Costume Strut and Pumpkin Carnival & Pumpkin Carving

Every Year, O'Hara has a Costume Strut on the last day of school before Halloween.  The kids all wear their costumes to school and we have a parade around the gym.  It is really cute and a lot of fun.  Sam got to wear his pajamas to his school and have a pajama party (no costumes allowed at his school ?!).  I had him dress up in his costume for a quick picture before school though.

"Bad Guy", "Kitty with a Dress On" and "Oregon Football Player"

Sam looks a little "Village People" to me in this picture . . .

This was the easiest costume ever!

Thank You cousin Will for letting us borrow your REAL Oregon Helmet!

"Bad Guy" 

. . .unfortunately this costume is way too fitting!

As much as I begged her to wear the $75 Belle costume that I paid way too much money for in Disneyland, she only wanted to wear this $1.99 dress that she found at Goodwill.  Why don't Mom's get to choose?  She added the kitty ears and tail when she found out that her best friend Lauren was going to be a Kitty for Halloween . . . Hence "Kitty with a Dress On".  Do friends really have more influence than Mom already?

Yes - That is me

5th grade teacher / Statue of Liberty

Proudly "strutting" in the Costume Strut at our school.

Lucy won a goldfish at the Pumpkin Carnival last night!

(It should be dead in the next 24 hours-happens every year)

Lucas, Lauren Sam and Lucy

The Meters and the Fultons

Best friends!

Carving Pumpkins!

The finished product!

I love this time of year!

The Pumpkin Patch

OK I guess that we are officially the last ones to post our Pumpkin Patch pictures.  It has been fun to see all of my blogger friends' pictures from the various pumpkin patches around the country.  They all have such different things to do at them! 

Going to the Pumpkin Patch is a "must-do" every year!  We took a family trip to Lone Pine Farms today before Pancho flew out for California (he was only home for 36 hours this time)!  It was fun to spend some time with just our little family!

So happy to pose for a picture for Mom . . .Not!

Max took one of us!

They all three went on the Cow Train together.

You could tell that this guys really enjoyed driving the Cow Train (and scaring kids).  My kids loved it!

We rode out to the Pumpkin Patch on this horsedrawn carriage.

Lucy and I found the perfect pumpkin.

Does Sam look happy or what?

We get our picture taken in this thing every year!

Lucy the ghost!

Its not that we like Lucy the most, its just that she is the only one that will pose for pictures right now.  It is like pulling teeth to get the boys to smile for a picture!  Well OK maybe we like her the most too . . . just kidding boys!

So you can imagine my happiness when we came away with this half way decent picture of all five of us!  It was a Super Fun Day at the pumpkin patch!

Max's Team Just Won a Nail Biter!

We just got home from Max's last regular season game!  So far this season, its been pretty smooth sailing for his team.  In fact we have not had one game that was even close.  So, it was so much fun tonight to watch a close game.  The final score was 14 to 13.  Our team stopped them from getting the extra point and then held on until the end of the game.  Max played so well, and the boys were soooo excited when they won!

Max and his buddy John

Max's head got kind of hidden in the background from this angle, but it was so cute to watch the boys celebrate together after the game.

Lucy's 6th Birthday Party

Yes!  I made it through my first birthday party as a working Mom! (Everything is a milestone for me this year).  Lucy wanted to have her party at Build-a-Bear, and it turned out to be a really easy place to have a party.  She invited 8 friends and her brothers.  Max was way too cool to make a Build a Bear but Sam joined right in and made himself a turkey with a leather jacket (random). 
Did it cross my mind that it seemed a little white trash to be singing Happy Birthday to my daughter in the middle of the Valley River food court with a bunch of strangers all around? . . . Yes! 
Did I care at this point? . . .No! 
Lucy loved her party and it was really easy for me, so everyone was happy!

Lucy and her best friends . . . notice Ethan is still at the top of the list!

Lucy with her Birthday Bear! 

I still can't believe that my baby just turned six (tear!)

All of the "partiers" in the doorway of Build-a-Bear at the mall.

The theme was (of course) Princesses, and Grammy made her delicious cupcakes from scratch!

