HO! HO! HO! Happy Halloween! Wait... What?!?

So AJ told me in July that he wanted to go as Santa for Halloween. My mom made his costume. If I would have made it it would have been in stripper fashion with tear away pants and coat and not nearly as cute. It would only be appropriate for me to go as Rudolph since I was pulling his "sleigh" (which is 3 pieces of cardboard and 4 rolls of red Duck tape that was way easier to make than anticipated). After AJ and I were dressed and getting ready to go trick or treating, I said to Steve (who was not dressed up) that we should dress him up as a drunk Grandma and put hoof prints across his chest. That would have made it an absolute classic! AJ had fun hamming it up and saying, 'Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas!' in the deepest voice he could muster while waving as if he were in a parade and handing out candy canes. It was a fun night!! :) Even though we all complain that Christmas stuff goes out way too early in the stores, the things I was looking for (reindeer antlers, white beard, etc.) were really hard to find! Small candy canes were found at Sam's Club so, needless to say, we have A LOT leftover. Hey, they'll keep until Christmas! 

If you didn't 'get' my costume idea for Steve- 'Grandma got run over by a reindeer. Walking home from our house Christmas Eve...' Maybe we'll surprise a few and show up like that around Christmas.

Hope your Halloween was as fun as ours!

What a day off of school at the mall in Appleton looks like...

Kendra and I packed up the kids and headed to Appleton for some retail therapy.  Well, we need real therapy BECAUSE we took our kids to the mall.  Just kidding.  We came home exhausted and with a few less dollars in our wallets...

 Amelia trying out the aviators...

 AJ trying on some readers!  Women's readers...

 Amelia in Urban Outfitters (Kendra was looking for some cool threads to wear to a Halloween party) trying out the chicken hat.  She even bawked.

Amelia calls AJ her silly boy friend.  I see why. ;)

Whatsa happenin' hot stuff?

Thriller!

I took Olivia & Amelia (K's girls) and AJ to see the Central Wisconsin School of Ballet's Thriller show.  The kids perform some different dances with a Halloween theme.  It was cute. I only knew 2 girls in it.  They did a couple of dances wearing a sheet as a ghost and used black light which was really cute.

These three spunky monkeys had fun!

A hike up Rib Mountain

We are always going for a hike up Rib Mountain since it is pretty much across the street.  Being goofy!

I have a video of AJ telling me that there is a snake in the hole behind him in the picture above.  And since he knows I am not a fan of snakes I did a fake scream on it.  It is pretty funny.

Skippy Jon Jones on stage

I know these pictures are terrible quality!  They were taken before we saw Skippy Jon Jones on stage at the Grand Theater.  It's always kind of dark in there and with the phone...  AJ and I both loved the show!

Have pile, will jump!

Playing in the leaves on a gorgeous October day after school!

 I love this funny shot!

Grandparents Day at AJ's School

We had Grandparents Day at AJ's school and I was in charge of photos.  I took photos of all the families together.  Unfortunately, Steve's parents live in Florida and my parents couldn't make it so I asked my friends Bob & Mary to step in and be AJ's grandparents for the day.  They were tickled at the idea!  AJ adores Bob & Mary (in his own words... "Bob and Mary are two of my favorite people!").  But you can't tell that in these pictures... ;)

 My 'sisters' Mary and Wendy

After all the grandparents left, I stuck around and put together a project for the kids to do for the World War II Veterans who are going on the Never Forgotten Honor Flight next week.  The Honor Flight takes WWII Veterans (free of charge to them) on a chartered plane to Washington DC to see the monuments and sights for the day.  There is a 'mail call' and the veterans will get stacks of mail thanking them from family, friends, strangers, kids... It is pretty amazing.  So AJ and his friends made these flags that the Veterans could 'wave'.  Bob and Mary were instrumental in the Honor Flight taking off in our area and the stories they have are both heartbreaking and hilarious about these amazing men who fought for our country.

Fall Fun!

The first weekend in October we decided to go for a hike up on Rib Mountain.  When we drove up there we saw that the ski lift was running and asked AJ if he wanted to go on.  He was game (we were a little surprised) and so we had our first fall Rib Mountain fall 'leaf peeper' ride.

Next day was apple picking and hayride day!  I LOVE those apples we get from Helene's!

What a great family picture!  Yep, it ended up in our Christmas card.