Halloween!!!

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween. I know we did! Austin the Magician, Ella was Tinkerbell, and Steven the SWAT Cop

Fall Festival at the school. The kids loved touring the fire truck!

Steven carved his pumpkin this year while Ella and Austin took me up on the offer to paint them instead (yes!) Dad helped Stevie carve and I monitored the paint splatters :-)

Just for Casey I dressed up as a Hunter. A one time only deal :-)

Broc's shirt says: SECURITY

and Jazzy was a jester. Quite suitable I think...

Trick R Treating

Our Halloween Rock Video

We're taking this act on the road!
Or maybe just Trick or Treating ;0)
Click on it!
http://cms.oriental-trading.com/a/hBKxClAAdAtd7B7upZIA9hMuo.AdAtd7b5/movie?MOVIE_ID=a93002

Arizona Science Center and the LIGHT RAIL!

So just a little note that blogger is totally bugging me today and these are all out of order...

Flying the plane
At the end of our day Ella was so tired she crashed on the floor in the light rail. Gross! This only lasted long enough for me to snap this picture.

Ah! Mesa Frozen Yogurt

"Mom can't you see I have Icrecream? I don't want to take a picture nowwww"

Steven

Austin was mesmerized by this magnet maze wall

Steven on the bed of nails

Austin too

Their favorite part was the weather center stage. It had earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, monsoons. All including wind, rain, hot and cold. Very cool!

The boys on the light rail! So excited!

Ella and Nanna with their tickets

A scorpion sculpture (we see enough of these at home)

Wheelchair racing

tug-o-war

October Break!

October Break. Just an excuse to have some fun!

Park dates, McD's, park, cones at McD's... Auz

We all scream for icecream!

IO-WANNA move to IOWA

An unexpected trip to Iowa! Casey's Grandpa passed away in his daughter's home in Mt Ayr, IOWA. This is where he wanted to be buried, next to his sweetheart, who passed 3 years ago. So Casey's Mom, Stepdad, 4 siblings, his cousin Stacy, and I piled into the minivan, hopped on a couple of planes, then rented a suburban, and drove 3 hours (or more, thank you GPS) and voila! We were in farm country!
This is the school house where his mom and her brother and sister went to school. They all teased me about how much fun it was to climb inside this slide (fire escape) and sitting on a piece of wax paper, FLY down. BUT I never had the pleasure. Guess we'll have to go back...

Beautiful scenery everywhere. Quiet, peaceful, and green.

Even the graffiti is happy :-)

Lot's of Casey's General stores. It's a sign! No really they were everywhere. Big red signs.

We loved sitting on Aunt Patti's front porch. What a wonderful place to live. The neighbors all brought goodies, no one locks their doors, and people have a real pride in their ride-on lawn mowers. Ah, the simple life.

Update

It seems like life is just bust busy. For Labor day I put Casey to work :0)

Before:After: Definitely still in progress! But starting to feel "home-ier"

Then there was the day I was cleaning and Ella was out of sight doing this:

She said, "Mom you're happy?"

as I tried not to laugh, and encourage this kind of artisitc beauty. The bath water even turned purple

And we had a big garage sale and CLEANED OUT. We got rid of the couches (and all the furniture) in our front room. Which was wonderful because I was so tired of always fixing the pillows and cleaning those couches. LOL But then 2 days later Casey brought home this air hockey table and filled some of the space.

Which is fine because I don't have to clean it :-)

Some new funnies from the kids: Steven asked if they could play with Kyle and Trevor the other day and I said that they were in Disneyland and Steven responded with concern, "Will we ever see them again???"

After watching Dora or Diego and seeing all the footprints animals leave, we put Ella to bed. She laid there looking up at Casey and pointed to the wrinkles in his forehead, "Snake tracks!"

And I'm sure that Austin will say something stinking hilarious in the near future and I will update you. I am having a too-much-on-my-mind moment and can't think...

The "Me Bag"

Steven came home from school yesterday with a brown bag with a note attached. He is to put 3 things in the bag that tell about him. He chose 1) a car- because "I like cars. I wish it was a motorcycle but I really like this car" 2) Star Wars Jedi Figurine "cuz I love Star Wars" 3) A picture of him on his basketball team "just cuz I like playing basketball"

It brought up a fun conversation... If I put 3 things in a bag for each of our kids this is what I would do:

Steven: 1) A big smiley face because he is always my happy kid. 2) A heart because he is so caring for EVERYONE. 3) the word "LEADER" because he is in charge of the kids in this house (or so he thinks) When I told him this he said, "because I think I'm the boss."
Austin: 1) An Elk picture because he loves camping and hunting with his Daddy. 2) A paint brush because he is my artist. 3)A lightbulb because his brain is always going. He is imaginative and creative, and a little attention deficit too :)
Ella: 1) A microphone because she is LOUD, 2) a stool for her to preform on. She is always dancing or singing 3) A crown, she is a princess and rules the house from under 3 feet tall