This year, Halloween day felt very busy. Lucy and I were gone all morning at the Bible study I attend at my church. Then, Ben's fall party was that afternoon at school and I went in to help. It was fun to get to know his classmates more, but it certainly made the day a little crazier to pack that in too. Besides all of that, the weather was horrible...really windy and rainy. I was so tired of going out in the wind & rain way before it was even trick-or-treating time. We decided to try out the trick-or-treating at the mall with our friends the Yoders.  It started a little earlier and was indoors. Both a plus to me! I will say that it wasn't quite the same as going around the neighborhood, but with Lucy being so little this option was nice.       DECORATING PUMPKINS The weekend before Halloween, we worked on our pumpkins. We decided to paint them this year. It is much faster than carving and we didn't have a lot of time for it with Ben's party st...

 On Saturday, October 26th, we had a "friend" birthday party for Ben. He has been wanting a party with friends the last couple years and we finally gave in. Now I'm sure he will want one every year...yikes! :) We thought about a few different options and decided to have one at our house and kept it really small. I knew we would have Lucy to watch too and I didn't want it to turn into madness! He invited 5 friends and they were all able to come, so we ended up with 6 boys at the party. I consulted Pinterest for a multitude of party ideas. I found lots of simple Super Mario games/decorations and got planning. :) The party was really fun and I think all of the boys had a good time!   I made a few decorations for over the fireplace. We bought a helium tank to use at home and that made filling the balloons really easy.  As the boys arrived and got settled, we had a few coloring pages and a star magnet craft for them to work on.  We added some streamers ...

We visited Curt's family in Cadillac on Ben's fall break weekend. I went to Ben's conference with his teacher Friday morning and started the drive right after that! It was nice to be able to arrive in the afternoon instead of past bedtimes. This weekend, we celebrated the birthdays of Ben and my nephews Jacob & Brady.     Lucy and Ben enjoyed reading books with their grandma before party time on Saturday.  Brady opening some presents.    Ben has really enjoyed his new nerf gun!  Lucy played with Brady's new Princess Peach car. Ben has the same one at home and he lets her play with that one a lot.  The birthday boys posing for a picture. (Jacob looks so little :)...he's just on his knees).  The yummy birthday cupcakes. I made the little toppers...it is really hard to find Mario/Luigi stuff in the store.  Ben and Peyton  Lucy never met a cupcake she didn't want to eat. I wish I could say the s...

October whizzed by and now we are already on to November. Last month was filled with lots of fun things, finishing up soccer, birthday parties, visiting family, and Halloween. It also had it's share of not so fun things...colds, the flu (for me-ugh), and lots of errands/appts/busy stuff I didn't feel like doing. :)   The best part of October every year is celebrating Ben's birthday. This year he turned 6! Since our families both live in Michigan (and not even in the same city), we usually make a weekend trip to each family to celebrate. Traveling two weekends in a row, with Ben in school now really wiped me out! The first weekend was spent with my family. We decided to take some family pictures that weekend too, so we had the party at my brother Matt & sister-in-law Ashley's house. They have a nice wooded setting for photos. It was our first attempt at using the tripod. I think they turned out great!      Ben with his birthday cake. It was the fi...