Witches' Night Out

The women of my side of the family ventured out to Witches' Night Out at Gardner Village last night!
















The place was packed! I had to wonder how many of the women there were descendents of Archibald Gardner! Shouldn't I get some sort of royalty from this?


Mary Ann, misbehaving as usual. :)



Some highlights of the night were:
*Kandis putting spells on people that stared at us when we went out to dinner beforehand

*"Now that I've seen Disneyworld, I'm good to go. It was only for 20 minutes, but it was a good 20 minutes"

*Donuts and hot chocolate afterward - who can argue with that?

I want to mentally bookmark today as one of the prettiest days I've seen. The weather was in the low seventies, not a cloud in the sky, and just about all the leaves have turned.
















Can't figure out what's up with this picture? It's a puddle reflecting the trees!

We had our family Halloween party tonight to accomodate six families' different schedules.

We were the Flintstones plus our adopted Bam Bam.






Anthony still won't concede to the fact that she's got him wrapped around her little finger, but I think that this expression proves otherwise.


Ten grandchildren (seven of which are four and under)=chaos. Fun and good chaos, but still chaos.


Who needs a leopard costume when you come equipped with this face?

She's got some sweet hair when she wakes up from naps.

We're definitely in fall mode over here. The weather has been crisp and borderline cold, we're gearing up for Halloween, and we're in the process of getting ready for winter.


Alaina's hair is long enough for pigtails now and they're just so cute that she'll be wearing them every day until she's 8.


Last Friday we were all outside picking the last of the produce and pulling up the plants. Connor was picking...cats? In the ten months that we've lived here, I have not seen a cat anywhere near our house. Then bam! My son's holding one upside down!




Grandma brought out all of the Halloween decorations and Connor and cousin Tori were our models.


Baby Maesa helped, too.


So *this* is why you have to brush teeth?

Alaina's dirty looks are pretty famous around here lately. I caught a rare moment of peace between these two and thought I'd document the event.


Apparently, Little Miss did not appreciate my sneaky photo-taking ways.


I busted up laughing, because c'mon! Look at that scowl! She's a ham, so when I laughed, she had to smile. Note Connor's sophistication with his pinky up while drinking out of his sippy.

Both the kiddos were up super early today. Alaina is used to seeing the sun rise, but Connor likes his sleep, so the tantrums. Oh, the tantrums.

Connor and I hurried to get out the door by 9:00 to make it to his tot music class. We've missed the first two classes due to being out of town and him being sick, so we were both excited to go today. We got lost on the way, and when we arrived and got out of the car, a woman in front of me told me that the teacher was sick. Connor was disappointed, so I promised him a trip to the park instead. We swung by the house to pick up Anthony and Alaina. Connor lasted about 5 minutes at the park and wanted to come home and take a nap. Weirdo. :) These four pictures sum up most of our free time.


Alaina figured out how to open my lipgloss, apply it, then close it again yesterday. She'll sit and do it over and over again. We've yet to figure out *just* how long she'll do it since Connor inevitably steals it. It is now the most effective way to cheer her up.


...And on the opposite end of the spectrum, this is Connor's favorite activity. When he's really lucky (as pictured) he gets to drive around empty parking lots. Most days we just end up roasting in the car on the driveway.


Connor has never been much of a player and the park. He'll quack at the ducks, rotate the steering wheel a bit, then whine about his boredom. Alaina, on the other hand, could stay at the park all day. You have to keep an eye on this one because she has no fear. She wants to go down every slide, head first, by herself.


A little bit of color to show off those baby blues.