Hood Party 2014

Um, well... We have Awesome neighbors!

Honestly, Ryan and I can't believe our wonderful luck!

So, we had a little gathering a few weekends ago

Nothing fancy, just low-key...

Ok, LYING!

Hahaha! It was a BIG deal!

Was LOADS of fun, and I laughed more than I have in ages!

For 2 weeks leading up to the party, we did Secret Santa (adult style)

and while my Secret Santa was very kind and polite, Ryan's was a little

more "creative" ;)

Our night started with beverages and revealing our Secret Santa's

along with our shirts that were to be our attire for the night!

We then split into teams, and tackled an interesting lists of "tasks"

that earned us points, to be tallied at the end of the night!

Nothing but laughter and fun ensued!

What a great night!

Stick your tongue on a flag pole- Check

Team pyramid - Check

Team photo in front of the Moose - Check

There were a bunch of other point-earning tasks... what a riot!

I was Bryan's secret santa... I think he liked his gifts!

Ryan playing Darts... He may not realize he's not actually holding a dart. Haha

Love this girl!

Thanks for a Fantastic Fun night!  Can't wait

to see what kind of neighborhood craziness awaits in 2015!

It's been a month

Well, actually more than a month.

My longest break from blogging since I've started.

It wasn't intentional, it just happened.

Time slipped away and here we are 5 days until Christmas

and I'm still lacking a Thanksgiving post.

Such is life.

Here's a little smattering of stuff that's happened.

~Miss Lila was Star of the Week! ~

She was very excited about this special honor and now has her poster on her wall in her room!

~We celebrated Thanksgiving~

Nothing too fancy, and we missed Ryan again, but it was nice, and spent in the company of my loves!

~I love Boone~

But sometimes I hate him.

But I love him.

It really depends on the day

~Ryan spent time in WI deer hunting with his dad, so I took the girls to our friends cabin and hung

out for the weekend to chill out~

We watched movies, played games, and went sledding... all good things!

~All good things until Elaina decided to get car sick on the way home~

This is how I felt smelling vomit for the last 20 min of our drive.  

~We had our neighborhood Christmas Party~

This earns it's own post... 

~We took the girls to see Santa~ 

This is always a treat... however this year, we didn't get in until late and the girls were

semi falling apart by the time we actually saw the Big guy

You'd never know it by the looks of these photos though!

~Mike the Elf returned to our home~ 

He has been making his rounds, checking on the girls from all different angles

~Nothing particular... I just like this photo~

~We made Cinnamon Rolls for our neighbors and the girls thought they were pretty special to be able to bring them around all by themselves!~

~Our tree looks so pretty in our new home... And the puppies definitely have their favorite spot!~

~It's the time of year for Christmas programs~

Both the girls had a little dance routine for us, and Ellie had her Montessori Christmas program!

So dang cute!!!

~Ryan took me on a date to see Josh Thompson~

We had an amazing dinner at Kona Grill, and the music that night was great!

With Christmas right around the corner, they're be lots more to share.... and I'm hoping it won't be another month before I'm back!

And the snow is here

My girls are loving the snow!

Loving having something New to do and to play with!

( I don't love it quite so much )

I was looking though some photos and realized that I had taken some

from one of the last great fall day we had!  

We spent hours outside.... Ryan cleaning up and the girls playing in the leaves.

I helped, when I didn't have the camera in hand ;)

Leaves are new to us.  Our old home had one tree in the front yard,

so leaf maintenance was pretty much nonexistent.  

NOT the case here at the new place, as you can see!

They make for some great fall photos though! 

They were like little birdies in their leaf nest! :)

We really had a great fall!  It hung around for awhile and gifted us

with some brilliant color!  But when it was over, well... Here we are in 

early November with snow on the ground and forecasted single digit lows next week!

Hang on to your parkas folks... Winter, I fear, is here to stay!!!

The girls, however... are making the most of it!

This is the ONLY spot in our yard with a slope, not even close to the hill at our old house....
but they LOVED it anyways! :)

Boo!

Halloween was a fun one this year in our home!

The girls have been so excited about the day, about the

dressing up, about the costumes, and candy, and..and..and....

Our little black kitty and our Princess Elsa were the cutest we've

ever seen (we may be a bit biased)... but c'mon.  Tell me they aren't

absolutely adorable!?!

MOM!!  I AM smiling!!! Just take the darn picture!

Both of the girls had parties at their schools, and since I was off work, I was

able to attend both!  It was also pretty handy that E's was in the morning, 

and the Queen herself, got to celebrate in the afternoon!

We dropped Lila at school, then Ellie and I head to her montessori.

I won't talk about it much.  She was a turd.  It wasn't awesome.

She ended up coming home with me at lunch.... moving on.

Lila's however, was enjoyable!  The whole school has a parade then they go

back to their classrooms for individual parties!  It was fun to help out in Lila's

class and she was such a well behaved, good little girl!  Made a mama proud!!

One decent smile with Ms. Ruchika!

Painting a pumpkin with a pout

She spotted me during the parade!  So pretty!

Mrs. Moorse's Kindergarten class 2014

Throwing game in class

They of course went out to collect loot that night!

This is the first year, they've ever gone trick-or-treating in their

own neighborhood, and it was so fun to watch the whole gang of kids

run around together!  

As cold as it was, Ellie and I tapped out first and went home, but Lila

was out for quite awhile.... I guess she was right... 

the cold doesn't bother her anyway!  ;)

We're gonna get HOW much candy?!!!

With their friend Audrey the Owl :)

Checking out the haul!

The next night was more for mommy and daddy than the girls, but they were excited too!

We sent out a last minute evite to a few friends and our neighbors,
guessing that on a weekend Halloween, everyone would be busy and we'd
have a small turnout.  We guessed wrong.

20 adults, and 13 kids all ran amok in our house, and let me tell ya...

IT WAS A BLAST!

Thank you to everyone who came over and visited!  We really had a good time!!

Jello "shots" to enjoy on a spooky night! ;)

This makeup took me a stupid long time... but I think it looks aright, eh?

Black Swan and Wolverine

6 Bags of popcorn later, they are all downstairs and chilling out!

Love these guys!

This photo makes me laugh... I have no idea what is going on here!

And it's pretty likely I'm not a video editor and have never used this program before.

It's also pretty likely, some adult beverages were consumed prior to filming this. 

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!