Happy Halloween!!!

We finally carved our pumpkins tonight!!!

And it was actually cool outside while we did it.

Perfect pumpkin carving weather . . .

Allison & Sarah both went for the "scary" look.

And the whole time we were carving,

Kimball kept saying, "Eeewwwww!!! Grosssssssss!!!

It was pretty cute.

Happy Halloween!!

Allison turns 7 !

Here are some fun pictures on Allison on her birthday weekend!!

This one above is of Allison right after she got off the bus on Friday (the day before her birthday). She got a special crown from her teacher to wear all day. (I'm sure she loved the attention it brought her) . . . So I had Allison and Sarah pose together to show it off. She looks pretty happy! Cute sisters, aren't they?

For Allison's birthday, we decided to let her invite 3 friends to go camping on an over-night adventure. We normally don't do "overnighters," but we were going to go camping as a family anyway, so why not turn it into a birthday party with 3 more?

Here are all of the girls in the back of the Tahoe, being silly. They just finished up eating pizza, and now we're on our way to the campsite!! I think they're excited, don't you?

For party favors, we gave each girl a glow-in-the-dark star wand, and later on, we handed out flashlights. They were perfect gifts once it got dark outside, and for inside our camper as 'night lights.'

As part of our campsite, we had an enclosed "shelter" that was totally screened it and covered.

It also had a picnic table that was perfect for eating cake and opening presents.

Allison got a "HyperDash" game from us.

A "Glitter it UP" craft set from Sophie

Silly putty, make-up, and other fun stuff from Emmie

And a decorate-it-yourself Jewelry Box from Millie

After presents, Matt got the campfire good and hot for roasting marshmellows. We made yummy smores. Most of the girls decided that catching their marshmellows on fire was the best way to get the job done. Sophie won the prize for making the most smores that night. We also made gourmet hot chocolate to wash down the smores.

After we got the kids all "sugared up," it was time to head inside the camper! This is always Allison's favorite part of our camping trips. It's seriously nothing to get that excited about. It's just a small pop-up tent trailer, but the kids really have fun with it. The nice thing about it, is that it has a heater and a/c. So we can use it year-round if we WANT to.

Here's a shot of the girls from the outside:

And one from the inside:

The night went surprisingly well. Everyone was MOSTLY warm, and no one woke up until 7am. So that's pretty good, for a group of young girls away from their parents.

In the morning, we ate donuts, muffins, grapes and juice. Afterwards, Matt & I broke camp, while all of the girls played around outside. After the camper was put back together, we took a picture of everyone in front of it.

The last request we had from the girls was to go on a nature hike before we left. So we obliged them by going on a SHORT one. The girls thought they were going on a big adventure!!

There was a neat little bridge on the nature trail that we stopped at for another pic.

And yet another picture I took on our little hike -- of the sun peeking through the trees in the early morning . . .

At the end of the nature trail, I asked one of Allison's friends, Sophie, to take a picture of Me and Matt, with the birthday girl -- to document that we were actually there. She did a pretty good job!

And last, but not least, we snapped a few pictures of the deer that we passed on the way out of the state park. We saw probably 15-20 deer during our stay there.

Allison's 1st grade school picture

Allison, age 7

New pictures of Sarah & Kimball

I got Sarah's preschool pictures back today.

The school let us bring siblings to the photo session, so I got a picture of Kimball taken, too.

Kimball's smile is a little bit better in his picture, than Sarah's. But they turned out half way decent.

Take a look.

Sarah, age 4 1/2

Kimball, age 2

awwww . . . brother and sister. So cute!