Oct - More Pre-Halloween Pics

I found a couple more from Marlee's party night on my real camera.  I forgot that I occasionally drag it out for a photo too.

This one shows Jace's Firebolt (broom).

Rylee's wings look so pretty in the light.

A closeup of her headband and hair for that night.  :)

So I mentioned there were several Halloween activities.  The next up was Boo Bingo at the school.

Rylee with besties: Maddan and Emily (plus siblings lol!)

The rest of our boo bingo buddies...

A closeup of Rylee's wig and face jewelry for that night.

The next night (Halloween Eve) was pumpkin carving.  Jace promised Rylee he would touch the pumpkin guts...

"Come on, Jace, get in there like a man!"

Luckily, Rylee was game to do the work herself.  :)

With their finished creations: Harry Potter and a Halloween cat.

Maybe it's Crookshanks? (Hermoines's cat)  I never asked!

Which brings us to Halloween,  The kids were allowed to dress up at school.  Rylee wore her Hermoine costume since she didn't think her wings would be the most convenient at school.  :/

You can also see the Harry Potter wreath we made at Amy's party a few weeks back.  

It hangs on Rylee's bedroom door.

I spent a lot of time on Rylee's hair and makeup/face jewelry for her fairy costume, but I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't think about Jace.  But that morning he asked if he could have a scar.  Duh? Why hadn't I thought of that!  Good one, Jace!  An eyebrow pencil and voila!

Rylee with her pumpkin project for school.  She had to decorate it to look like her favorite character from "The Lighting Thief."  She chose Annabeth.  I found a tutorial online to make the paper hat.  It was very impressive!

October - Pre-Halloween Pics

There are so many Halloween activities these days that my kids each wore their costumes at least 6 times over the Halloween season. First up was Rylee's Halloween party for her theater class.  She decided to reuse her Lucille Ball costume from last year.  So cute! 

Then we had Marlee's Halloween birthday party.  Rylee wore her fairy costume (minus the wig).

Jace was Harry Potter (in his quidditch robes).  

I think this is the third year we've been invited to Marlee's party (Zoee's big sister).  I'm not sure who enjoys the party more, the kids or Jon.  Jon loves manning one of the stations in their epic Haunted House and scaring all the kids!

The next day was a busy one.  Rylee had her golf lesson.  Then after she showered, we zipped over to Pete and Amy's for Amy's "Making It" party.  Jon and the kids made this spooky Halloween tree.  Rylee and I made a Harry Potter wreath.  Rylee also made a silly monster.  We had so much fun!  We're hoping she'll plan another party for Christmas themed projects.  :)

We had to craft fast, because we also had our family photo shoot that night.  This is a cell phone pic from when we were waiting for the photographer (one of my friends from my book club).  Hers turned out even better, of course, but you'll have to wait for our Christmas card to see them.  :)

This is just a silly photo of Jon trying to find and fix a leak in our swimming pool.  He was able to fix that problem, but now we're having another issue.  The joys of home ownership!

October Lookback

Cancer awareness...

(Rylee is wearing her ovarian cancer pin for Grandma Sandy.)

Jace's 1st grade career project.  He chose vet just like Rylee did.

I purposely didn't look back at her project.  I didn't want to cheat!  :)

Here is what he wrote...

October was especially important since Jace finally lost his first tooth!  

He didn't want anyone to pull it out so it was pretty loose when it finally fell out.  In fact, it fell out when he was in the bathtub!  The rest of us were watching the Vikings game.  When I went in to check on him, he had his tooth sitting on the edge of the tub.  Apparently, when he looked down, the tooth just fell out of his mouth and plopped into the water.  Luckily, he was able to follow the blood trail and dive in after it.  Lol!  :)

Farmer Day...

Flashback!  Jace needed a photo of me from when I was in elementary school.  While looking for one, I came across this picture of me and my Grandma Elsie.

It was too hilarious not to share: turned up collar, plaid shirt, heart suspenders and giant glasses!

Did I forget to mention high-waisted pants?  Love seeing my Grandma though!  :)

Speaking of grandparents, my parents came back down to FL in mid-Oct.  It was perfect timing since Jon was leaving on his hunting trip.  They were a big help when he was away - keeping us fed and all!  They also picked the kids up on the early release day so they could have a sleepover and day off while I had a planning day at school.  Fun memories!  Thanks Mom and Dad!

Sept - The Rest

The last few September pics:

Backwards/ inside out day...

Rylee's first round of golf!

She certainly looks the part!  And she's loving her golf lessons.  Daddy and Grandpa Chip couldn't be more thrilled at the prospect of another golfer in the family.  :)

While Jon and Rylee were golfing, I was taking Jace to a swimming birthday party.

This isn't the birthday girl, but Jace was excited to see his friend Zoee.

Checking out a new play place with trampolines and ninja course.

The kids loved battling each other too.

Rylee seemed to have the upperhand...

...but Jace won out in the end!  Lol!

Hogwarts Sleepover Part 2

After dinner, the girls watched the first Harry Potter movie (shocker!).  

At intermission, I made them mini butterbeers.

I swear they weren't alcoholic!  Lol!

So the sleepover part of Rylee's party wasn't quite as successful.  

Maddan couldn't sleepover so she left at 10:00.  

Emily had trouble sleeping so her mom came and picked her up at about 1:30.  

Luckily, Emily came back in the morning since I had signed the girls 

up for an online potions class.

They made invisible ink reappear with heat.  

All in all, they Harry Potter party was magical!  :)

Expecto Patronum!

Rio photo bomb!  

I guess she wanted to be considered as one of the animals too!

Hogwarts Sleepover Part 1

Rylee wanted a sleepover with her friends (Emily and Maddan) for her birthday.  She decided to make it a Harry Potter themed sleepover since they had all just finished reading the first book.

We sent out Hogwarts acceptance letters (invitations) and the girls arrived on Fri Sept 14th.

Rylee came up with what she wanted at the party.  She was very creative.  Most of the ideas were hers and not Pinterest.  Lol!

Everyone got to pick their Hogwart's pet.

She also had a wand making station...

and the girls had to find the golden snitch throughout the party.

She wanted everyone to paint their own patrons tshirt.

We did the iron on letters ahead of time.

The patronus charm is like a spirit animal so they each painted their animal.  

I never thought they would turn out, but they were awesome!

House elf Jon slaving away on grill pizzas.

Notice the floating candles?

After dinner, the kids all got sorted into their houses 

based on the color of the frosting inside their cupcake.  

Red for Gryffindor!

Green for Slytherin!

Rylee made plastic canvas bookmarks so everyone got the "scarf" that went with their house.  

Emily got Ravenclaw and Maddan was Hufflepuff.  :)