mascot, The Wolf.

My gorgeous daughter!

Isabella came along aswell, she wouldn't miss it for the world! 

It won't be long before she will go to dances with her brother....!

She had a great time, and her friend Annie's mom picked the girls up. They have already made plans to meet up tomorrow night for a movie night at one friends house, but first she'll come along with the family to go Trick-Or-Treat!!

Trunk-Or-Treat With Friends

Here, it's Halloween the whole week!! On Tuesday night, we were invited by our friends to attend their Church's "Trunk-Or-Treat". Many Churches and other places do this, where they get together and like here have food/drinks and then people decorate their cars/trunks and give out candy to the kids that are walking around. This is a safer way of Trick-Or-Treating and especially for little kids this might be good, as they don't have to walk too long as it's all around a parking lot.

Cassie had volleyball, so Chris stayed at home, so he could pick her up from that, but I took Ben and Isabella to meet up with my friend H and family. They have 4 girls and they are so sweet. The oldest, Naomi, goes with our twins in Preschool, and they thought it was great fun to see each other in costumes outside of school!

The kids have had different costumes on for all the Halloween events, and this night Isabella choose her new for this year costume, "Rapunzel". Benjamin decided that he wanted to be "The Incredible Hulk" a costume that I bought him in Sweden in summer. He has another one that is new for this year that he is saving for tomorrow's Trick-Or-Treat!

He's such a clown!

Ben's mask was too hot to wear, and it soon came off. Isabella was hot too under the heavy wig, but she didn't want to take it off and "ruin her costume" as she said, so she kept it on until we got back to the car to go home.  Others in other parts of the country have to worry about it being to cold under the costume, or making sure that jackets etc fits underneath, here it's more the opposite concern. It can't be costumes that are too heavy or too thick, or they will be too warm. It's nevertheless still around 80F/27C after sunset, so it's warm winds even if its' dark outside!

Ben is normally a bit shy, but he was so proud that he was brave and walked up to the people on his own, (with me a few steps away.) and they were all good with using their manners and saying thank you. The little kids were in general much better at waiting in line and saying thank you than the older ones that just ran around from one to the next, almost running over the little ones, holding out their bags and buckets..

Rapunzel had Elsa behind her in one line...

My friend Holly had done such a great job to get all her girls in a theme. N was dressed up as Tinkerbell, T was a pirate, Ty was Peter Pan and baby M was a mermaid. All characters from the story Peter Pan. 

Look at this awesome idea! A lot of work, but really clever to make a pirate ship out of the wagon they pulled along with their two toddlers. I thought that this was really neat, and the kids loved it!

What a fun night, and around 8pm it was time to get the kids home and in bed.

Pumpkin Patch One More Time

As I wrote earlier, we were too late for any of the activities at the Pumpkin Patch last Saturday, so we just HAD to go back on Sunday to be there when they opened at 5pm, to get the most of it. Chris was working, so we went by the base first to drop off his civilian clothes as he was going to meet us there later after work. No, Marines are NOT allowed to wear uniform outside the base if it's not an absolute emergency.

I went to the Pumpkin Patch with the kids and they were so happy to be able to be back and actually be able to check out the activities that were set up. As we were there early, there were no lines for the Face painting, and the girls decided that they wanted something. Ben, not surprisingly, didn't want anyone to draw on his face, or arm for that matter that I tried to tell him that he could choose instead of the face.

My handsome Benjamin.

Isabella choose a sparkly butterfly!

 Cassie got a pumpkin design on her face.

There were stations with different activities, and the kids had some fun at each one of them. As there weren't that many people, we had access to most of them right away. But it soon filled up, and after an hour, it was a LOT of people there as this was the last day before Halloween.

Kids checking out the Science table with electronics making sounds 

when they pick up the matching items.

Instead of a sand box, they had filled a HUGE box of dried peas/beans. 

Much cleaner and nothing that flies into your eyes when you play.

When the little ones were playing in the "pea box" Cassie tried out the slingshot!

It didn't get very far, but she looked cute trying!

So funny - Isabella found a pirate that showed off her famous "Bella pose"!

There were a small petting zoo too, but they only had a donkey, a few goats and some chickens. So not too much to look at. Another year they had turtles and other fun things that the kids could pick up and touch, but not this time.

So much FUN!!

I'm so blessed!!

Under the swords in the AZ sunset!

After sunset, Chris came from work, and the kids had something to eat. We had already done most of the activities and we had already decided that we were not staying for the Pirate Show again, as we already had seen it last week. Before going home, I stood in the line to visit with the Frozen cast, while Chris spent some time with the kids in the hay maze. When they came back, it was soon our turn to see Elsa, Ana and Olaf.

After this long weekend of fun activities, we were happy to be back home and the kids finished off their day with watching a new movie of "Jake & The Neverland Pirates".