Blue and Gold

Reuben had his second Blue and Gold Banquet this year. The theme this year was Knights of God. Reuben dressed up in his Halloween costume, as robin hood and many others dressed up too. There was a magician, lots of games and great food. Fun was had by all!


The Father and Sons were in charge of making a cake for dessert. Ryan and Reuben take this very seriously and did another excellent job. If you look closely you can see the sword in the dragon. I like the "burnt marks from where the dragon had blown fire. Here is a link to their cake from last year. This year everyone really stepped up the game. It was fun to see all the edible masterpieces.

Reuben and two of his besties.

Pre-dinner coloring

Nutcracker

On Friday the girls and I went to see the Nutcracker. We went with a couple of Evie's friends and their Moms. Kaitlyn brought her best friend, Lauren. It was such a fun night, just us girls.

Grace and Eve
(Grace and her Mom gave all the girls a locket. They were a huge hit!)

We are so lucky to live near such beautiful theaters. We were in the last row of the top balcony but it wasn't too shabby for are awesome deal we got on the tickets :)

Kaitlyn and Lauren
(it was hard to take normal pictures in the theater because it was dark in the room and the flash was blinding us)

All of the little girls

Christmas party

We had our annual church Christmas party last weekend. We had a dinner, Nativity, coloring for the kids, a cookie decorating station, blanket tying for charity, and the big guest was Santa. This year is so much fun because Lincoln really gets it. He was supper excited when Santa appeared. Lincoln sat on his lap and then had his eyes glued on him while the other children had their turns. On another note this year was Kaitlyn's first year not sitting on Santa's lap, they really do grow up too fast!

Temple Trip

Where we live it takes us two and a half hours to drive to the closest temple. Since it is so far it is always an event! We went down with our friends the Wilde Family. We switch off watching the kids so that all the adults can go inside. This time we hung out in the chapel across the parking lot and let the kids play. We had to get some pictures of all the kiddos! It was a wonderful trip, hopefully we can go again soon!

Going to the Zoo

I had a Friday free from babysitting recently. Lincoln and I thought that it would be fun to go to the zoo with our friends. We packed a lunch and headed to the zoo's rain forest. Lincoln and Jayne are so adorable together!

Halloween Fun

We love Halloween over here! It was a party all day long.

Lincoln's preschool started off the day with a party. I only got this one picture, but they played games and had some treats. Lincoln asked to take his costume off while he ate, but he wore his costume for the games.


In the afternoon, the elementary had their annual Halloween Parade. It was so fun to see all the kids dressed up in their costumes. Following the parade Lincoln and I were lucky enough to get to help out with Eve's classroom party. I forgot to bring my camera for the festivities :(

After dinner we geared up to go trick or treating in our neighborhood. We were joined by 7 other families! It was our biggest group by far. We are missing one family in the photo, but you can see how large our group was. Our poor neighbors didn't know what they had coming. Can you tell Link isn't too happy in the photo? He was standing by Reuben and Ryan couldn't see him in the picture so he had him move to the front of the group. Lincoln wasn't a fan of that idea. He sure loves his brother! It melts my heart! I ended up staying at home to pass out candy and be a home base for those who wanted to come back because they were cold.


And they are off!

Girl Scout Camp

Last weekend I was able to go camping with Kaitlyn's girl scout troop. It is hard to believe that I have been their leader for almost 6 years now! We went camping with all the girl scout troops from our town this weekend. It was such a fun and beautiful time of year to go camping. The trees are all changing colors which made for beautiful surroundings and there was a Halloween theme to the camp out since it's October. We started off the first night having a scavenger hunt. The following morning a naturalist came and brought a couple of owls and a possum. That night we had a monster bash (which I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of). There were carnival games, dancing, and of course everyone was in costume. The last morning we celebrated Juliet Low's (the founder of girl scouts) birthday. Our girls had fun with the troop we shared a cabin with, it was a just a great camp out over all :)

We made a craft during our free time inspired by this.


The other troop included us in on their doughnut eating contest

and their bobbing for apples game


Here is a photo of all the girls from our city that were at camp.

Apple Farm

This fall I was able to go with Eve and her class to an apple farm for their field trip. It ended up being a beautiful day! The kids learned about apple trees and how the farmers harvest their apples. Then they were given a taste of apple cider, Yum!

Eve

Eve turned the big 6 this year! She was super excited about her birthday this year. She did get confused about her "real" birthday and friends party, since they were not on the same day it end caused some tears but in the end everything worked out.

Her party was a Hello Kitty party this year. We played Hello Kitty, Hello Kitty; where one person would hide Eve's stuffed animal hello kitty while everyone else was out of the room and then they would enter the room again and try to find it.
I have to mention my score at the dollar spot. Yes, those lunch boxes were at the Dollar spot in Target! Perfect timing!

We played meow; where everyone sits in a circle and one person sits in the middle with their eyes closed. Once the center child has their eyes closed everyone switches places and then the child with their eyes closed points in one direction. Whichever child they point at in the circle says "meow, meow" and the center child has to guess who it is.
We played a couple more games and then had cake. I was a little bummed that it didn't turn out as well as the one I made on her real birthday, but she still liked it :)

Kates

I really can't believe my daughter turned 11 this year! It is really crazy and hard to wrap my head around! Next year she will be able to start participating in our youth program at church which is CRAZY!


School started the day before her birthday this year. Kates was super excited to start another year and be able to see her friends on a daily basis.

Kaitlyn's cake was not my best looking cake this year, but it sure was tasty! She requested chocolate cake with ganache frosting, she is definitely my girl!

Instead of a party this year she opted for a sleepover with her two best friends. We had to do them on separate weekends because of scheduling conflicts. Lauren was able to come spend the night on Kaitlyn's real birthday. We did a bunch of crafts and had cake!

Going to the Zoo

I have to pinch myself sometimes! I am really so blessed to have Rochelle and her family in my life. They surprised us with a family pass to our local zoo! I was speechless when she emailed me to let me know about the surprise. I still am. I just feel so blessed to have such an amazing friend! It is more than just a zoo pass. She is an amazing friend and I won't get all mushy on the blog, but you get the idea :)

A trip to the zoo together seemed perfect! There is a new Elephant exhibit at our zoo that is huge. The zoo really did a fantastic job if I say so myself.

My husband's a podiatrist, so I had to take a picture of the elephant's foot bone.

Crazy best friends

I don't take enough pictures of this beautiful girl! I love her so much! She is growing up way too fast.

I love watching them together. They are such good friends.

This bear was just hanging out. He was so cute! Grace took one look at this bear folding his arms and said, "Look the bear is praying". I love kids, they see the world in such a wonderful way.

The zoo has a neat butterfly exhibit. I was lucky enough to have a little visitor.

I hope we can go together many more times this year!