A Frozen Party

I still don't understand the huge excitement over the movie Frozen.  I thought it was cute and fine but Rachel thinks it is amazing.  So she wanted a Frozen party for her birthday this year.  Of course, I went to Pinterest to come up with some ideas for such a party.

First we decorated bags and colored pictures of people from Frozen.

We had a special treasure hunt.  Instead of regular clues we used the songs from Frozen.  For example, one clue was "Love is an open _______".  The girls all knew their songs really well.

The treasure hunt led to some chocolate.  One of the songs says "I'm gonna stuff some __________ in my face".  The babies really wanted the chocolate also.

Then we played snowball toss.  It was really ping pong balls and the kids took turns throwing into the cups which each had a picture of someone from the movie.  Elsa was worth the most points.  The bad prince was worth the least.

Then it was time to play Pin the Nose on Olaf.  Rachel won and got a little necklace prize.

We made Olaf faces out of popsicle sticks.

Our last activity was to make a princess wand.  Thanks go to my mom for being the hot glue queen for the day.

Then it was time to open presents.  Rachel got some Frozen puzzles and candy and a barbie and other good things.

Instead of cake we made snowman donuts.  You can almost tell that that is what they are making.

Adam trying a special Frozen popsicle.

And look at the happy birthday girl.  It is hard to believe that she is five years old.
What a fun day we had.

Adam's First Birthday

My baby turned one.  How did that happen?  They keep growing when we aren't looking, I'm sure.  We celebrated Adam's birthday at my parents house because it was the day after Thanksgiving.

We made brownies in the morning.  Everyone wanted to help.

Even Adam got a second to stir.  I was only going to let him stir long enough for me to get a picture and he managed to make a mess and leave a brownie splatter on his cheek.  Isn't he adorable?

I gave Adam a little ribbon that said birthday boy but that didn't last.

Time to open presents.  Adam got really into the unwrapping.

The girls watched  very closely to see what he would get.

This little baby 'tablet' was a hit.  Adam has even had a little bit of time playing with it.

Blowing out the candle with help from Will.  Adam started crying when it got all dark.

But was quickly pacified with yummy brownie and ice cream.

My cute boy is so grown up now.  Happy Birthday Adam!

A Terrific Thanksgiving

We went down to Pasco to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family and we had a lot of fun.  I especially loved playing games and long conversations and just hanging out together.

Before heading over, we did a couple of little Thanksgiving crafts.  Like fill a glove with colorful goldfish crackers and popcorn.

I think the little turkeys came out cute.  It was really hard to find the clear gloves though.  We tried WalMart and several other stores.  Finally I just called Papa Murphys and they said they couldn't sell me some but they could give me some.  Yeah!  The kids liked making the turkeys.

We also made little thumbprint turkeys out of paint.  Adam got really into using the paint.

Here we are in Pasco.  Every Thanksgiving brings a relish tray and chips and dip before the big feast.

Adam liked his pickle from the relish tray.  He also liked squeezing it and getting pickle drips everywhere.  So that was cute.

Rachel and Megan put on a show with their mnms before the feast.  Every year we get three mnms on our plate and have to say three things we are grateful for.  The girls put on a whole dancing mnms show while waiting.

After the delicious meal we had pie, of course.  Rachel was the only brave kid to try the pumpkin pie.  Mostly we do frozen pies.

And Adam got some pie - a lot of pie.  He finished like everyone else's piece for them.  What a good kid.

Super yummy Thanksgiving.  Thanks for letting us come over and spend a few days with you Pasco people.  It was awesome.

More Halloween Fun

I figured that I better put up the rest of our Halloween pictures before we get to Thanksgiving next week.  So here are some fun things we did.

The city of Hermiston put on a hayride.  We were lucky to get there early because it got crowded.  We got to see a pretty sunset while waiting in line.

Someone offered to take a family picture.

Then there were several fires and people could have hot chocolate and roast marshmallows.  So that was a yummy treat.

We didn't know this but I guess the retirement center in town always hosts a big Halloween festival.  This was fun but super crowded.

Way cuter than Frankenstein!

There were a few little games for the kids to play.  I don't think any of my kids were able to ring a witches' hat, but it is the candy you get for playing that is important.

Whitney was very proud of her cupcake - not that she was willing to eat it.

Whitney begged and begged to be dressed as a mummy.  I am too cheap to go buy anything so we taped toilet paper to her black shirt and pants.  I will not do that again.  The toilet paper kept falling off and we kept fixing it.

Adam was the coolest skeleton around.

Umatilla also had a Halloween party that we went to.  It had similar games to all Halloween festivals everywhere but it was fun.  The girls wanted to take a picture with props in City Hall.

Some other buildings also decked out for Halloween but the bank across the street was the best.  It was all decorated like Candy Land and the workers were dressed like the people from Candy Land.  It was really, really cute.

We made some simple Halloween treats - this was a spider and so easy.

And Adam found a chocolate cookie - sneaky boy.

Anyway, we had lots of great Halloween fun.  We are still working on the candy.  The only downside was someone stole our stroller on Halloween.  That was a bit of a bummer.  I don't know if we will buy another one because hopefully Adam will start walking soon.
I hope everyone else had a fun Halloween too.

Pumpkin Picking

Every Halloween comes the all important picking of the pumpkin.

We procrastinated until just a couple of days before the big day.  But there were still a lot of pumpkins left at the farm.

We took a hayride to get out to the field.  Technically, it probably would have been faster to walk since the field was right there.  But hayrides are so fun.  Look - at least half of the people look excited to be there.

Walking through the fields to find the perfect pumpkin.

Whitney and Rachel found their pumpkins quite quickly.  And then stuck with their choice - yeah!

We brought the pumpkins home and Adam immediately wanted to explore the new thing in his turf.

He was put in baby jail (I mean the baby bouncer) for the degunking of the pumpkins.  With four pumpkins we ended up with a lot of seeds.

Will is the professional carver in the family.  Here are just two of the pumpkins; I think he did a great job on them.

And here is our little pumpkin.  This wasn't Adam's final Halloween outfit but I thought he made for a very adorable pumpkin.

Hooray for pumpkins and for Halloween!