{Trick-or-Treat}

Our evening started with a great potluck with friends!

Sleeping Beauty, Garth, Cowgirl, Flapper, & Cat!

Where's Drew, Ian, Owen, & Mya????

Cowboy Drew & Cowgirl Mom!

Ian, in the Hottest costume of the season!

Peter Pan, Knight, & Spiderman, (who loves his gun)!

*Sorry the photo quality is sooo poor. My camera does not do well in the dark.

The boys had a blast trick-or-treating and received a ton of candy. Mya ran from house to house trying to keep up with the boys and had more energy than the energizer bunny. She caught on quick to the concept and went strong for hours. She surpassed Owen's efforts easily.

October has finally come to an end. It is my favorite month and one of the busiest months all year. It started with a getaway to Breckenridge, my 31st birthday, Drew's baptism, family from CO & KS visiting, field trips galore, soccer, fall carnival, trunk-or-treat, & trick-or-treating! I am exhausted, but what a fun month! Now its time to slow down and reflect on all the many blessings in my life. Counting down the last few hours until November!

{Pumpkin Patch Field Trip}

Owen was able to go on yet another field trip this week for preschool! We felt it was appropriate since preschool fell on Halloween, to take the kids to our local pumpkin patch. Luckily for Mya, she got to tag along too. Last minute we decided to dress up, so Owen, Mya, & I threw on our cowboy boots and grabbed a gun, which you will notice, Owen loved to use for his photo prop!

Owen Summers Halloween Morning!

Mya Summers Halloween Morning!

Owen's preschool buddies!

Going on a hay ride, where we saw all kinds of beautiful pumpkin patches and sunflowers.

Owen loved going into the petting zoo! He made friends with a turkey, who I thought looked quite tasty & made me excited for Thanksgiving day!

He fed the goat.....

Pet the goat....

& Shot the goat!

He must take after Uncle Ty.......

Still holding onto his gun, he climbed up a giant hay castle with Mya!

Mya loved riding in style with all the girls! She is eager for her own preschool days.

The older boys did not get to go on the field trip because they were in school, but they had a fun day too! They could not dress up for school, but Ian's teacher gave each kid some fun Halloween accessories to wear during the day and Drew's teacher gave him 4 bags of Halloween candy and games. They also got to wear their new Halloween shirts.

Everyone had a great day, so far! Now its off to go hang out with friends and go trick-or-treating!

{Trunk or Treat}

Tonight we went to our churches annual Trunk-or-Treat. We ate chili dogs with our friends and then the kids got to go from trunk to trunk collecting candy. Several families decorated their trunks with spooky Halloween decorations.

Owen, our neighbor Tristan, Ian, Veterinarian Jo, Kitty cat Mya, & Drew

Mya as my little cat, with her favorite person, Captain Hook Brody!

She loved showing off her tail!

I never got pics of the boys because they were off and running the whole night.

My favorite part of trick-or-treating is coming home and going through all the candy. Trading took place and chocolate was sneaked by me! We still have Monday night trick-or-treating too!

{Spooktacular Carnival}

Tonight we went to the Sundance Fall Carnival with the Harris's. Kenny unfortunately missed out because he is in San Diego for continuing education classes. I had a blast taking the kids out for a fun night of hanging out with friends, playing games, and pigging out on cotton candy!

Our cute group!!!

The kids devoured the cotton candy in seconds!

Miss Mya and Miss Bella looking, oh so adorable in their pink and black!

Ian, or should I say Mario, was awesome at the bean bag toss.

Spider man Owen throwing rings around the soda.

Winning candy at the duck table!

Keeping the winning alive!

The kids decorated their own pumpkins!

The best part of the evening was "Dunking a Cop," which just happened to be our good friend Jermey!

Drew hit the target right on & it didn't sink him, so he took matters into his own hands!
Sheriff Drew taking down Sheriff Harris!

The carnival was a great way to start our Spooktacular Halloween weekend!

