Kindergarten Halloween Parade and Party

Last Halloween post - I promise!  Today was Delaney's first Halloween parade and party.  (Her preschool did not celebrate Halloween, only Fall).  I decided at the last minute to take a 1/4 day off work so I could go help out.  Mama and Harper stopped by the school to see the first part of the parade. 

The parade route was about .75 miles long then the whole school goes to sit in a big circle in the field so each class can walk by and all of the students can see each others' costumes.  They have it down to a science at Glen! 

Back in the classroom the kids had cupcakes and juice boxes, played a candy corn relay race, got wrapped up as toilet paper mummies, made a craft, and listened to a story.  I think Delaney had a good time and I know she enjoyed having me there in class.  I remember always feeling very special when my mom was a room mother, so I want either Allan or myself to be able to attend the girls' parties and special events as often as possible.

I think the pictures are self-explanatory.  The cutie-pie in the glasses is our neighbor and Delaney's friend, Kendall.

Please excuse Harper's fruit punch mustache :)

More Halloween Fun

I really lucked out this year in the Halloween costume department.  Honey had made a bride dress for Delaney as a Christmas gift last year and she wanted to wear it as her costume.  Harper just wanted to be the strawberry that Delaney was last year.  Sounded great to me!! 

Tonight, Honey and Grandpa stopped by to see the girls and drop off their treats, then the Smallies and Joneses joined us to walk around our neighborhood.  It was a chilly night, but we all had fun!

I love the way that Delaney wanted to hold Harper's arm like she was "a married girl".

We tried to get a picture of all the kids in front of the scary house, but our iphones don't really do a good job in the dark.

Afterwards, Cate and Brady helped the girls hand out candy on our porch for a while.

Delaney looked so cute and grown up bundled in her coat and scarf with her legs crossed.

Harper tried to ward off the evil camera lady with her glow necklace.

Annual Downtown Trick-or-Treating

Per our annual tradition, we met our friends downtown today to trick-or-treat at the local businesses.  The Joneses, Buschs, and Rudds all joined us. 

Luke (Spiderman), Delaney (bride), Claire (Batgirl), Harper (hatless strawberry with pink boots - such a 3 year old!), Landon (shark-bitten surfer dude), Brody (shark)

Craig and Allan with the kiddos

The Rudds caught up with us toward the end, so we snapped some more pics with Colin (baby jailbird) and Tyler and Lucas (police officers).

Mr. Warrior

Jon was nominated to compete as Mr. Spirit in the Mr.Warrior contest at GCHS.  Think of it as a spoof on a Miss America pageant.  12 contestants had to dress as their favorite cartoon character, perform a talent, and dress in formal wear.  The final five contestants had to answer an interview question.  Jon dressed as Jimmy Neutron, did a dance that Kathy choreographed to "In the Navy", and looked so handsome in his suit.  Unfortunately, he did not make it to the final round, but we all had so much fun being there to cheer him on.  I'm sure it is one of the highlights of his senior year!

Ann is 21!

Today is Ann's 21st birthday - unbelievable!!  I can still remember the first time I saw her on the day she came home from the hospital :)  Everyone met at Fast Eddies at 7:30 to celebrate.  I had parent/teacher conferences until 8, but I didn't want to miss out on the fun, so I drove to Alton afterwards.  Ann has had a lot going on these past couple of months with the baby, school, and soccer, so it was great to see her let loose and be silly and carefree.  At one point, Cody texted Ann a picture of Trevor before bed, so then we all proceeded to get out our phones and share our favorite Trevor pictures.  Gotta love his silly faces!

Her friends were torturing her by buying her shots of terrible liquor!

No, I wasn't dressed to impress the gross, drunk, homeless-looking guy at the bar, I was just still dressed from conferences :)

Kathy, Ken, and Ann

I think it says a lot that Ann wanted to spend her 21st birthday with her parents, not solely her friends.  They are all lucky to have each other!

Soccer Skating Party

Delaneys' soccer team had an end-of-the-season soccer party at the Y skating rink tonight.  I was a little apprehensive about taking both girls by myself since Allan had to work, but they really did great!  Delaney just kept hugging the side wall as she went round and round with Alayna.  Harper was not sure at first, but since she had on toddler skates with her shoes inside she was able to shuffle around on her own.

Leaf Collection

We took a family hike in the SIUE woods today and Delaney amassed quite a collection of big leaves on her stick.  She was very proud of them.

We Got Trevor!

After a month of bugging Annie to "let me watch that baby!" I finally got my chance tonight while she and Cody went to a trivia night.  It was kind of last minute and I had to teach at church, so Honey watched him until I could pick him up at 7:45.  Honey and Grandpa Ed got to experience a bottle, a poop, and a monster spit up but I just got to give him a bottle and let him sleep in my arms.  I had the pack n play ready to put him in if he fell asleep, but I was loving my snuggle time too much to put him down.  I held him for 3 hours until they came to pick him up and loved every minute of it.  I did feel weird trying to do things one-handed again like helping the girls brush their teeth and get to bed.  Hopefully now that Ann's soccer is over and she gets to have a life again we can watch him a little more often.

Harper snuck in a quick kiss before handing him off to be fed.

Thanks for filling my belly, Aunt Jen.  Now I'm ready to snooze.

Almost there....

And he's out!  You know a baby is sleeping good when the paci falls out :)