Trick-or-Treat



Family Costume Shots
















Southern Belle / American Girl Doll


Katelyn made a last minute costume change when she saw most of her Kindergarten class was a witch this year. She rummaged through the dress-ups and chose these duds instead.
















Strawberry Shortcake






Ariel

Leaf Jumping



Sarah's Dainty Landing




Katelyn's Wild Leaps and Tarzan impersonations




Abby was only on board if she could keep her tootsie roll




Now that we've taken a little rest the cat is willing to join us




Mr. Stumps the Monkey puppet





Getting in some princess playing time

Halloween was full of class parties, leaf jumping, and trick-or-treating. We gathered all the leaves in the front yard and loaded them up into our kiddie wading pool and let the kids jump around in it with some neighbor kiddos. I used a few shovel loads to sprinkle down some additional excitement. We decided to ditch our baby trees and head to Grandma's house for some serious leaf jumping. As always Grandma's house delivered!

Kindergarten Halloween Party

School Photo

Katelyn's Witch Costume for her Kindergarten Party!
We had a great time rotating through several stations:
Pin the Eye on the Ghost
Hand Painting (Black Cat or Spider)
Clementine Jack-O'Lantern
Spooky Storytime
Skeleton Handprint Craft
Popcorn/Candycorn Snack
Halloween Song Musical Squares Dance
Photo
and Lots and Lots of Giggling!

Katelyn's Soccer Season

Katelyn's Soccer Moves:

Cute Coach

Katelyn had a great season this year. We started off a little slow with a pep talk every game and practice to remind her that this is for fun and that we all have to sub out. After a bit she caught on and has made some new friends. Thanks everyone for your help with the awesome end game treats (another enticement to want to play hard) and the fun practice pizza party to celebrate the end of the season!

Halloween Sillies

Vampire Teeth

Abby's attempt at vampire teeth

Sarah laughing at the sillies

Berenstein Bears stories with Daddy

My Mom's Retired!!!

My mom has been working as a Respiratory Therapist for the last 37 years. She just finished her last shift and is so excited to be done. She worked for years and years full-time on the graveyard shift so she never missed out on our kid activities. She's pretty amazing! The girls and I had a little retirement party (which to them means a singing card of Cellll-e-brate to dance to, balloons, giant unicorn, flowers from each girl and lots and lots of hugs!)

Unicorn is a must!

Grandma flowers, balloons and

lots and lots of snugs

UEA Weekend in Park City

Nate took us girls to Park City for UEA this weekend.  We had a great time making a mess and letting someone else clean it up...just kidding.  The girls LOVED sharing a bed, I guess bunk beds at home are not the same.  We swam in the pool in the morning and shopped in the afternoon at the outlets.  Perfect retreat for all but maybe next time we'll do a bit more of Nate's stuff.

Checking out the beautiful fall colors

Watching Horseland

Park City

Cute Baby Abby

Loveland Halloween Party

Halloween Fun at the Loveland's.  Cheryl and Colleen went to so much work getting this party ready.  It was absolutely darling.  There was crafting fun like Mummy Dogs (Rhodes rolls wrapped around hot dogs), clementine jack-o'lanterns, Halloween Bingo, Witch's hat ring toss, Candy bag hunt and quantity guesses, and face painting.  We had dancing to music in costumes and halloween limbo.  Delicious dinner: Chilli, Mummy Dogs, Chips/Salsa, Desserts and Witches Brew (homemade root beer) served in Halloween Cups with spider rings inside.  There was spooky storytime and a visit from a dead friend (touch the body parts like rice krispie treats for brains) with a finale of a spook alley walk in the backyard amongst the scary daddies.

Three Dancing Girls

Sarah was really bustin a move!

Sarah:Strawberry Shortcake, Katelyn:Princess Witch, Abby:Minnie Mouse "Minneee M-ow"

Katelyn is contemplating how many laffy taffy's in the bag while Sarah is just thrilled to see so much CANDY.

 Limbo Queens

Nate was awesome as a scary troll living in the playhouse.  The girls were very scared but they knew it was Daddy!

Even Uncle Reed got a good scare out of Mom while walking the girls through the Haunted Walk.

Two Newest Additions to Our Family!

We branched out in the pet department and added two more to our Starley Family. 

Meet Dot
 And Swirl

The girls love to watch them crawl around in their aquarium and hide in their shells.  These are pretty low maintenance pets!

We've spent many hours reading A House for Hermit Crab, making lapbooks from homeschoolshare.com, and even taking them on a fieldtrip to Katelyn's Kindergarten class.

Orange you going to Smile?

Katelyn had an interesting experience.  As Nate was pulling into the driveway Katelyn took her seatbelt off to surprise Nate with a Boo.  Nate had forgotten the lawnmower was at the front and he pushed the brakes.  Katelyn went rolling right over the seat and smooshed her face in the dash.  She got her first shiner and learned an important lesson about leaving seat belts on until the car stops.  Still the large amounts of rain, the fact that today is school picture day and she has a bruised eye doesn't stand in the way of orangey smiles.  I love these girls!

After a little makeup magic!

 As for Sarah and Abby, a few princess braids and a hat and they've forgotten all about Grandma's pool closing and the torrents of rain outside.

Hat Snugs and Grins

Rain, Rain,
  Go Away
     Come Again Another Day!