Hallo-Night

Happy Halloween friends!  The weather was not only perfect tonight, it was down right hot.  And in my eyes...that is perfect.  I'll take any holiday any time of the year...warm.  Even Halloween.

My littles didn't even have to worry about layering up their costumes, as a matter of fact Jack was taking off layers.  And no rain this year.  The past two years we have been plagued by sprinkles that elevated into down pours.  We were in good shape all around this Hallo-Night.

We party hopped throughout the neighborhood before the actual trick-or-treating began.  With it falling on a Monday night this year, we got the party started mighty early.

I had to get my nostalgic front porch Hallo-Night pictures before I set these wild ones free.

Maggie was a Florida State Seminole cheerleader to her Daddy's pleasure.  She was really playing the part.  My usual shy Mags was not so tonight.  She was belting out cheers and practicing stunts all night long.

Go Seminoles!

Lucy was Elsa from Frozen Fever.  I really thought I was kind of over the Frozen Halloween costume thing, until I realized, Lucy has never actually been Elsa, she was Anna.  Oh dear, it completely changed my whole outlook on the situation.

Every baby girl deserves her Hallo-Night as Elsa.  And this one played her part as a Queen absolutely beautifully.

For a frightful moment, I almost thought this big boy wasn't going to dress up.  Then I kindly reminded him of his fascination with Harry Potter.  And just like that, wah-la, he came up with the genius idea to go as Harry.  He too, was really into the part....casting all sorts of spells and riding around on his broom.  I love seeing the playful little boy side of him.

It kind of started freaking me out how much Jack actually did resemble his fave storybook character.  Agree?  Minus the light hair?

Post backyard parties, we headed out to Trick-Or Treat.  Within the first 3 houses, both of my big kids were gone and I was left to enjoy the evening with my favorite 4 year old.  God sure knew what he was doing when he gave me this one.  

Lucy and I made it to nearly every house on our street before she was ready to turn around and head home.  Her favorite part of the evening was still up ahead...passing out CaNdY!

Maggie joined us later in the evening for our porch passing out party.  And Jack & Daddy made it home right in time for bed.  No way was Jack missing out on any houses.

I imagine we will be recovering from this MONDAY Hallo-Night for the whole week!  Sure was a fun way to celebrate a Monday though {not always particularly my favorite day of the week}.

Hope your evening was festive, frightful and fun!

Carve-O-Lantern

We scheduled this Halloween Weekend Eve to carve our pumpkins.  Having a Saturday to carve pumpkins is just about the only good part of Halloween falling on a Monday night this year.  Anyone agree?

When I told the kids to get ready by collecting the necessary supplies and meeting in the front yard, Maggie took it to a whole new level.  I REALLY wonder where she gets this stuff from?  {totally kidding...I know, I know}

Thanks to Maggie we all made it to the front yard without getting lost and with that the designing, cleaning and carving began.

Maggie kept it simple...so thankful for that.  She went for a classic Jack-O-Lantern look.  Lucy wanted a cat.  Sounds simple enough, but she was very particular about the cutting details until I offered her paint.  {more on that}  And Jack, of course, wanted something spooky and totally out of the box.  I'm still trying figure out exactly what his is.

My pumpkin gut cleaning skills were hardly put to use this year...FINALLY!  For the first time, all three kiddos did the majority of the work.  I would be completely lying if I didn't say, I was still up to my elbows in pumpkin pulp by the end.  But, hey, we made some serious progress.

Does anyone else think this is just plain weird?  Last year he was eating raw pumpkin and this year he's putting it on his head.  I can't wait to see what tricks he has in store for me Fall 2017.

So here is the first glimpse of being out of the box...Jack had to have a white pumpkin.

The kid's did all of the designing, most of the drawing {Lucy needed a bit of assistance}, and a good bit of the carving.

When it came to carving Lucy's Cat-O Lantern's whiskers it was just simply impossible. That absolutely did not make her happy.  But, Black paint did!

At the completion of our Saturday Carve-O-Lantern party, this is what we had...

We are sure to attract all of the neighborhood trick or treaters with this dazzling display.

And did you figure what Jack's was?  I'm still confused, but according to him it's a Frankenstein Ghost with some sort of spooky eye issue....hmmm...

Until next time, wishing you a Happy Halloween!

Partying With Princesses & Ninjas

There is nothing like partying with my kiddos.  One of my most fave things to do is attend pre-school parties.  {did I really just say that?}

But seriously, how could I not?  Look how ADORBS these little ones are.  Not to mention, it makes Lucy's day when I get to come to her classroom.  That grin is to die for.

So, you can imagine how thrilled I was to hear Ms. P and Ms. N invite all the parents in for every party whether you are party mom or not.  All the fun, but not all the work!  Deal.

I arrived today just in time to see Lucy mid-way through her craft.  {darn worker's truck had me blocked in my garage and he was not in a hurry to move it}  Don't you understand I have a four year old's party to go to?!?!  Move it!  Just about killed me to arrive a few minutes late.

