carving party canceled :(

yesterday would've been our 4th annual pumpkin carving party...

but apparently i have mono :( 

so no party for me...but i had already bought stuff to make cupcakes & kennedie loves to cook & my mom is here, so....

 i was at urgent care during the actual making of the cupcakes, so all i captured forever in photos was the decorating :) take a look at the finished pan - guess which one kennedie did all by herself!?!

we also had pumpkins that needed to be carved. i carved mine friday night with friends so that i could help kennedie at our party, so mine was already done. that left daddy & kennedie needing to get theirs done. it was a beautiful day out, but b/c i was sick, they were nice enough to do theirs inside so i could watch, help a little & take pictures.

 just getting started - why couldn't i get them both to look at the camera?

 checking out what's inside

 working hard!!

our family of pumpkins & our little pumpkin :)

(daddy's - grover, mommy's - 3 stacked jack-o-lanterns & kennedie's - scary 'eek' face)

octoberfest :)

our friends, the brummers, had an octoberfest party a few weeks ago.

guests were charged with bringing a fall dish to share & their favorite fall/octoberfest beer. our contributions - a pumpkin pie & shocktop pumpkin ale (my favorite pumpkin brew!) 

a rainy evening didn't stop us from having a great time.

they had a fire pit in the back yard that raged through the rain, kept us warm as we caught up with friends & roasted kennedie's first marshmallow for her first smore :) she was intrigued by the process of cooking the marshmallow in the fire & loved every minute of it - rain & all!

 keeping warm with daddy by the fire

 cooking her first marshmallow :)

enjoying her first smore!!

she was a chocolate covered mess by the end of the smore - carefully taking it apart to lick the chocolate off of the graham crackers after she had eaten all of the marshmallow (who needs all that graham cracker anyway - the real goods are inside!). and she hasn't stopped asking for marshmallows since :)

champs!

kennedie & i were so proud of daddy & his girls for winning their home volleyball tournament!

kennedie even got to be part of the team picture!!

not sure if you can tell or not - but kennedie is biting her medal :) 

tommy's 8th graders also won the 'league' playoffs!! 

congratulations daddy!!!

pals playing

kennedie loves special events - parties, visiting family, having people over or meeting up at the park for a playdate - she gets so excited! a few weekends ago we got to have a playdate with her buddy calvin! she was so jazzed that she wanted to hold hands with him on the way to the park - so sweet!

 once at the park, we couldn't keep up with them - they were everywhere! i love the photos of the two of them on the rocks & the one where they are both climbing up the dinosaur :) we are very lucky to have such good friends with kids so near kennedie's age - and we have quite a few of them!

decorating :)

i love most holidays...but halloween is definitely in the top 2! 

i love decorating the house - inside & out, racking leaves to fill pumpkin bags, baking halloween treats and coming up with costume ideas & shopping for them! 

this year, like last year, kennedie wanted to help decorate - i couldn't ask for a better helper! 

i did most of the decorating around the house during nap time - but kennedie was a huge help putting up all of window & door clings, in a very organized fashion might i add, after nap - see the jack-o-lanterns all in a row? she also helped outdoors with the lights :) handing them up to me on the ladder as i hung the orange & purple strands!

corn, pumpkins & birthdays

last weekend i celebrated my birthday with my 2 favorite people!! 

the weekend began with tommy's 8th grade girls winning their league championship game! and although that also meant that we were getting a later departure than we had hoped for denver, we were all happy & celebrated with the girls a bit before we were off. we got into denver, ran a few quick errands & then headed out for dinner at the cheesecake factory...on a saturday night. which meant that we had a good 1 hr 40 min wait ahead of us. we thought getting there no later than 6 would be to our benefit, boy were we wrong!! but that gave us time to wander around the mall, get kennedie a cute pair of new boots & some new clothes, tommy a pair of jeans and the birthday girl - nothing :( (but that's ok b/c the next day i made up for it with a new pair of nine west shoes!)

our dinner was delicious, so delicious in fact that we had to take our cheesecake to go - well that & the fact that a 2 1/2 year old out past her bedtime in a restaurant without a play place doesn't stay entertained or sit still for too long ;)

the next day we made our way to a corn maze & pumpkin patch! i wanted to take kennedie to a real pumpkin patch to find her pumpkin since we missed the brush creek pumpkin patch where we normally get our pumpkin. however, when we got there it wasn't a real pumpkin patch - but there were TONS of pumpkins, a petting zoo (we already know how much she loves those from my last post), and a mini-corn maze! we had a great time...

getting lost in the maze...

 kennedie led the way the whole time...and we made it out (the way we went in, but who cares right?)

 exploring corn...

 with fingers, feet & toes :)

petting & feeding the animals...

 picking out our pumpkins...

 so many to choose from

 found mine & a baby pumpkin too!!

and just being silly!!!

 my little black crow

 

wild, wild west

kennedie loves attending Wild West Days - the annual fundraiser for elementary schools throughout the valley {a very good cause :) i must say} 

it's a fun filled day complete with games, a farm animal petting zoo, horse & wagon rides & kennedie got to try a little bit of everything - plus, she looks super cute in her cowgirl hat!!

my precious little cowgirl chose to have
a spider painted on her face???


           petting the nice goat & 
          avoiding the sketchy llamas

trying to coax the turkey over -
by gobbling :)




                playing along in the music tent 

 just horsing around...the beauties that took us on the wagon ride & the one she got to ride all by herself! she does an awesome job!

 searching through the big pile of hay for a prize!

 still wearing her cowgirl hat & trying out mommy's boots days later!!