Halloween Fun

The Thursday before Halloween, Hailey's preschool class did an adorable play that we were able to come and see.  The kids were all so excited to be able to dress up in their costumes.  Eliza was very entertained by the cute preschool kids.

Me, Hailey and Eliza headed over to Ben's school Halloween morning to see the school's parade.  It is so fun seeing my own son doing things that I remember when I was in elementary school.  Ben loves Scooby Doo, so that was his chosen costume for this year.  It worked out great for me because it was a costume that my mom already had, that we borrowed.  Later that day, my mom watched the girls and I was able to go help with Ben's Halloween party for his class.  He is so cute, and was so excited when I came into his class.  I thought Ben would change out of his costume after the parade, but his teachers said it was up to him.  So, he ended up wearing his costume all day.  The class party was a lot of fun!  I was in charge of helping make candy spiders, which was a lot of fun.  All the kids would ask who's mom I was.  After I told them Ben, they would say..oh Ben is so great or I like Ben a lot.

We decided to trick-or-treat our own neighborhood this year.  I stayed home to pass out candy and Mike took the kids.  It was amazing weather!  I started out by waiting for the knocks or doorbell rings, but they were one after another.  So, I just sat on my porch handing out candy (in my awesome king-kong lady outfit).  It was a lot of fun to see all our cute neighbor children.  Mike and the kids did great and eventually met up with some of Ben's friends and made their way around the neighborhood in a huge mob.  They eventually ended up at the Henderson's for hot chocolate and donuts. Ben and Hailey could barely lift their bags by the time they got home.  Such a fun Halloween!  We are so blessed to live in such a great neighborhood.

Ben's Birthday at Grandma and Papa's

One more birthday celebration for Ben!  He got to celebrate with his cousin Jaxon at Mike's parents house.  We had a great dinner and a fabulous dessert.  The only thing Ben asked for, for his Birthday, was a pillow pet.  Mike's mom bought him one, but I was a little worried because he would be getting it after his official birthday.  But he never said anything about his present or the pillow pet.  When he opened his present from grandma and papa he was sooo excited.  He loves his pillow pet!

Soccer, Friend Birthday Party, and Halloween Party

Just another fun filled Saturday!  It started off with some soccer action.  Ben's age of soccer doesn't have goalies, so there is no specific goalie.  But, that is definitely his favorite spot!  He loves to hang out around our goal and man is he good at blocking shots!  One game I counted 10 saves, and he's not even using his hands because he's not an official goalie!  We will definitely have him try being a real goalie next year.

After the soccer game we had some neighborhood friends over to celebrate Ben's birthday.  Mike did a great job setting up a treasure hunt around our house for the kids to find their ultimate birthday treasure bags.  We had a fun pizza lunch and played a bunch of fun games in the backyard.  The funniest game to watch was a relay race, a zombie relay race, the kids were so funny trying to hop and skip their ways like zombies!  (Oh and we got a fence in our backyard! It is so nice!  You've never seen kids so excited for a fence.  This is becuase they are afraid of the neighbors dog Stitch, which has bitten multiple children.)

To top of this great day we got to go to a fun Halloween party.  Our motivated friends throw a great Halloween party every year that is so fun to go to.  They had it at the Sandy park this year.  It was such nice weather that the kids got to play outside for a while.  Ben is actually being Scooby Doo this year, but decided to dress as a power ranger for this party because it wasn't actually Halloween yet.  Hailey was Dorothy, I found the costume and thought it was so cute.  Hailey had no idea who Dorothy or the wizard of Oz were.  So we had to watch the show before coming to the party.  She agreed that she liked Dorothy and that would be a great costume.  Eliza was our cute little monkey.  Mike is wearing a quite hideous clown costume.  It was actually my clown costume that I wore in 6th grade, so I'm impressed he was able to wear it.  When I was the clown in 6th grade I had stilts and walked around the school in them.  Unfortunately the stilts are long gone and Mike had to do without.  The party was a lot of fun with good food, friends, and family.  Bri and Jake were definitely the stars of the night with their roller-coaster costume!

Garden of Weeds

Okay, so we've lived in our house for 1 & 1/2 years and the garden thing has not worked out so far.  Last summer we didn't even try, Eliza was a new baby and with a new house and everything it wasn't worth it.  So, we said next year for sure, well that would be this year and it didn't happen again.  I'm going to blame this year on the scouts.   Mike was asking if I had any suggestions for activities, and I kept saying bring your scouts over and weed our garden and plant it.  Well, they found better things to do and we never got it going.  Mike was motivated one Friday when I was working in the Spring and planted peas with the kids in one corner of our garden.  Those actually grew great and we enjoyed picking lots of peas in early summer. 

