Cookie Baking Day

Cookie Baking Day 2011 was a huge success yet again.  This years cast of characters was Mom, Audrey, Mia, Lexi, Ashley, Jessie, Aiden, Abi (my cousin Shawn's girlfriend), and me.  Matt stuck around to be the taste tester as usual.

Here are some of the goodies.

Christmas in the Park

We borrowed Papa Bo's suburban and loaded up the family to go admire the lights.  We picked up a little Chick-Fil-A on the way to Longview Lake.  Lexi said the entrance lights were her favorite and then she proceeded to change her "favorite" several times.

Our Street

It seems that each year we get more people on our street lighting up their trees and houses.  We love it.

Happy Halloween

Our Halloween started bright and early with both kiddos awake before 6:00 am.  Lexi was so excited about Halloween that I almost thought it was Christmas.

Around 2:00, I went to Lexi's school for the parade and party.  The place was packed with lots of parents admiring their dressed-up cuties.

At the party, the kids played Bingo and Pass-the-Pumpkin.  I volunteered to do the craft and the kids made little spiders.

 Around 5:30 we got the kids dressed and ready for the neighborhood parade.  Jayvan's lobster costume was a little too hot for him so we kept him in his skeleton outfit.

 Then we went up to the lake in our neighborhood for the costume parade.

 I remember just a year ago she wanted us to hold her hands the whole time.  This year she ran ahead of us like a big kid.  Sigh. . .

We went home and ate the chili that Matt had prepared in the crockpot.  Then he got set up in the driveway to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters.

 Our neighbor definitely beat us in the decorating department.

 SuperNana, GG the pumpkin, Aunt Ashley the flapper, Spidergirl, Skeleton Baby, and I hit the streets.  Lexi was so excited that it was hard to keep up with her.

 Jayvan had a little snack during trick-or-treating.  No candy for him this year.

We took a few pictures when we got back home.  

 Lexi stopped counting her candy at 150.  She then decided to lay down in the middle of it all.

 I think Jayvan had a great first Halloween.

Pumpkin Carving

We planned to carve pumpkins with the family in between Lexi's last soccer game and the hayride.  Even though we had been to the pumpkin patch twice, we still hadn't purchased our big pumpkins.  So, we stopped by a local church that sells pumpkins to raise money for missions.  Lexi picked out this little pumpkin for Jayvan.

 Mia really got into the carving and playing with the pumpkin pieces.  She may have even eaten a piece or too.

 Aunt Ashley worked on sorting seeds for most of the time, but she stopped to strike a pose.

 Kyle did most of the work on their pumpkin.

 Josh did most of the work on their pumpkin as well.

 I think Audrey just stuck her hand in to pose for a picture, because I don't remember her actually doing much carving/de-gunking.

 Matt carved his pumpkin and Lexi's.  The only thing Lexi did was pick out her Angry Bird pattern.

 Mom did a great job on her witchy pumpkin.

 Here is Lexi's Angry Bird:

 Kyle & Ashley's traditional Jack-O-Lantern:

 Mom's Witch:

 Josh & Audrey's traditional Jack-O-Lantern:

 My owl:

 Matt's Green Lantern:

 All of the pumpkins together: