Spooktakular Times

Oh how we love this season!  Yes, all five of us like the same thing...no one complains about it and we're all borderline fanatics. (I would like to be able to say the same thing about several food items, dinners, and math someday).  But for now, we have fall and Halloween.  Dressing up and campfires.  Raking leaves, decorating the house, carving pumpkins, eating candy.  These are the things we all love this time of year.  And as it turns out, Hannah even likes pumpkin seeds!

(p.s. we coordinated on friday night as mary poppins and burt, but on Saturday don't you think Jay should have been a monster or princess instead?  he even suggested a family theme for next year, but this year he took out an oldy but goody costume....Napoleon Dynamite.  And yes, we'll be in costume again on Halloween night itself!  More to come!)

Hannah and Leah Turn 5!

The girls turned 5 today and instead of a cake, decided they wanted a donut tower for the morning of their birthday.  (Pretty cool I must admit, though I'll still take the baskin robbins ice cream cake or many varieties of cake over a donut )  To celebrate Hannah and Leah had their first friend sleepover, which included the Eckerts and Laumanns, and we did nails and art and costumes, and some tv and playing outside too.  After the sleepover we then decorated the outside of the house with cobwebs and spooky things to get ready for Halloween, played with glitter pens and princesses some more and then all three kids took a nap (though for Joseph it wasn't by choice, he fell asleep next to Jay on the couch watching football).   It was just before the nap that I realized I forgot to pick up the special #5 cookies from the bakery for school tomorrow, and of course the bakery is closed on Mondays, so that's why they make ready to go in the oven sugar cookies and decorative icing!  They won't win a contest for taste or looks, but the girls had fun decorating a few and it still beats the cake Jay made from scratch for my last birthday. (though he got an A for effort, I would only score my effort at B- and that's only because I wrote Hs, Ls, and 5s on the cookies).  When I asked Hannah and Leah what they wanted for dinner as their first day of 5 was preparing to come to an end, they started out talking about shells and pasta and then Joseph said "um don't you want mcdonalds and a movie?"  (captain obvious)  And since it's monopoly season and I was already tired from our very fun and action packed weekend (did I mention we also finished painting the brown trim around the windows and doors on our house?) Jay and I easily agreed to what became all three kids declaration on dinner.  The girls say they loved everything about their birthday, and all of their presents, but my favorite moment was right before bed when they both took all their new disney princess dolls and fairies and tucked them into little beds that they made with their pink and purple blankets from when they were first born.  They put the doll beds in between their own beds, and lined up all their doll shoes for the morning next to them.  I am sure I will wake to little voices in the morning, and the tune of some disney song (two of the dolls play music).  And I very much look forward to it!