Happy Halloween!

This morning the kids woke up and had a Halloween party in their room with all their little buddies. They made Halloween decorations, danced and were busy for a good hour and a half! When we went downstairs they brought their party and played while I made a Halloween breakfast of cinnamon toast pumpkins - I had intended to make spooky ghost pancakes, but I was just TOO POOPED. For lunch we made crescent roll mummies! That was pretty fun. We had an open house today so after lunch we cleaned up and decided to take the kids miniature golfing - a first - and I don't know if you've been miniature golfing lately, but it has changed. They used to have all sorts of fun buildings and little hidden holes - now it is mostly short putting greens and TWO fun holes out of the 18. The kids thought it was the neatest thing, but not like they used to be... When we got home we quickly started dinner - I was planning to make our traditional pumpkin meatloaf, but that takes 2 hours so I changed my mind and was going to just make a regular meatloaf so the kids could eat and be ready to go trick-or-treating by 6pm, but then Gregory asked me to make a "special Halloween dinner" so Clark said he'd help me make the pumpkin meatloaf. I ended up making both and we ended up eating the regular meatloaf that was ready in an hour while the pumpkin finished cooking. Bailey carved a cute face and we'll have to eat it for lunch one of these days. Good thing the kids (and Daddy) like meatloaf! Anyways, after dinner they got ready, put lights in the pumpkins and off they went! They brought home an awful lot of candy - most they were allergic to - but they know they the routine - bag up all the candy they can't eat so Daddy can take it to work! They were really excited this year because there were about 10 pieces they were still able to keep! Side note - I had some RUDE trick-or-treaters this year!! Kids who would grab candy out of my bowl with the parents standing right there!! UGH.

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Pumpkin Carving

Well, this morning we got a call saying someone wanted to see our house between 11a and 2p (could they have a larger window?) so we decided to take the kids to the Lindsay Museum and out to lunch. With all our house preparations these last few months we've hardly gone out to do much with the kiddies. Well, I forgot my camera, but they had a great time working on the animal search and getting a wildlife collector card for completing it. We also had a GREAT lunch at this new little Japanese restaurant in Walnut Creek called Miraku. (We'll be going back again soon.) While we were finishing up lunch we got another call from a realtor saying they were going to look at our house so we stopped in downtown Walnut Creek for a bit and made another stop at OSH to kill some time. When we got home the kids were a little wired so they played a bit and we decided we'd carve pumpkins after dinner.

Our kids LOVE to carve pumpkins. Bailey says it's her favorite part of Halloween. Not really the carving pumpkin part, but the playing in the pulp part! Now, we have an open house tomorrow so playing with pumpkin pulp was not the smartest idea, but what can you do? After we did a little cleaning up, I washed the seeds and roasted them up - Actually more like pan fried them up. I put a little olive oil and nucoa in a pan and cooked them until they were toasty brown, added a little garlic powder and a pinch of salt. Gregory musta ate two handfuls and kept telling me how yummy they were before we had to cut him off. If you're into parmesan cheese - that makes a great addition along with a little Italian seasoning too! OH I LOVE pumpkin seeds!

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Halloween at School!

Friday before Halloween was a busy day around here! Woke up, got the kids dressed in their costumes, took them to school, came home to prep our house for the folks who were coming to visit at 10a, went back to Gregory's school to watch his parade with Daddy, left a little early to work in Bailey's class for her party, Daddy brought Gregory to Bailey's school after his parade was over, then at noon we were all on our way home only to find out someone else was coming to see our house in a bit so we all hopped back into the van and went out to lunch at Gregory's favorite restaurant (Elephant Bar)! Oh, and on the way home we stopped at the veggie market to feed the animals at the petting zoo and pick up a pumpkin to carve since we're using our other pumpkins to decorate our entry now! We were suppose to have another house searcher come tonight, but they just called to cancel - I'm kind of relieved. Too pooped to go out to dinner too!

Gregory marching in his school parade

Bailey decorating her pumpkin cookie -
she said it was "Yummy!"

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Blood, Sweat and Tears (literally)

That is what it takes to get one's house ready for market! The sign went up today, we made it through the virtual tour on Monday and we are just about ready for the broker tour Thursday! Whoo hoo! We will never be doing this again so I hope we sell our house quickly and find a lovely home we can live in forever.

Our house looks just beautiful...more beautiful than when we purchased it. Clark has worked his fingers to the bone and I'm kind of sad we are moving, but the time is right and we really do need a little more space.

Princess Bailey

Sunday Bailey went to a Princess Tea Party. She had to dress up as a princess - which she just loved - and since it was a lunch, we packed some allergy free sandwiches and snacks for her to eat while the other girls ate their cheese tea sandwiches. They sipped apple and cherry juice, enjoyed tasty cupcakes AND got their face painted by Barbie! What a treat!

Green sparkly eye shadow
and a fancy butterfly on her cheek

Here she is in her princess outfit.
She had a little crown on her head too, but she took it off.

While Bailey was at her tea party, Gregory got to hang out at Aunty Joey's house! He had a great time there too. He came home and told me he had fun being a big brother, but he likes being a little brother better...and then he had me feed him his dinner:) Somedays my independent young man still likes to be my little baby!



I lifted this off Camryn and Luke's blog - Okay, look! Gregory and Lukie are dressed as TWINS!

Bailey Turns SIX!

Wow, my little sweetie turned six today! We had a busy, busy day. Mostly Mommy and Daddy had a busy, busy day getting our house ready for our virtual tour on Monday, but Bailey and Gregory had loads of fun too. Bailey opened her presents this morning and she and Gregory were very busy playing, after lunch we hit her school carnival, we decorated cupcakes, played some more, went to Koji's for dinner and came home for dessert! Now they are busy playing with their carnival prizes and birthday presents. I'm POOPED!

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Happy Birthday My Little Sweeties!

Today we celebrated Bailey's 6th and Gregory's 4th birthday with a little dinner, a little cake and a lot of laughs.

The last few months have been CRAZY for us. We are trying to get our house ready to sell and our weekends have been filled with packing, house repairs, cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning and our poor kiddies have just been stressed (and almost toyless) and pretty much at the end of their ropes (me too) so we decided we had to do a little something for their birthdays. We ordered a little Mexican food, a Spider-Man/Tinkerbell cake and just took a break from any house work (well, half a day). It was a great, much needed break for all of us and the kiddies had a super-duper happy birthday!

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Bailey's First Field Trip

Bailey took her very first field trip today! Her class went to visit a pumpkin patch in Livermore. They rode a bus, took a hay ride, learned all about corn and pumpkins, played in a cornbox (like a sandbox with corn), ran around a maze (that had a dark tunnel - she tells me she didn't stay in there long), visited the farm animals (but no one got to feed or pet them), played at a playground, and hunted for a special pumpkin, Indian corn and gourd to take home! On the way home they were able to take a break and eat their snack and have a little cold water. Whew, what a busy day for her! She had a great time and couldn't wait to share her fun day with us all.

Primo's Run

Today Daddy ran the 1/2 marathon, Primo's Run. It's a race held out here to support the schools in the district. I think this was the third time he ran and he made a "PR" (personal record) so he is quite happy (and sore)

Bailey hugging this big inflatable Chevron car

Creepy happy face some dental group was passing out

Here come's Daddy!
There's Gregory giving him a giant Gatorade

All smiles

This bear skated the 5K

Uncle Ryan ran the 1/2 marathon too!
(And had to work a full shift after this!)

Hmmm, wonder what's next? Maybe the 1/2 in Stockton? or a full??