Happy Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween.

Passin Out Me Loot

Because we had Stake conference scheduled over Halloween weekend, we had our Trunk or Treat on Saturday morning. For the first time in 5 years I was not involved with a fairly extensive and fun Halloween carnival in conjunction with the trunk or treat. . .so I actually had the time (and desire) to decorate my trunk. I opted to go for a pirate themed trunk since I already had the decorations. It was really fun for me to pass out candy and talk in my pirate jargin. I also played halloween and pirate music through my car speaker which I think added to the atmosphere (especially since it was broad, blaring daylight out). The girls had fun gathering candy. . .and quite the haul they made too. They got plenty and I didnt feel bad that we weren't going to go out again on Sunday night. Gotta love the trunk or treat!!

ZZZZZZZZ

I was watching Emmline at her dance lessons. Mabel had gone off to the child play area to watch a movie with the other kids. When the lessons were over and I went to round Mabel up. . this is what I found.

Mustn't have been a very good movie!! :)

Rapunzel Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair

When I asked Emmeline what she wanted to be for halloween this year she enthusiastically replied, "Rapunzel!" It sounded good. . .but I was not sure exactly how I was going to pull it off. Lucky for me, I received my Family Fun Magazine in the mail a few days later, and there, right on the cover was a neat Rapunzel wig with easy to follow instructions written out inside. I decided it must be fate. This is the first year I've actually made something cute to go along with my kids costume. They always just want to be "princesses" and choose a dress from the dress up box. It was fun to make something this year to go along with Em's costume. And if I do say so. . . it turned out super cute!! Emmeline (and I) got numerous comments at every event we went to where she wore her wig.

P.S. I didnt find out until after the wig was made that Disney was soon to be releasing a new Rapunzel movie. I'm sure that now Rapunzel wigs and costumes will be all the rage. I was glad that Emmeline and I beat the crowd this year. :)

Fly Away Butterfly

Apparently Monarch butterflies migrate through Grapevine, a neighboring town to us here in Flower Mound, on their way to Mexico. To celebrate, the city hosts an annual butterfly festival. When we showed up we saw that everyone was dressed in their butterfly and fairy finest. Plus there were several wagons and strollers decorated also. Unfortunately we missed a parade and costume contest for the kids. (Now that I know, I'm already planning for next year :) ). But there were still a ton of other activities going on when we arrived. They had venders, booths with info on butterflies, face painting and butterfly crafts. The girls made butterfly puppets out of brown paper bags and also got to make butterfly antenna with headbands and pipe cleaners. A family in our ward (I didnt know this before) runs a face painting company and they were working this particular festival. Being friends, they kindly offered to paint my daughters faces for free. That was really neat and special for the girls, since we usually dont splurge on that kind of stuff. Then, the big event, was the butterfly release. They had hundreds of butterflies in envelopes which they distributed to the families. At the appointed moment, after a big countdown, everyone opened their envelopes at the same time and watched as all the butterflies flew off into the sky to continue their journey south. It was actually very awesome to be surrounded by all the butterflies. And it was great to find a free, fun event that I know my girls will look forward to year after year. :)

Makin Me Eggs

Mabel has been really into scrambled eggs lately. It is so cute. She'll get everything ready all by herself. She'll pull the eggs, cheese and milk out of the fridge and line them up on the counter. Then she'll get out the pan and put in on the stove. Then she makes sure she has a fork (for cracking the egg), the stirring spoon and the cheese grater. Once everything is ready, she'll come get me and tell me she's all ready to "make me eggs." It is so freaking adorable. Then we'll go into the kitchen. I'll turn on the stove and she'll crack the egg with the fork. I'll pull the shells apart and let the egg fall into the pan and Mabel will start to scramble it while I poor in a little milk. She shakes in the pepper and I shake in the salt. Then she gets to stir the eggs up until they "puff up." I'll grate some cheese in while she gets out her bowl or plate and then we get to enjoy eating them together. I think it is so cute how she gets everything all ready and how we have a whole process that we follow. I love makin me eggs!! :)

The Big Cut

Well I finally did it. I chopped Mabel and Emmelines hair. I finally convinced them that it would be easier to brush out, easier to take care of and all together easier to keep out of their faces if it was all just a little shorter. I decided to try and do it myself. That way, if it turned out cute then we saved a few bucks (yeah) and if it turned out horrid, I could still take them somewhere for damage control. As it turned out, I didn't need to take them anywhere afterwards. Despite a bit of unevenness here and there (which sort of look like layers. . . .) I think that both of the haircuts turned out really cute and the girls look great. They both really like their cuts to. They both also love that their hair is easier to brush and keep looking nice.

Pretty Pickett Pumpkins

Pumpkin Patch 2010

For the past three years we have been going to the same Pumpkin patch out in Birmingham. I loved it. We had really settled into a fun family tradition. Well, this year we had to find a new pumpkin patch here in Dallas. The one we went to was fun and the girls liked it. I dont know that I like it quite as much as our old one. . . .but there were pumpkins and a hayride. . .so I guess its all good. We certainly had fun together as a family anyway. And it helped us get excited for Halloween and fall!!

My First Parent Teacher Conference--as the parent!

I got to attend my first parent teacher conference today. I was glad for the chance to talk to Emmelines teacher, Mrs. Torres, and hear how she is doing in school. She is doing great. She has a couple of things to work on. . .mostly just behavior related to being a 5 year old. . . but she participates in class, plays well and knows all of the academic things they are working on. (In truth she knew most of the stuff they are learning before she started. Shapes, numbers, counting, letters and sounds. . .check, check, check. :) ) I'm proud of my little Emmeline and I cant believe that she is growing up so fast.

My first parent teacher conference. . .only. . .who knows how many hundreds left to go. :)

Pickett Family Pictures

Well I finally summand up the courage and took my family to get some portraits. Seeing as the last professional pictures we got were when Mabel was a baby. . .I decided it was time to have Maddie represented. All in all it turned out okay. Sure, we got a lot of bored, silly, and "fake" faces, we also got a couple pretty smiles and in the end, I was very glad we did it. Here is a sampling of some of our pictures.

Sisters

Getting "Inside the Box"