pumpkin carving fun

At the beginning of the month we picked up a couple of pumpkins at Austin's pre-school field trip. We decided not to carve them so early (we knew it would be a moldy mess after coming home from our trip to California). However, they did need a little "something". I found some "face" stickers I had tucked away in our Halloween decor the year before, so right before bed one evening the kids stuck faces on the pumpkins and we put them in the front of the house on display.

After returning from our trip to California, we knew we wanted to carve the pumpkins before Halloween night, but the only day available was the day before!

After the "de-gutting", Mikayla and Austin designed their pumpkin faces by drawing what they wanted them to look like. I told them (as the one with the carving knife) that there was no guarantee that it would turn out that way! But it sure was cute watching them draw the faces!

Mikayla loved "popping" out the parts of the face!

Not sure this is what Mikayla drew as her pumpkin face,
but it would do...

After a quick change for Mikayla to get ready for the musical Pinkalicious, Austin & Mikayla showed off their HAPPY pumpkins!

two little jack-o-lanterns sitting on a porch...

kindergarten halloween party

This year I am Room Coordinator for Mikayla's Kindergarten classroom, so I get the fun job of helping coordinate and plan the class parties...right up my alley! Even though I only have one party under my "belt" so far, I am pretty impressed with the volunteers who have stepped up to help. I hear this isn't as much the case as the kids get into the older grades, so I'm grateful that I chose to be Room Coordinator this year.

Our first idea for Mikayla dressing up was that she was going to be a kitty (and her brother would be a doggy), but with being gone for 10 days during October, we came home without much motivation to go through with the kitty idea. Luckily, my friend Kim had a Minnie Mouse dress she had let us borrow for Disneyland, but Mikayla didn't end up wearing it. It was the PERFECT costume for Mikayla this year on Halloween!!

My sweet Minnie Mouse...and her twin.

There were four stations at the party...

{Craft}

{Story time with an activity}

{Snack...decorating cookies}

...and of course eating them, too!
The 4th station was pumpkin bowling.

Fun times in Kindergarten!


Mikayla & her classmates all dressed up!
October 31, 2011

pinkalicious!

October was such a busy month!! Disneyland & San Diego, Toy Story on Ice, Halloween class parties, pumpkin patch field trip, soccer, Fall festivities...like pumpkin carving and caramel apples, and of course trick or treating! And, because it wasn't busy enough (ha!)...we decided to throw a little afternoon musical in there, too, before the month was over!

When I heard Pinkalicious was in town I really wanted to take Mikayla. She LOVES the Pinkalicious books. After a "tip" from a friend, I found a site that has great deals on events, but only for certain dates and times. The only time that was available was on Sunday, Oct. 30th...but for half off the tickets we squeezed it in! I asked my mom if she wanted to come with and we had a girls' night out!

When Grammy showed up, we were joking around about her not wearing any pink and Austin ran up to his sister's room and got her a pink flower and pink lei. What a sweet boy he is!

The girls ready for a night out!

My spunky Pinkalicious girl!

It was quite the trip into downtown Portland. We're really not "city folk", so finding a parking spot was quite comical...finding the car afterwords? Even more comical! Poor sweet Mikayla was so worried that we were never going to find our car!

Grammy bought Mikayla a fun PINK feather boa before the show!

Pinkalicious
October 30, 2011
The show was SUPER CUTE and Mikayla was mesmerized the whole time. She had lots of questions after the show, so it was fun to talk through it afterwords. The most asked question was "why was it fake food and not real?" I love her inquisitive mind!

Little Miss Cutie and the big PINK cupcake!

Giving a thumbs up to the show!
We were out of the theater quick enough that we were able to join in the front of the line to get each of the characters' signatures on the front of Mikayla's program.

What a fun girls' night out!

Memories were made...

soccer season...it's a wrap!

Mikayla's soccer season ended on the last Saturday in October. She had such a BLAST this year with soccer...I can see her continuing with this sport for awhile. She was so upset when she had to miss either a practice or game. She was such a fun player to watch and I was so proud of her! Her greatest strength was being a defender...maybe the "go get 'em" aggressive attitude will come later!

On her last game of the season all of the girls dressed up in tutus over their soccer gear. It was pretty cute to watch them all running around in "girly-wear", but they still acted tough and got in there to win the game. Mikayla scored her second goal of the season during her last game and her smile was PRICELESS!!

{Last Game of the Season - October 29, 2011}

I just love this smiley girl!

One last cheer!
After the game, the team and parents celebrated the season with some breakfast treats and juice under the covered area near the field. The coach talked briefly about each of the girls, gave them a medal, and a little treat bag.

Go Dolphins!

{just being a little silly}

Mikayla & Coach Erica

Mikayla & Coach Bridget

Aren't these medals so cute?!

It was such a great season...
I'm pretty sure she'll be back again next year!

toy story...on ice!

Not sure how we were able to pack so much into our October, but what a month of memories we made!! We purchased tickets for Toy Story on Ice at the beginning of October and even though we were exhausted from all we had happening after our trip to California, we were excited for an evening of fun when October 27th came around!

We started out with a quick family pic before heading out the door...literally (do you see the beautiful door lock in the background!) I knew we probably wouldn't catch a picture of all four of us at the event, so I thought to take one before we left. I took three and this is the best of the worst (not sure either kids had a "real" smile to give!)

Daddy & Sis waiting for the show to begin!

Mommy & the little man (what's with his smile?!)
A little (forced?) sibling love.

And then the show began!!

Austin was mesmerized...

...when Zurg came out!
His favorite part of the show by far!

During intermission Mikayla let me take her picture with "Jessie". We stuck with our original rule that we weren't getting the kids any souvenirs. We tried to explain that just going to a fun event like this was all that we needed to remember this night. Austin was the only one who kind of put up a bit of a fight on it, but after telling him to "put it on his Christmas list" (and buying some popcorn), he quickly forgot about a souvenir! So proud of the kids for not whining or complaining...too much!

It was a super fun show!!
{Thank goodness for opening night cheap seats!}

pre-school party fun!

My cutie pie fireman celebrated Halloween with his pre-school classmates on the Thursday before Halloween. We started out talking about dressing up as a doggy...then a fireman...then a construction worker...and then he woke up the morning of the party saying he wanted to be superman. Thankfully he was OK to walk out the door in his fireman costume and what a cute little fireman he turned out to be...

{listening quietly to a "spooky" story}
{ready to play a game}
{he was such a good sport...and followed the rules - no hands!}

{so close!}

Austin and his classmates all dressed up
October 27, 2011
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A month later...

My sweet boy at his Friendship Feast
November 22, 2011

{singing songs with his classmates}

{all the kids sharing what they are thankful for...Austin said bees?!?!?!?!}

The Friendship Feast!
...and one happy boy with a plate full of food!

It has been fun to be a part of Austin's pre-school activities. Ms. Michelle is such a super sweet teacher and perfect for Austin! I am loving watching him grow and become more and more independent...even though he is my baby!!