Halloween!

We had lots of fun with our Halloween dinner again this year.  Greg got some pics of the big kid table but must of forgot to snap one of the littles; they were in the entry way.  The biggest hit were the ER Special, a Shirley Temple with the Grenadine in a syringe you squirted yourself.  Lots of fun.

Here are some of the other lovely items.

I have gotten pretty good at taking yummy food like chicken pesto with a bit of Alfredo and making it sound and look look disgusting.  We had a few of the littler girls that wouldn't even taste some menu items because they looked so gross, but I thought it all tasted pretty good.

These pumpkin brownies were a big hit with Greg and his mom (she and Randy came into town the next day for the Eagle Open House).

Emily and Kate finished all the Harry Potter books this summer.  So Emily had to be Ginny Weasley to keep with her red headed Halloween tradition.  She wore Kate's Hermine costume and I made Kate a new one so she could be Luna Lovegood.  With the strong Harry Potter vibe flowing I knew there was one costume too easy to pass up.  I bough a $5 pair of thick glasses, poofed out my hair and became Professor Trelawney.  A few trick or treaters looked at me weird but most of the big kids  and adults got it.

I made Lily pick from the MANY previously made options (she was a little disappointed that I wouldn't make her a pink pigmie puff costume - some obscure Harry Potter creature that she really knows nothing about because she hasn't read the books), and she surprised us by picking Wendy Darling.  Not many first graders guessed who she was but she still looked adorable and let Natali curl her long pony tail.

Natali showed off her growing swim muscles as Rosie the Riveter.  She had some friends over downstairs while Mack had friends up stairs.  Greg was out of town so I told Andrew he could trick or treat as long as he took the girls around the neighborhood.  They did our small neighborhood but passed on the connecting subdivision because they were so cold.  Andrew was even cold in the gorilla suit (sorry, somehow missed pictures).  No complaints from me, I'm all about less candy.  

Lily still managed to have quite a stash.  

Eagle completed

Mack and Andrew finished their Eagle projects near the same time so we decided to celebrate together.  The awards weren't in by the time Nani and Papa were coming so we just decided to have a a party in place of a court of honor.  This was more our style anyway.  The boys wanted brownies so we made 6 pans of brownies- Carmel, Mississippi Mud, Mint, Cookie Dough Frosted, and Funfetti Blondies- yum.  We put pictures all over the house of the boys and just chatted with people as they came and went.  It was so fun and luckily there weren't many brownies left went everyone left.  

For their Eagle projects Andrew furnished a refugee apartment and Mack organized and carried out a youth soccer camp.  It was a lot of work to finish all the paperwork and see it through to the end - glad to be done but so proud of these boys.

Family Pictures 2019

This years family pictures turned out so awesome that I have so many favorites I can't leave any out.  So you get them all...Thanks Heather!!

First and Last Homecoming

Natali's last Homecoming.  She and Carson had a great time- the smolder pose was her favorite.

Mack turned 16 just 8 days before the dance so he asked Elsie (her birthday was just a few days after his).  HE gave her this sign with a bag of goldfish (his friends call him Mack the Snack).  The JV soccer tournament was the same day so he and Dalen were a little limited on what they could do but they all ended up having a blast.  To make the time issues easier we served dinner at our house with the littles as servers and Greg grilling steak.  The little girls loved that.