Fall is in the air!

Abby's figure skating club had a fun hay ride / smores outing yesterday....and luckily the weather was beautiful.  A little windy and chilly, but the sun was shining, so we'll take it. I say it all the time, but the families in the skating club are so nice and the girls all get along so well....it's fun to do these outings with them to give Abby a chance to have friendships outside school and with great girls.  Anywho.....not all the girls show up to these events - the older girls are too cool :-) - but this smaller, younger group is who Abby most hangs with at the rink.

 It is really pretty out where the hay ride was.....

 The girls rolling down this huge hill

 And running back up it!

 Smores!

Abby is also on the cover of the club's little brochure that is available at the rink.  It's helpful to be on the board of the club at times like these....you can get your kid on the marketing materials :-)  She likes it b/c they mistakenly said she's 11 :-)

Lastly, the fun 10 mile Monster Dash was Saturday morning.  I was planning on running with my friend I run with (ah, duh), but on Thursday I came down with a case of "oh my gosh the tendon the top of my right foot is so swollen I can't get any shoes on or walk on it without swearing" - itis.   I was hoping against hope it would repair itself overnight (as it came on overnight so it only makes sense it would leave overnight), but it did not.  I missed the race, which made me royally mad. I do, however, have the very cool Monster Dash Finisher hoodie you get when you, um, finish.  I feel a bit like a fraud wearing it :-)  However, my friend ran her best race and did awesome, so I am assuming I would have run right along with her and would have had my best race also....so I'm very pleased with what would have been my race time :-) he he

Griff is in the midst of hockey evals and will find out soon what team he is on for the season. He's excited to start playing games again, and Mike is coaching again this year. 

Abby, Hannah and I are off to a local high school Halloween event his afternoon while Griff has evals. Then we are going to carve our pumpkins. Will post you pics of the cool carvings we (read: Mike) do when we are finished.

That's all for now!

Oh, Hannah says Happy Halloween!  She draws pictures on our little whiteboard all the time...

Fall Fun

Since the kids were off school last week we loaded them in the car for a few days of fun at the Wisconsin Dells. I mean really, is there anything better than an indoor waterpark???  Not to the kiddos - they loved it!!!  Some pictures below from the fun :-)

The kids have been busy making rainbow loom bracelets......they have spent many hours making bracelets for themselves and friends at school.  They trade them with each other and many times they come home from school with bracelets all the way up their arms!  They do all sorts of patterns and are quite good at it!

And this is just a funny pic of Han and Griff at Target -- trying on turkey hats before school one day!!

Pumpkins and Photos

The kids are off of school this week for some reason.....they need a break already??? Maybe it's the teachers that need the break :-) Anyway, they are home with me and we have all sorts of fun things planned. Unfortunately, those things do not include a beach, ocean, or umbrella drink in my hand. Just dreary, rainy weather, boots, and coffee :-)

We finally got around to buying pumpkins yesterday. We are the last house on the block to have any type of fall / halloween decor on our porch. It's my way of avoiding the fact that winter is coming......I won't acknowledge anything having to do with colder weather. Except boots....I love my boots :-)

Yesterday was nice so I let the kids talk me into the pumpkin patch IF I could take some pictures of them. They reluctantly agreed.  Although they wouldn't go as far as changing their clothes to coordinate  outfits......so I took what I could get!  A little mix-matched but cute :-)  I realized while taking the pictures I missed it....I haven't taken any "photo shoot" pics in a long time. I'll try to be better!


Pumpkin picking'

Mini photo shoot......getting so much older so quickly!!

I Forgot Taylor Swift????

How could I forget to post about the Taylor Swift concert Abby, Hannah and I went to a couple of weeks ago?? Super fun....she puts on such a great show. Hannah did say she didn't ever want to go to another concert, EVER, because it was so loud, but she loved it :-) I swore this would be the last TS concert for us (three's enough, right??), but after seeing her again, I'm ready to see her next one! It's a fun, innocent show for the girls (and Moms).

Getting ready at home.....

 Quick costume change and waiting, waiting, waiting!