Somehow Lucy didn't mind a bit, she lit up with that precious Lulu grin and I did my best to make up for my tardiness with lots of extra love.

I thought these Halloween snacks were so cute {and healthy}...Frankenstein.  Those are green grapes and a touch of marshmallow for his eyes.  So fun!

Lucy has the most darling little class.  The boys are equally as precious as these sweet girls.  However, I'm a little partial to the cutie dressed up as Elsa from Frozen Fever.  {Halloween costume spoiler alert}

Come evening, I was in for a whole different kind of partying.  I'm still getting used to this "big boy" thing.  Jack and I attended a Samurai Sword Pumpkin Carving Party at his karate studio.

Have I mentioned lately that this kid is a brown belt?  Amaz-O!  He has stuck with it and we are so proud of him.  Give him about a year and we may be living with a black belt karate kid.  Woah!

So basically the evening went like this....Jack designed, cleaned, and carved a pumpkin, just so he could chop it up with a real life Samurai Sword.

He thought it was pretty cool, as he should.  I just wish I could learn how to use my iPhone camera a little better.  Think a flash would have helped?

Regardless, it was a fantastic evening of bonding and chatting it up with my fave big boy in the entire world.  I think he secretly thinks I'm pretty cool.

So tomorrow we've got more pumpkin carving around here sans the chopping it up at the end.  I'll be sure to give you a glimpse of the final designs.

This should be interesting...I've heard a lot of brainstorming going on around here.

Fall Fun

Hi Ya'll and Happy Fall!

It's been nothing but Fall Madness around here.  The Cibulas know how to put that "March" business to shame.  Between three littles {and a house full of projects} we have so much happening.  

I'd like to blame it on all the extra's going on around here, like...building a screened in porch, deciding to remodel my kitchen on accident, a leaking water heater, an exploding front loading washing machine, and planning Maggie's birthday party in the midst of it all.  But, honestly, I feel like fall is always FULL.

Between the fun house projects and the not so fun ones, we've have managed to squeeze in all of our Fall traditions thus far.  We hit festivals for both schools and had a grand time doing so.

Jack was off on a Halloween camping trip with Daddy when we attended Lucy's Fall Festival.  Probably for the best, I'm coming to the realization that he may just have out grown this one.  But, Grandma joined us and the girls had a blast!

There was so much to do and the girls managed to hit every booth and use all up all of their tickets.  My fave was watching this little firecracker of mine check out the karate station.  Lucy even broke her own board {which mind you, she is coveting like a treasure}.

Jack would have been so proud!

The following weekend we were back at it.  But, this time at the elementary school's Harvest Festival.  The bigs saw friends immediately upon entering and from there it was adios.

I worked the check in booth the majority of the time, but from what I hear every had a great time.  I managed to sneak away and grab a few pics of the kids I could find.

Clearly, I didn't find Maggie before returning to my post.  But, no fear she was accounted for between Grandma and Daddy.

Shew...two packed weekends of October down and the best is yet to come.

I'm signing off to go meet another worker at my door...geez, the things that go on around here.
 

A Wild Ride

After returning from New York, I could have totally chilled, which we all know means un-packed, done laundry, grocery shopped, re-grouped for a day or so.

But, lest you've forgotten, I had two little anxious girls waiting for me at home.  And although, they had had an incredible weekend with their Grandma, they were salivating for some quality Mommy time. 

With still another day left of a school break, I decided we should make it good.  We grabbed neighbor friends, loaded up in their mini-van and headed a good 2 hours away to the Wild Animal Safari.

Please note, Jack and Daddy are not in the picture...and that is because they stayed back and got that "chill" time I so desperately could have used after our trip.

But all is not lost, the girls and our friends had SO MUCH FUN!  Way better than unpacking and the grocery store!

A good couple of years ago, I took Jack and Mags on this same adventure.  Only differences were Maggie was pretty young and hardly remembers it AND we were on our a guided tour bus.

So, get ready for this...we actually rented this 8 passenger zebra van on site and braved the safari trail guide-less!

It was hilarious, adventurous, un-nerving at times, and totally fascinating!

All the kiddos were armed with a bag of wild animal food pellets and raring to go, but I hardly think any of them knew what was in store for them.

A little of this...

A lot of tongue...

A few antlers...

And a whole lot of drool...

Just as a visual this is what the road looked like.  Literally wild animals in the middle of it and not scared to ram your van for food.

I'm not sure anything could have topped that ride of a lifetime  But, we decided to give the "animal walk-thru" a whirl.

The animals were definitely a bit more docile in this area.  Except we did see a raging Baboon and a Liger {lion/tiger hybrid}.   The kiddos were pretty well conditioned to handle anything by this point.

It was a wild ride, but it was so fun to be reunited with my girls again!

Now, we are preparing to return to a nice normal school routine around here.  No more skyscraper tours or slobbering zebras for me for quite a while.