Halloween and Abby's Birthday!

As we were getting ready to go to Denver on Halloween day, I came out of the kitchen to find this...

"Help Mom!  I'm stuck!"

We drove down to Denver right after Michael's class on Friday (Halloween).  And hit some not fun traffic.  Abby cried the last 30 minutes and just about drove us nuts.  We were so glad to get to Michael's parent's house where we were greeted with warm bowls of yummy chili!  It was so good.  The cousins then doned their costumes and headed off down the street.  Abby and I were still eating, so we missed out on pictures, but caught up with the trick-or-treaters a bit later.  I have NO pictures, but I'll get a few from G&G Huntington who took some.  Just know they were CUTE CUTE kids.

They traipsed down the leaf covered street from house to house, so excited about each door.  The parents hung back at the sidewalk and laughed.  I dressed Abby up in her dinosaur costume and she "walked" up to three houses and got a treat.  She was loving it!  Ellie was also a dinosaur, or more accurately a "hyper carnivore" which she learned about on Dinosaur Train. 

 So many people had decorations out and Ellie was fascinated with them.  Making her the slowest in the group, cuz she wanted to look at the spooky things.  I missed this, but supposedly it was the highlight of the night:  Ellie was lagging behind looking at stuff and Aunt Amber told the kids to "wait for Ellie".  Cousin Coulsen (2) then shouted "ELLIE!  Come along!" all dramatically and with an arm waving for her to come.  He's so cute.  

When they got home, they checked out their stash and began eating it.  Yuck.  Ellie just finished her candy the other day and I'm so glad that's over.  We don't eat sugar like that in our house normally.  I don't buy it, and therefore we don't eat it.  And our moods are a lot better for it.  So now her mood is stable. 

The next day we celebrated Abby's birthday.  Her Great Grandpa and Grandma Hurst were even able to make it!  Michael picked out a cute polar bear for Abby and I picked out this fun ball track thing.  She loves them both.  She gives her "Polar" big hugs and talks to it in a higher pitch like a mommy.  It's adorable!  All the cousins were ready to help her open her gifts.  It was funny.

Then we had birthday pumpkin pie!  Happy Girl!

I made her her own little pie in a ramikin.  It had really thick crust and so she basically just scooped the pie and whipped cream out of it like a bowl.  She loved it!

Aunt Amber kept trying to get Abby to put her hands in her hair to no avail.  She just didn't want to.  I was greatful.

Pics of Abby's first year were hung around.

The next morning before we knew it, Ellie and Coulsen had snuck outside and started jumping on the trampoline. It was so cold.  And so funny.  Nothing like laughter and joy to keep you warm I guess!

Burr...

Hope you all had a good halloween :)

Ellie's Birthday Party!

 It's only half a year late, but here goes...

We had a party for Ellie's 3rd Birthday this year.  It was her first party with friends and she was so excited.  I woke up so sick, but Grandma and Grandpa Huntington came the night before and helped me pull it all off.  I figured...I planned it well and bought everything in advance.  I just didn't plan on being so sick.  It was so hard and stressful, but turned out great in the end.  Grandma and Grandpa took over the giant waterbed thing we made, bless them, it turned out to be quite the project.  (If you ever intend to attempt this project, don't do what pinterest says.  Spend the money on the thicker plastic and it will actualy do what its supposed to!  It was pretty sad to me that the plastic tore so quickly after all the effort to make it.  It was still a neat sensory thing, but not as cool as it would've been with thicker plastic.)

In true Laramie fashion, it was gorgeous the day before and on the day of the party...wind.  In Laramie you accept the wind, it's just part of your life.  But it really was a bummer that it made it so cold that day when we were playing in water.  The kids didn't hardly want to touch the waterbedsa  The dollar store water shooters turned out to be a great hit and really saved the "activity".

Next the kids took turns poking the water balloon pinata.  This was hard for the younger kids including Ellie.  She was so distracted by all the attention that she wasn't even really looking at the pinata while she poked, as you will see in the following pics.  It was hilarious.  The kids really liked it still.

Oh this cake.  It looks beautiful, but was obnoxious.  I tried making a yummy cake from scratch the night before, and of course, as things weren't going my way that weekend, it fell.  I was so bummed cuz it tasted really good.  On to plan B.  We bought an angel food cake the morning of, and I used my yummy Swiss Meringue frosting and homemade lemon curd and raspberries to whip this up.  It was so fun to assemble, and came together sooo fast.  It tasted good too.

Ellie was so excited about the cake and having people sing to her.  And then midway through the song, she got all bashful and blushing.  It was so funny.

And then she blew them all out!

 Before the cake, we served the kids PB sandwiches, watermelon, carrots and sugar peas.  It was yummy.

As you can tell, the weather really changed over the course of the party.  After the water balloon pinata, we pretty much stayed inside to eat our lunch and cake and presents.

After the party, we had some leftover balloons that Michael's parents and brother Matt and his wife Kaitlin put to good use with an old fashioned balloon toss.  It was really fun to watch.

Cute Newleyweds!

So in the end, we pulled it off and the kids had fun.  I slept hard that night, glad to not have that stress anymore.  For me, the roughest part was being so stuffed up in the head and having body aches, that I couldn't think straight or remember what I was doing half the time.  It was soooo frustrating while trying to get everything prepped to forget so often.  A huge THANKYOU to all who helped out.  You made Ellie's day so special.