Sunday, October 30, 2011

Halloween Fun 2011


The girls love to play dress-up, practically every day. Princess dresses are the most common choice (Nana F. lives in Florida and loves shopping when things are deeply discounted!), but the girls love dressing-up in anything that is not... normal school-wear clothing. Thus, as you can imagine, they love Halloween!

OK, so there are two reasons they like Halloween... dressing up and the candy. They are normal kids after all!

The festivities started this year when we visited our favorite greenhouse to purchase some pumpkins. After a fun time of roasting marshmallows, a horse-drawn wagon ride, feeding the chickens and fish, and playing in a hay-bale maze, we found the perfect pumpkins.

The girls finding their way through the maze.

Riding on the horse-drawn wagon.

The girls and their pumpkin loot!

Playing on one of the garden statues.

Now that we had the pumpkins, it was time to start carving! The Baby Butterfly had her own perfect pumpkin, and was so excited that she was going to be a part of the process of cleaning and carving her pumpkin. That was... until... she actually had all of the pumpkin guts on her hands. It truly amazes me that a child who devours her food with gusto, and in the process will get food on her from head to toe and she won't even bat an eye. But, cleaning out a pumpkin really freaks her out and makes her seem like she has OCD. Who knew?

Daddy and Mommy did all of the carving of the pumpkins.  Of course Daddy did all of the drawing of the pumpkin faces.  I just love that Daddy is so artistic... not a stencil in site!

The Butterfly's pumpkin being devoured by a larger pumpkin!

This pumpkin was grossed out by the cannibal pumpkin!

The Ladybug's... ladybug pumpkin!

Anyway, after Mommy cleaned out her pumpkin, the Bug was more than happy to supervise the carving process. She is a girl who really enjoys being in charge! (BTW, she is munching on freshly cooked pumpkin seeds.)


Daddy came up with a great idea of having the Butterfly's little pumpkin being devoured by one of the larger ones. The little one loved the idea and was so excited that her pumpkin was such a pivotal part of the pumpkin decorations.

Following the pumpkin carving, the Ladybug and I decided to make some special holiday treats... chocolate chocolate chip cupcakes. Yum! You cannot deny, this kiddo has come baking skills!



With all of this fun, I can only imagine all of the fun the girls will have tomorrow when they walk around the neighborhood trick-or-treating. This will be so much fun! I cannot wait. In the mean time, here are the girls in their costumes. They had a Halloween party today and I took the opportunity to get some pics of them in their outfits.



Sassy Alice in Wonderland.

Cutie-pie Minnie Mouse.

My beautiful Ladybug as Alice.


My retro Minnie!

Enjoy a wonderful Halloween!!!

~~Aloha!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Sunday Snapshot, Fields

The weather outside was beautiful today. Simply beautiful. It is slowly getting cooler and I am not sure how long this nice weather is going to last, so I took the girls out today to take their Christmas photos. While we were out I captured a few photos of the girls by themselves. Below are a couple photos that I really liked.

Enjoy!

The Butterfly showing us a sassy pose!


The Ladybug looking simply beautiful (she really is a great model).

~~Aloha!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Words Have Power

The following photo is another one I pulled off of Facebook recently. Being a middle school teacher, I see first-hand the effect that words can have on my students, both positive and negative. So many kids feel that words are inconsequential, after all, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." But the brutal truth is that words do have an effect. Sometimes a very powerful one... a very negative one.

With the rash of bullying and subsequent depression and even suicides that are plaguing so many schools and towns across the nation, I can only hope for all of this hatred to pass. I can only hope that kids will eventually understand that their words can inflict such lasting damage. I can only hope...

But I will do what I can in my own school to stop it.


~~Aloha!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Sunday Snapshot, Oktober

Here they are, my little cuties. We celebrated a nice weekend about an hour away from our home, enjoying the fun festivities of Oktoberfest. The girls had a blast!


Time for a little editing.



They definitely are cute as little, blonde, German-Chinese girls!

~~Aloha!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Pumpkin Festival

We attended a local pumpkin festival the other day and had a great time! The Butterfly ran from place to place, looking at everything with such great interest. Her favorite... this cool pumpkin.


Wouldn't you love it too? I cannot wait because Autumn is around the corner! Pumpkins, apple pie, and lots of Halloween fun. Woohoo!

~~Aloha!