My Winged Beauties

Happy Halloween to blog world! We have officially finished all festivities, and are ready to share the pictures of our little ones with wings. This year, that was the "common bond" between their costumes...and Kendyll was sure to point it out to each house we visited tonight. :)

Here is the synopsis of our last few days of celebrating fall:

A church fall party complete with pumpkin decorating contest. Go figure---ours was a princess.

Our oldest daughter is quite competitive and has a really bad habit of just wanting to quit if she can't win. We're really working on it, but it's a tough one! So, she decided she didn't even want to go to the party because she was afraid we would lose the pumpkin contest. Her biggest fears came true. We didn't win. But, she was a great sport and congratulated her two friends who won. Here's the grand prize winner, one of her best friends, Trinity. By the way, all worries about winning subsided when she found out she got to take her princess pumpkin home. Nothing else mattered after that. :)

The next day was the church Fall Festival. Abby Kate was home sick, but the older girls and I enjoyed some games and bounce house fun!

Carlie had her Halloween party at school, and was her usual bubbly self (that was sarcastic, by the way.) She did smile for me a couple of times, and even busted out a couple of small dance moves during the music time. It's always amusing to watch a class full of 3 year olds celebrate. Pumpkin decorating never quite happened this year...but, just in the nick of time, Mark bought some pumpkins on Halloween to quickly add some stickers to for the front porch. The girls loved decorating this way and we saved tons on pumpkins---they were 1.50 each at WalMart today! Nothing like buying them at the last minute. :)
Meanwhile, Abby Kate wondered "What is all this about, anyway? And, why do you keep dressing me in orange and black all the time?"

Kendyll posing with her crafty creations on the front porch....

We had our usual Halloween festivities tonight. Our tradition is "breakfast for dinner" on Halloween, and the menu pretty much stays the same from year to year. Last year, we got to spend the evening with our friends, Matt, Sara, Hollyn, and Noah. We had so much fun that we talked about it becoming tradition also. Well, this year, we decided that it was probably too hard to work out. But, of course, minutes before breakfast was ready tonight, Kendyll said "Oh, this is going to be SO FUN! Hollyn's going to be here ANY MINUTE!" Ummmm....guess I forgot that tiny detail about the change in our tradition. The girl remembered that from LAST YEAR. That is absolutely crazy in my "easily forgotten mind".

We had a great dinner of pumpkin, cat, and bat pancakes, eggs, sausage, and cinnamon rolls. Then, we showed off our beautiful costumes to Pops and Grandma, who came over to get some hugs and take a picture or two. The girls were so excited for their big reveal. Each one came out of the bedroom with the proudest smile. They felt absolutely beautiful. And, I love watching that on their faces.

Abby Kate was a trooper and let us dress her up too. She enjoyed chewing on her butterfly antenna throughout the night and was the cutest little thing in her padded pink suit. Grandad & Grankay gave her a cute "Mommy's Little Pumpkin" sleeper that she modeled the rest of the evening after the candy was collected from the neighbors. (Please forgive me for posting too many pictures of her....but, since this blog is mainly for grandparents, aunts, and uncles, I know they won't mind!)

Who can resist this smile?

And, here are a few trick-or-treat pictures that I love...

I can never get enough pictures of Mark and his girls. This one was especially good, I thought.

My beautiful angel who is growing up way too fast. Put some makeup on her, and it fast forwards in my mind to what she will look like years from now....

Me and Abby Kate...a rare pic of her favorite headpiece actually in place!

And, finally, the LOOT! This was the dumping time, when we got to discover how much the girls had collected. This year was a HUGE score of chocolate, with even some full-size packages in there!

First, the anticipation.....
Followed by the satisfaction....

Even Abby Kate found a few pieces to gnaw on!

And, it wouldn't be a holiday blog entry without a dramatic picture from Kendyll Grace. :)

After a few too many pieces of candy, they read a stack of pumpkin and fall books with daddy, and crashed. Now it's time for Mom and Dad to raid the stash for our favorites before they realize what has happened!! :)