Kip participated in his first Halloween Parade this year at his preschool.  His teacher, Mrs. Michelle, had a wonderful celebrating planned.  The children had their parade around the parking lot and then we all went inside to the classroom for treats and a story.

Kip's friend, Matthew, was dressed as a fire fighter, complete with a hose!

Besides Kip of course, my favorite was the boy with the fire on top of his head.  He said that he was "fire guy," but I think he looks the "Heat Miser" from "The Year Without a Santa Claus" - my favorite!  

If you have a hankering to refresh your memory, click here (Snow Miser/Heat Miser Song).

Derek was invited to join the preschoolers at their table for the special treat.  

He looks like he fits right in!

Thursday night we carved our pumpkins.  We had a bit of a rough start, each one wanting Daddy to work on their pumpkin first, but all in all it was a fun time.

When we were finished we turned out all the lights on the first floor to get the best look at our pumpkins.  

Derek's comment was, "It's so dark in here, I can't see my eyes!"

Heidi's comment was, "Derek's is scary, Kip's is funny and mine is beautiful!"

Kip's comment was, "Can we turn the lights on now??"

Heidi's Halloween Parade was today.  We have the best seats because the parade goes right past our house. Kip and I got our chairs out and waited for the kids to come...

Here they come!  Heidi is dressed up as a bride this year =)!  It is pretty windy here today so she had to hold the veil.  Tonight we are headed to my parents for trick-or-treating with cousins.  Should be fun!

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Happy Halloween!

Inlet Vacation - August

The last week in August we rented a cute little cottage in Inlet, NY in the Adirondacks.  We had been looking forward to our getaway all summer and were so excited to be on our way!  We were within walking distance to the town and the main attraction for our kids was this great pirate ship on the town beach.  We went there almost every day! 

There are about eight housekeeping cottages at Nelson's Cottages as well as the main house where the owners live. http://www.nelsonscottages.com/ There is also a nice beachfront with lots of sand and very friendly ducks =).  The weather was a bit cool, but there were a couple of days that were warm enough for the kids to have beach time.

Our first big adventure was to take the chairlift up McCauley Mountain.  At the top there was a short hike that was perfect for the kids.  This was very inexpensive to do and the kids LOVED it.  I would recommend it to everyone.  http://www.mccauleyny.com/

At the top of the mountain were these three chairs made out of skiis.  We thought it might be fun to take pics of the kids in these chairs each time we go =).

The view from the top.  Pictures never do it justice...

On our way down - you can see Peter ahead with both boys.

On another day we decided to try our first mountain hike with the kids.  We chose Rocky Mountain which is a .5 mile hike.  Peter kept up with the older two while Derek and I went at a "2 year old" pace =).  After about an hour, yes, an hour, we made it to the top!  The kids all really enjoyed it and the view was great at the top.  A perfect choice for their first experience. (By the way, it only took us 20 mintes to come down!)

This was the view, sorry the pic is not great - our camera was not working at this point and we were using our phone to take pictures.

Just outside of Old Forge, the Adirondack Scenic Railroad has one of their stations.  The kids loved the ride and especially loved that they could walk around while the train was going!

http://www.adirondackrr.com/

We decided to fit in one more hike to Ferd's Bog.  By now the kids were feeling like experts and would look for the next trail marker on the trees ahead.  The last portion of this trail was a boardwalk that took us out onto the bog.

We loved being close to the town of Inlet and walked down to the town almost every day.  We discovered a great little library (only open 3 hours a day=), a yummy bakery, a great bookstore, a playground and an ice cream shop.  What more could you want??

Our cottage was missing just one thing...a bathtub!  The boys didn't seem to mind taking a dip in the sink=)

Well, here are the kiddos on our trip home when we stopped for lunch...I think the picture says it all =).

Thanks for taking the time to look at our vacation pictures =)

Bridal Room Bliss

I, along with friends Nan and Chrissy, had the privilege of preparing a bridal room for Kim Mapes on her wedding day, August 16th.  I have known Kim since she was born and have many, many fond memories of playing with her and her sisters - it was my chance to be an older sister =)!  Well, as you can see below, we took a room at church and completely transformed it into a room that the girls would be spending time getting ready for the wedding.  First we took everything out of the room (with the help of our husbands) and then we began to fill it back up with furniture, lights, flowers, toule, toule and more toule!  It was so fun to pull all of our ideas and resources together to make a breathtaking room.

I thoroughly enjoyed making the floral centerpiece.

My mom's antique vanity was perfect for the room!

We were able to borrow an antique dress form and Kim's dress looked beautiful waiting for the special day.

Here is Heidi and her cousin, Erin.  Heidi was so excited to be at her first wedding (well, at least the first one that she remembers!  She was 2 the last time she went to one).

Kim and Jason had a beautiful and meaningful wedding.  Here are a few pictures of them and the Mapes family. 

New Hair Cut

About three weeks ago, Heidi & I went to our hairdresser, Jill, and got matching haircuts!  Heidi had been asking to get her hair cut like Lucy (from the Chronicles of Narnia) for quite some time.  It turns out that she had enough hair (10") to donate to "Locks of Love."  We were so excited!  Here is the website if you are interested in checking out the details.  http://www.locksoflove.org/

What a beauty!