Really late in the summer, Hailey found packs of seeds in our house and wanted to plant them in our garden.  I thought, sure why not.  So, we cleared some ground and planted a few rows of seeds although I knew they had no chance of growing that late in the year.  So, we did not water or weed or take care of our late planted seeds at all.  We came out this day in October, and we found our cute little watermelon growing in our garden of weeds.  Way to go little watermelon.  The kids were so excited!  We had Gavin over playing for a little while, and I'm sure he thought we were very strange to love our little watermelon.  Well, here's hoping for a real garden next year!

Ben's Birthday Swimming Party!

Oh, the great wedding photos we'll have of these two if they end up getting married like they plan.  We had to do something on Ben's actual birthday, according to Ben.  So, I let him decide.  He said the thing he most wanted to do was to go swimming at the Herriman Rec. Center.  Done!  After finishing up homework and getting Mike home from work we headed over and met the Gooches there.  Ben was really happy that Isabelle and him were able to celebrate their birthday's together on their actual birthday.  Of course Ben's trip wouldn't have been complete without a jump off the high dive. 

After swimming fun, we headed over to the Gooches house for some lemon cake and ice cream (oh and chocolate but that doesn't count for Ben, he's a lemon cake fan). 

We headed home and he opened his presents from us.  Mike and I had other plans in mind for Ben's gifts, but Hailey had her own plans.  I was shopping with Hailey a month before Ben's birthday and she spotted these wall tracks.  She told me we had to get them for Ben's birthday, because she knew he would love them.  I thought it was so cute that she would pick out a great present for him, that we bought it.  She was great at keeping it a secret from him until he opened it up.  Sure enough, he was so excited, and it was just what he wanted.  Cute, thoughtful Hailey!  It was a great Birthday day, and Ben was happy to be able to take treats to school earlier in the day.  I have a 7 year old!!!

It's T-ball time!

More t-ball fun, what a swing!  After the first game we played coach pitch and Hailey was really good at hitting the ball.  Did you notice she's wearing a skirt, fashion is a must even when playing t-ball!  I think Eliza is doing a babe ruth move, a home run must be coming up next!

The First of Ben's Birthday Celebrations!

We had a fabulous Birthday party for Ben and Nicole at our house!  Eliza loves mixing and cooking, so she was a great help in the cupcake department.  My family got Ben some awesome clothes.  The cutest thing was that Ben was so excited when he pulled out each thing!  He said "wow this ones great, I really like this one, look how cool this one is."  I just love that kid, turning 7 and so excited about getting clothes for his birthday.

The funniest thing was Eliza cozying up with my brother Blake.  Eliza has been a mommy's girl since she was tiny.  She willingly goes to me, Mike, my mom, and other people occasionally.  It was so cute seeing her walk over to my brother, sit on his lap and cuddle with him.

Hailey's Field Trip to Hee-Haw Farms

This is one of the fabulous field trips that Hailey's preschool has done.  It was our first time to Hee-Haw Farms and it was so much fun!  We started by going down the big slide, which was a huge hit with the kids.  I even got in on the fun and took Eliza down a few times.  Then the kids jumped on fun hay surrounded trampolines.  Our next stop was the petting zoo.  I think Eliza would have been happy to stay there the entire time.  She loved the baby pigs, they were so cute, it would be fun to have one of those as a pet! 

Then we headed over for a hay ride.  Unfortunately, Hailey got stung by a bee right as we were going to board the wagon.  She got stung right above her eye on her forehead, poor little thing was in so much pain.  I was just nervous because I am allergic to bee stings, and Mike and Ben are hyper-sensitive to all bug bites.  I was stung once as a child on my foot, and I had a huge club foot for weeks.  When Mike and Ben get spider bites the area swells up immensely.  Ben's ear was once 4 times it's normal size after being bit by a spider on a father-son campout.  When Mike was younger his eye was swollen shut after a spider bite.  So, I was watching Hailey like a hawk ready to run to the store for some benadryl.  Luckily she was fine, and just had a little red mark all day.  She was a good sport about the whole thing and was doing better after we ate lunch.

They had this huge vat of dried corn kernels that the kids had a blast playing in.  Then one of the workers at the farm gave the kids some good farm information about corn.  Hailey was quizzing everyone about corn for a long time after that.  Then we headed into the corn maze which we amazingly made it through without losing any children.  The next thing was heading into the pumpkin patch to find a pumpkin. The kids all had a great time picking out their own pumpkins.  What a fun day!
Ben has come home from school every day saying he was chased by girls.  I laughed when he first told me, and asked him what they did when they caught him.  He said "I'm too fast, I haven't been caught yet and I don't know what the girls will do to me if they ever catch me."  At first I thought it was just cute, but as it went on I could tell it was really bothering Ben being chased every day.  He told me and my mom that he couldn't even play at recess because he was just running away the whole time.  My mom told him to tell the girls to stop chasing him.  The next day he told the girls and they stopped chasing him.  Now they play a slightly different chase game.  They have two teams and try to catch each other, it is much better than just being chased by a few girls!  Also, Eliza loves her squeaky shoes and anything Curious George.