~Our candy fest continues tomorrow with our trunk-or-treat, gotta love Halloween!

{Jack-o-lanterns}

Tonight for our Family Home Evening activity we carved jack-o-lanterns to add to our spooky front porch! Drew and Ian came home from school with pumpkins and were eager to start carving. I put Kenny to work with the knife, since he does have the hand of a surgeon!
Kenny had to force Owen's hand in the inside of the pumpkin because he thought it was gross. He decided he would just hold the top of the pumpkin for Mya instead and let her pull out the gooey mess!

Ian didn't mind the pumpkin mess!

Ian carved his pumpkin all by himself!

Mya was daddy's 1st assistant!

The creators of the jack-o-lanterns!

Our family loves Halloween!!!!

{Chicago}

Do you remember the band Chicago? Back in my olden days, I used to love to sing, "You're the Inspiration & Hard to Say I'm Sorry." Chicago was playing in Palm Springs and one of my favorite people in the world, Sunny was celebrating her birthday, & decided she wanted to celebrate her birthday by going to a Chicago concert.
There were all kinds of interesting people at the concert. I think I was one of the youngest people there! We met an older couple who bought tickets thinking they were going to the play Chicago! I guess they didn't think it was weird that a play was being performed in a casino! They asked us what the band sang, and Darcy & I broke out in song for them! Our seats were next to a man who pretended to play the air trombone & trumpet! We had lots of good laughs from the folks in the crowd & from Erica's dancing!
The night really got fun when we ditched our seats and went up to dance near the front!

Old School music meant old school lighter to wave around!

I'm so glad I was able to party with Sunny on her birthday!

{i'm lovin' it!}

Ian, Hamburglar, Tanner, & Drew

Tonight the Sundance teachers took over McDonald's to raise money for the school. Of course we wanted to show our support & hang out with friends, but the added bonus that I did not have to cook dinner tonight was also a great reason! The boys loved seeing their teachers from last year and this year and seeing lots of friends. The place was packed, forcing us to take our dinner outside. Being outside meant eating with McDonald's Hamburglar which made the older kids happy, but terrified the little ones!

Another reason we wanted to celebrate our school was because Sundance was:

SUNDANCE AWARDED 2011 NATIONAL BLUE RIBBON

The U.S. Department of Education named Sundance Elementary one of 305 schools as 2011 National Blue Ribbon Schools based on our overall academic excellence and for our success in closing achievement gaps. The Department will honor the entire 256 public and 49 private schools with their National Blue Ribbon School awards at a conference and awards ceremony November 14-15, in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Kinney and a member of the Sundance faculty will attend the ceremony to receive the award personally.

"I am so proud of everyone," said Mrs. Kinney. "We all worked hard together to earn this award -- faculty, staff, students, and parents. You are all AWESOME!"

We think its pretty awesome to be a one of the schools receiving this recognition! We love our school and are grateful for how great our kids are thriving there. The principal Mrs. Kinney is energetic and loving, always giving my kids high-five's and hugs whenever she sees them. She makes the school what it is and I'm Lovin' It!

{Oak Glen Incident}

Owen went with his preschool friends up the mountain to Oak Glen. It was a beautiful day & the boys spent the morning hiking, playing in the mud, throwing rocks and sticks into the pond, watering trees, & collecting sticks. It was a great "boy" adventure and we had a blast, until we got reprimanded after the boys all pulled down their pants and urinated down a ravine. Unfortunately the ranger saw them and addressed me saying, "You are an adult, you should know better." I apologized several times and kept thinking in my head how these boys I'm sure are not the first kids to pee down the rocky ravine. He then asked me to clean it up! I told him that it was only pee, not poo and he scolded me some more and then went on his way. I was embarrassed and I guess learned my lesson....do not let 4 little boys drop their pants at the same time and pee at a public place, even if they are outdoors!

The Peeing Culprits!

Owen collecting water to feed the trees.

Our mountains are so beautiful!

This kid makes me laugh all the time!