"Special Halloween Family Home Evening Party"

Last night we had our "Special Halloween Family Home Evening Party" and it was lots of fun. Our girls love to have parties and this one was especially spooky! We started the evening with everyone dipping their own carmel apples. Then we moved on to carving our pumpkins. We were going to do them all but in the end only had time to do the "daddy pumpkin". Then we turned off all the lights in the house and turned on just our jack-o-lantern and one string of festive pumpkin lights and told scary stories while we ate our carmel apples. It was lots of fun. Things like this are getting so fun the older my girls get. They get so excited. I loved hearing LeOra's scary story about a little girl who got stuck in a jack-o-lantern. RJ told a story about 2 little girls in a spooky forest looking at all the spooky trees and seeing what was in them. LeOra loved it but Mackinsie got a little nervous even though in the end it was just a fluffy bunny making all the noise. (Daddy added that part as he saw Mackinsie snuggle in my lap more and more.)

I love how are girls are looking up to their dad. So cute!

Mackinsie couldn't wait to take a bite out of hers, whether it had carmel on it or not!
And don't ask her to put down her chocolate peanut butter ball while dipping her apple. After all she is a girl and can to many things at the same time.

Looks delicious! This was a picture RJ took of he and Kirstin. Not bad for holding a baby and snapping a picture.

Next came carving the pumpkins. Daddies are the best at that. Here are RJ and the girls planning out what our jack-o-lantern would look like. LeOra took much more interest in it than Mackinsie.

My poor husband is so out numbered and I will illustrate why (besides the obvious). He built such anticipation prior to removing the top of the pumpkin and being able to get out all the "gunk" to only hear "gross" and "don't make me put my hand in there" and "you do that daddy". LeOra finally stuck her had in once and pulled out a tiny bit of gunk and then said, "I don't think I want to do that again." We couldn't talk Mackinsie into putting her hand in there at all. So poor daddy had to take out all the seeds himself. I did help him scrape it at the very end. Not all the girls in this family are to prissy.


I think LeOra is making the same face at the jack-o-lantern.

If any of you have spent any time around Mackinsie lately you know how obsessed she is with lip gloss. She carries it around everywhere and sleeps with it next to her bed. She always has glossy moist lips and apparently she thought that our pumpkin needed to also. Here she is putting her lip gloss that she got from her cousins this weekend on the pumpkin. Doesn't he look better now!

See I told you I help take out the seeds. And no I did not eat it.

The final product. I love the heart shaped ears. This is definitely a house of girls!

Pumpkin Patch

I know that I have been posting a lot lately but we have been doing fun things and I can't help myself. On Friday, RJ had the day off so we decided to go to Avila Valley Barn. They are a Farmer's Market that also has lots of animals to feed and yummy treats to buy. Also during October they have a hayride out to thier pumpkin patch to pick your very own pumpkins. Here we are on the hayride out to the patch. The girls loved it.

When we got to the patch we all got to pick a pumpkin. Some of us had a hard time getting the one we wanted.

But with a little help from Daddy,

Victory was ours!!

RJ, of course, tried to find the biggest one. I think he did pretty good.

I was looking for the prettiest one.

Mackinsie just picked up the first one she saw and carried it around until she was tired.

Kirstin got the littlest one!

Next we fed the animals. If you ask someone who works there, they will give you a bag of food to feed the animals for free. Our girls love to do this. Even Kirstin got in on the action!

LeOra loves the baby goats. She says they are so cute. She makes it her personal crusade to ensure they have all had enough to eat.

Halloween Preview

We go to story time at the Library every Thursday and today was the big Halloween party. They were allowed to dress up for this spooky story hour and then were given a treat bag at the end. We have been going to story time with our cousins, Ashleigh, Evelyn and Chelsea, and our good friends, Tyson and Kelsey. Here is a group picture of everyone. I couldn't resist taking some pictures before we left for story time. Mackinsie is so excited to be Dorthy. We have been watching the movie so that she can really play the roll. We were singing the Wizard of Oz song while getting ready to get in the mood (and distract her while doing her hair). In the basket is her beloved puppy dog, Bobo, playing the roll of Toto.

LeOra decided she wanted to be Belle after our Aunt Van and Uncle John gave her this adorable dress. She is such a poser lately in her pictures. She knows how adorable she is and you can tell!

I was pretty proud of her hair. I thought it looked just like Belle.

Kirstin just hung out in her exersaucer during all this flurry of activity. She will get to join in the fun next year!

A Day in the Park

After Grandma and Grandpa Ziegler left we decided to go to Waller Park and feed the ducks.

As you can see those were not shy ducks. They would come up and take the bread out of our hands! I can't believe LeOra had the guts to let them. Of course there was a girly squeal let out as soon as the duck got the bread. Mackinsie, on the other hand, was ready to get in their with them.

Just a quick picture to prove that Kirstin and I were there!

As these picture show, you are never to big, and I mean BIG, to play at the park. RJ is such a great dad! He loves playing with and just being with the girls. We are very lucky!

Grandma and Grandpa Ziegler's Visit

Grandma and Grandpa Ziegler came to visit us for a quick weekend trip. Unfortunately the weather didn't let us go for a bon fire on the beach, so we had to improvise. Making Carmel popcorn might make up for not having s'mores.

LeOra's job is to make the Carmel sauce while Mackinsie and Kirstin's job is to pop the popcorn. The picture does not capture the excitement of the popping corn. Usually our girls are popping with it. This is definitely one of our favorite treats.

On the last day of their visit we went out to eat. I just snapped a few shots at the restaurant. This restaurant is called Kay's and has delicious salads and sandwiches. It is in old town Orcutt and definitely has that "mom and pop" feel to it.

We had to take Grandma to dance class with us to show off what we have been learning. It is so fun to have someone come watch the girls. They absolutely loved it.

Unfortunately all fun weekends have to end. We can't wait for the next visit! By the way, I think Grandpa Ziegler was hiding every time I had my camera out. Sorry that we missed you in all the pictures grandpa. We loved playing with you and seeing you.