Turning 4

Lilly woke up this morning, exclaiming "I'm so excited to be a birthday girl!" Well, she's not technically a birthday girl until Sunday, but she had her first ever "friend" party today. Granted, half of her guests were her cousins and sister, but they are her greatest friends, so that counts.

I bought these Build-A-Bear kits at Costco and figured all we needed was cupcakes and that was it. To my surprise, assembling those little bears was almost too much for a mom, let alone a 4 year old, so I was up until the wee hours of the morning sewing them together with my machine so the kids could actually make them with a little help from their moms. The bears turned out really cute, and it was a good activity to direct the energy of 6 little ones running around.

Halloween!!!

It came so fast this year! Halloween day was particularly busy with house chores, Ava's end of the season soccer party and game, a ward Halloween party, and trick-or-treating. No wonder I'm so tired today.

Ava's favorite parts about the church party were the face painting and scary smoothies.

Aunt Tracie, cousin Aleah, and Lilly were all lady bugs.

This is the one and only trick-or-treating picture I have of the evening. The cousins were running from house to house so quickly we had trouble keeping track of everyone.

Don't be fooled by the angelic face and the cute lady bug costume.

Carving Pumpkins

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween. The girls drew the faces on their pumpkins and we helped them with the carving. Lilly's is supposed to be a self portrait!

And yes, we wear gloves when we carve our pumpkins because Lilly and I are allergic to pumpkin guts.