Blast from the Halloween Past

Happy Halloween, friends!  I was thinking about what to post today and I couldn't resist showing you a few pictures of me on Halloweens past.  I think that most of the reason I love Halloween so much is that I have SUPER fond memories of it growing up.  

Here I am in a Pre-K parade as an Indian princess... apparently it was serious business :)

I'm not sure if this was Halloween or just a random "Fifties Day", either way - it's a costume :)

And I think one of my favorite Halloween memories is this pic...

Yes, people... that's me as a world.  My mom always made my Halloween costumes and when I got into the 3rd or 4th grade I REALLY wanted a store bought one.  (Why??? I'm not sure).  My mom assured me that there wasn't a single costume she could't make for me and so I threw out the most abstract idea EVER in the hopes that she would cave and we'd have to go buy a costume... a globe.  My mom assured my sweet little sassy self that she could totally make me a world costume and a few weeks later there I was.... at the Church carnival... in a world costume.... made out of toilet seat covers. :)

Life Lesson #1: Don't challenge my mom.

Life Lesson #2: My mom is awesome

Our plans for today include a Pajama Parade for Luke this morning, Halloween party at Miss Lisa's for the "littles",  jack-o-lantern pizza, trick-or-treating and eating our kids candy after they go to bed :)

Tomorrow is November 1st - which means I am officially allowed to show you all the Christmas stuff I've already been up to - which may or may not involve Ryan Gosling Christmas ornaments for my classroom tree and a North Pole Breakfast to top last years :)

Party Time

Even though I didn't host a "BIG" Halloween party this year. I was able to make a couple of little get togethers at my house this month festive! :)

It was my turn to host our Bible Study/Book Club/Accountability group and I thought it would be fun to make it a little bit themed...

Spoooooooooky SKOR bars are a MUST :)

When I have food "displayed" I think it always looks better when there are levels. My cake stand broke a while back and so I improvised with some scarier looking books.

"So Good It's Scary Chicken Spaghetti"

This month I also hosted our small group at our house.  Since everything was already decorated I threw down some Halloween napkins and voila!  Instant Festive!

Kids table :)

And it wouldn't be a good party without some sword fighting, right?!?!?! :)

(WHAT is Mason doing in this pic???)

Dave and I attended the "after party" in the boys room... the theme was "organization" :)

Christmas Cards!!!

When Shay told me she was going to blog about all her past Christmas cards I HAD to jump on board.  I am a total sucker for "this time last year" pics and making our family yearbooks and all of that and I LOVE looking back on past Christmas cards.  

As I was pulling these out it was super fun to see our family, my hair and my design style/ability grow.  The first year we were married I sent out a Christmas/Thank You card with a wedding picture on it (we were married December 3rd), but I'm pretty sure I ordered it through a generic website and don't have it on file. 

In 2008 Luke was 8 months old and we sent out our first official "family Christmas card". 

OMG - my cheeks, Luke's cheeks! :) hahaha

2009 we had moved into our current house and Luke was about 2.5.

2010 I was pregnant with Mason and if you knew me while I was pregnant with him you know that I was SWOLLEN!!! Like, so swollen I barely left my house other than going to work from about 20 weeks on swollen.  (Unless you're Sheaffer who didn't believe me until she saw pics after---- no worries, Sheaffer... I've forgiven you :) ) We took a few family pics at The Arboretum, but I was too depressed over the size of all of me that I opted to use my very favorite picture from the whole year... Luke at the pool in the summer covered in Reeses pieces wearing my sunglasses.  He and I had an absolutely blissful summer that year. He was at such a fun age and it was just him and I all day every day while Dave worked.  We went to the pool every single day, did lots of crafts, and had an absolute blast.  Such sweet memories.

2011 was our first year to bring in "professional help" with our family pics and I will NEVER attempt them on our own again.  EVER.  Luke was 3Y 8M old and Mason was 8 Months (and a cue ball!)

The pictures were so fabulous that I made an additional 4x6 insert to include with our cards...

Last years card was our last as a family of 4.  We took pics with a chalkboard sign that read "We're Having a Baby Brother" and then erased it and took pics with one that said "We're Having a Baby Sister".  When we had our ultrasound we were ready either way and although the front of our cards were fine...

... the backs announced our impending arrival :)  I literally dropped them off at the post office on like a Monday and then the next day had my 20-week ultrasound and immediately thought of the 120+ cards we had sent out.  hahaha.  The VERY first person to know that Griffin was going to be Griffin JOY Was our photographer when she got my frantic text to send me the girl pics so I could put an "addendum" to our card out on FB :)

If you're starting to think about your Christmas cards, here's some info on the ones I design.  Check out my design site to see all kinds of cards (Christmas and other) I've designed for fabulous clients :)

Pumpkinville

Yesterday, after nap time, we decided to head out to Pumpkinville at Tucker Hill.  Tucker Hill is a super cute local neighborhood with new homes that look historic and every year MCA partners with them to create Pumpkinville as a fundraiser for our Middle School.

The kids got a "prize" for wearing their costume, so they went to our costume box and decided to be Buzz and Woody :)

When we go to events like this, Dave and I often "divide and conquer" and on this particular day I was on "Mason Duty" - so there will be lots of pictures of him today :) 

These pictures right here are the reason I am sooooooo beyond excited to get the proofs from our professional family photo session back...

They had a cute little "front porch" vignette set up, and our own little porch band took over...

Luke's "guitar face" cracks me up!

I don't think I got a single picture of this girlies face because she was FASCINATED with the hay.

I'm not sure I've ever seen Mason sit this still!  Miracles do happen!

He was super proud of himself :)

I think the best part of Pumpkinville (aside from the haymaze, tons of pumpkins, hayride and cute photo opportunities) is that it's completely staffed by parent and staff volunteers from MCA! :)  On this day we ran into several of my very favorite students!!! :)

Luke was busy running around, but the minute he saw Mason's spider he bee-lined it to the face painting station.

Lisa is a sweet MCA mama who I LOVE.  I've had 2 out of her 3 kiddos in my class and she has two boys an a girl as well!  Her sweet kids are awesome and they love each other so much and I hope that my kids grow up to have relationships like hers have :)

Mason decided to participate in the hula hoop contest...

He would hold onto the hula hoop and spin in circles.  TOO CUTE!!!

Another attempt at a group pic...

Family pic!  Dave and I are totally hunched, but whatever! I'll take it :)

Waiting for the hayride...

Griffin's face :)

Griffin was loving the hayride...

Selfie with Mason on the hayride...

Pretty sure playing in the deer corn was Mason's favorite part...

There was a bake sale going on, so the boys indulged in some cookies and cupcakes.

Two hours at the pumpkin patch will wear a boy out. :)

I love everything about this picture.  They're all growing so fast and I know that I'll blink and he won't be wearing froggy rainboots and taking a paci (well, maybe he'll still have the paci... he's kind of an addict.... like... he's going to start taking money out of my purse to buy pacis - hahaha) and I want to just bottle him up at this age - tantrums, moodiness and all.

If you live locally, be sure to check out Pumpkinville.  It's FREE and super fun and open through Halloween.