Early Day Fridays

Oh how I used to dread Fridays when my kids were younger! 

Fridays meant early day. And while the kids love getting out of school at 

1:15 and hanging out with ALL their friends until late into the night, 

it was a nightmare for moms of young babies!

The kids would arrive home just about the time 

I'd gotten the baby down for a nap. 

I was constantly shushing and quieting kids running down the hallway 

past the baby's room and nagging the kids to not 

slam the front door as they went in and out.  

And I was so extraordinarily tired! 

If everyone was home at 1:15, that meant I didn't get 

my much needed nap, making shushing and trying 

to be kind to gaggles of kids that much more hard!  

I don't miss being SO tired! 

But now that the kids are older and I'm much more rested, 

Fridays are FUN again! 

And to make this Friday even better, 

we had our first snowstorm of the year! It's been snowing all day! 

We have lots of winter clothes and friends can all find something to keep them warm. 

When I got home from Nicholas' carpool, 

Christopher's friends had clothes warming by the fire. 

They were inside for a while but now they're outside again 

building a jump and a snow fort and having a snowball fight!

Welcome Winter!

The Day So Many Have Been Waiting For...

 It's finally here!!

Halo 4 

Well, at least this is the special event that Marty has been waiting for on this day!

Dan took him and 3 friends to the Midnight pick-up. 

It was all very exciting--waiting in a long line with your friends and lots of other Halo Fans. 

Similar to how the "Twilight" midnight premiere is for girls.

Marty and Dan had an agreement that if he got

straight A's this term he could take a day off of school. 

And when it was discovered grades came out the same day Halo 4 came out...

well, you can imagine the excitement. 

He was motivated to work hard all term.

So Marty got his reward -- to stay home all day and play his new game.

Best. Day. Ever.

(Until I told him he still needed to go to tennis.  

Just wait until he finds out he needs to do his practicing too...)

And in other Marty news, he also got his school photos.

Earlier in the year I noticed that both 7th and 8th grade he was wearing a green shirt.

I told him he needed to make sure to NOT wear a green shirt on picture day.

But of course, it was too perfect for Marty to pass up.

7th Grade

8th Grade

9th Grade

Halloween Day 2

Christopher and friends had early day Thursday 

so they dressed in costumes from our costume closet

 and went for another round of trick-or-treating.

They came home with quite a haul! 

They said everyone was thrilled to get rid of their leftover candy!

Makes so much sense!

Happy Halloween!

Me as an Evil Queen, Nicholas as the Knave of Hearts and Christopher as Luiiiigi. 

Perfect fall weather! 

This is our 9th year in Utah and we've had warm weather on Halloween each year except for one!

The whole Mario crew!

Courtney going on safari! Amazing what she can come up with in 5 minutes!

Marty had a party with friends and Courtney had a party at our house. Christopher went trick-or-treating with his own friends so that left Dan and I with Nick while Courtney manned our door at home.

Mad Hatter, Alice and the Knave of Hearts. The Queen of Hearts wasn't able to come with us!

We took a couple of Nick's friends out with us. We started at 6:00 and I'm pretty sure we were the first ones out! But within 15 minutes the streets got busy!

After 2 blocks Nick was tired of his wig and then his sword. By the end of the night he was just wearing knickers, a black under armor and his cape!

This Halloween I wanted to try to recreate this:

Need I remind anyone that I'm not an artist nor am I too adept at make-up? 

It's still difficult for me to get a straight line when applying eye-liner!

So even though it was tricky and didn't turn out perfect, it was sooo fun!

My supplies:

Step-by-step instructions from Martha Stewart Magazine:

The end result!

I had fun shopping every aisle of Michael's looking for supplies for my crown!

All found at Michael's: 

purple headband that I turned black with tape for cut flowers

Black and Clear jewels I applied with glue gun

Pieces of decorative twigs from Christmas department

Night is over, the evil queen is ready for bed!