Halloween Dinner

My favorite part about Halloween is hands down, kids in costumes!  They are just so adorable and there is something magical about dressing up, they feel like the princess or superhero they are dressed up to be.  And they sorta know they look cool because when you tell them how much you like their costume, they just beam.  I love it!

We had a family dinner to celebrate Halloween & Jared and Olivia's birthdays.  All of the kids came in their costumes and we started off the evening with a little parade.  SO CUTE!!

 I loved the costumes.  This is such a great picture, thanks Mat for snapping shots all evening long. 

 Emma "the owl"

 

Don't blink, Austin (Captian America) is pretty fast!

 

 Halloween Dinner!

 

 

 

 Games

Wrap the mummy, unless you are Austin and call it wrap the nummy.

 

 And then it got a little wild!!

Halloween Freeze Dance!

 And this is how the adults had fun, no wonder kids never want to grow up.

This is only half of the adults and we do have a lot of fun.  We could sit and visit for hours really, there's always a good story to be told and lots of laughing.

Isn't that just the most adorable face?  

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch

I LOVE the pumpkin patch!  It's one of my favorite preschool field trips and since even my big kids wanted to go this year, I got to go twice!

 Here is Austin with his preschool class and the fabulous Miss Cindy who has taught all four of my kids.

 

 

 

 

 

Our family went on a rainy Monday night.  We dressed warm and brought our rain boots and it totally paid off.  No one else braved the weather so we had the whole place to ourselves, we had so much fun!

 

 

 

This picture sorta sums up the night!  Love it!

Halloween Pet Parade

Our family has been shopping for a new pet!  We discovered the Fairwood Pet Center and met this great lady named Anika who just might love animals as much as our Emma.  She is so wonderful and kind and realizing how much our little girl loves dogs, she insisted that Emma come and help her put on a pet parade.  It was one of the most adorable events I've seen and so absolutely perfect for Emma in every single way!

Pets and owners of all sizes came dressed up in their Halloween costumes. They posed for pictures and then did a little parade all around the shopping center.  Cars pulled over to stop and watch and take pictures.   Then, everyone came back to the store where each pet was individually introduced and prizes were awarded.  Did I say it was adorable?  So adorable!

And now for a few pictures.

 

 

 Parading around the shopping center.

 

This dog is wearing quite the costume.  His owner skimped on groceries for a year and spent over a thousand dollars on leather and custom made pieces.  I asked about the mask and she explained that she had a mold of his face made and then the mask was designed to fit his face perfectly.  Wow!

 

Anika was so sweet to Emma.  She let her be a part of the whole event, introduced her to everyone and had her stand up by her while she welcomed everyone and handed out prizes.  She gave Emma a big bowl of candy to pass out to the children and made every effort to help this day be one that I'm sure Emma will never forget!

7 week project

I have a nice camera that I don't know how to use to it's fullest potential.  I love it and have been pretty happy with pictures I have taken in the Auto mode, but have always wanted to learn how to get beyond the simple snapshot.  So, I signed up for a photography class at the local college.  It's only the first day of class, but I already love it!

The professor tells us that for the next 7 weeks we are not allowed to take any pictures in AUTO (Yikes!) and after that, we won't want to take any pictures in AUTO (Cool!).  He also encouraged us to take a picture every single day and post it.  I'm not sure I'll remember to do it every single day, but I'm going to try.  I think rather than giving them all their own post, I'll just keep adding them to this post.

Today, we learned about aperture and a "back up to zoom in" theory.  This helps you to focus in on an object while everything in the background is a little blurry. 

 

My lighting is off, but hey.. it's day one.

The reason I took a picture of my shoes is because this is what I wore to class tonight.  It wasn't until I got there that I realized I was wearing two very similar brown shoes, but still...TWO DIFFERENT SHOES!!

Oct.4 Photo of the Day:

 
I'm realizing I have so much to learn...
My teacher changed the ISO setting on my camera when he had me come up in front of the class to demonstrate our homework assignment last night (I hope no one noticed my shoes)..  We didn't learn anything about ISO settings, but I think that's why my lighting off in my day 1 picture, so I researched my manual a little bit and looked online and found a few tips, but quickly became overwhelmed.

Oct.6  Photo of the Day:

I didn't cheat.. this was taken in the approved method, but since no one else has volunteered to be the team photographer on my son's soccer team...  I am the official photographer, which is pretty comical.  After taking several blurry pictures I decided that since we haven't learned anything about sports photography in our whole one session of class, I'd better move the dial over to the sports mode and let someone in Thailand decide the appropriate settings for my situation... sorry Mr. Manthey.

Oct. 8 Photo of the Day:

Two photos today.
My kids had fun making these darling owls out of toilet paper rolls yesterday while watching conference. 

October 11th

Oct. 13th  Hunter's goal!  

Action shot.. shutter speed and lighting.

 

October 17th.  Austin whizzing by on his motorcycle.  He is really fast!

Panning assignment.

 

Tragedy

I'm sure somewhere in the world, there are much worse things that happened today, but here at our house it seemed that tragedy had struck at it's worst and my kids, who I hope are sleeping soundly now, spent the evening in tears and mourning the loss of our family pet.

We loved our bunny, Hailey.  She was a perfect outside pet, easy to care for and it was fun to watch her hop around the yard while Jared worked in the garden or the kids played.  She was the first real pet our kids have had and they loved her with all their hearts.

We let Hailey out most evenings to run around the backyard with the kids.  Unfortunately last night Dad forgot to put her back in the cage.  He feels awful, but says he's glad it was him and not one of them because tragically in the night something got to her and killed her.  We think it was a raccoon, it also ate every fish in our pond.  All our pets gone in one night.

Shortly after the kids left this morning, Austin and I also left for the day so it wasn't until Linsey got home from school and went out to feed the bunny that she discovered our tragic loss.  I wish she hadn't had to be the one ...  I won't go into all the details, but it left her quite traumatized and I found her sobbing hysterically.  It was a rough night for all of our children, but the girls are taking it the hardest.  As they were going to bed tonight, Emma broke down again and through her tears she told me how much she loved our bunny and was so sad that she would never get to see her again.  It hit me that this is my kids very first experience with death and while we have taught them that there is life after death and we know that we will see our loved ones again.. even pets, they have never had to lose anyone that they are close to.  It's hard, really hard and we are really sad, but I am grateful for the opportunity to teach my children about love and hope and the plan of happiness.



.....thinking of getting a dog.
Any suggestions?  It has to be small and cute, no shedding.