Lucy, blowing out the candles on her cake surrounded by loving family, friends, and other random people eating at the food court that day!

The Fulton Girls

Lucy with her "boys". 

Max and Sam were so happy to be a part of the Build-a-Bear fun!

Grammy and Papa were there of course, and once again they were such a HUGE help throughout the whole party.  They got everything set up in the food court for us while we were building our Bears (and other random animals).  Everyone LOVED Grammy's homemade cupcakes!  Thank You Mom!

opening presents . . .Lucy got tons of fun toys!

On the way home, Lucy said "Thank you for the fun party, I love you Mom"

I LOVE that little girl so much . . .please stop growing up!

St. Paul Auction

Chad and Teesh invited us to be guests at their table at the Auction.  It was a safari theme.  We had a blast.  It is always so much fun to hang out with all of our good "St. Paul" friends.

We all went in together to buy a "wine night" again. 

Quite a few crazy stories have come ot of our St. Paul wine nights in the past, so I anticipate another hilarious and fun time with this group!

I got my new iphone on that day.  Can you tell that I was proud of it?  I bought it with my own money from my own first paycheck! 

O'Hara Jog-a-thon

Every year our school has a Jog-a-thon, to raise money for our school.  When it is all over, they give out awards to the students who ran the most laps in each class.  Max won for his class!  He ran 39 laps (thats almost 6 miles) in an hour and a half!  He is very determined and competitive, and I could tell that he wanted to win very badly.  The student who ran the most laps in the whole school, ran 41 laps.  Max already has his eyes set on the BIG prize for next year.

. . .4th grade (most laps) winner!

Our school raised over $65,000.

. . . getting his medal in front of the whole school at the assembly.

By the way it was Free Dress Day, very exciting!

Note to my fellow bloggers...

First of all thank you for all of the great advice you gave me about my posting problems.  In doing my research on how to fix it, I came across a new posting feature.  I have been playing around with it and I think it makes posting MUCH easier once you play around with it and understand it.  Go to "settings" then click on "basic" then scroll down to the bottom and look for "updated editing options" (I think thats what its called).  Click on it and "save" it and give it a try.  (If all of you already new about this and have been using it for a year, just disregard this note and chalk it up to me being way out of the loop due to overscheduling in my life!!!)  I just thought it was cool.

The Corn Maze at Night! Scary!!!!

I left my purse at home so that it wouldn't get stolen out of the car and my camera was in it! . . .darnit!

I forgot my camera!!!! So this picture was taken on Leslie's cell phone and emailed to me. I am just glad that I have at least one picture to document this hilarious and fun evening. Some of the O'Hara teachers planned a girls night, including dinner and drinks at Cornocopia and a visit to the Cornmaze. I LOVE the people that I work with, they are so much fun! We were laughing so hard that we almost peed our pants at the restaurant, and then half of us really DID pee our pants at the cornmaze! Ha ha! It was so scary, and funny at the same time. I got chased by a man with a chain saw and only fell in the mud once! My voice is gone today from screaming and laughing. I feel so lucky and blessed to be working at a job that I really truly have a Blast at, I'm already excited to go into work on Monday and relive this fun evening with the girls.

Happy 6th Birthday Lucy!

Can my baby really be 6 years old? Seriously where does time go???!!!!

Lucy has been so excited about her birthday this year. She is all into Princesses and Barbies, a true girly girl! My mom had a family birthday party at her house for Lucy last night. Panch and Max had to leave early for Max's football game, but Mom, Sam, Lucy and I kept the party alive and Lucy was so happy to have Grammy's special homemade cupcakes.

Happy Birthday to my sweet adorable 6 year old!

Grammy got her this Disney Princess Pillow, she LOVES it!!!

Mom and I both love our little Lulu so much!

Go girl power!

Ever since my kids were little, I have been decorating their rooms while they are asleep the night before their birthday. Then when they wake up on the day of their actual birthday, their room is full of streamers and balloons and they have one gift waiting for them.



Sam and Lucy are Best Friends and always sleep in the same room every night. They decide each night whether it will be Sam's bunk beds or Lucy's bed. Last night they slept in Lucy's bed in anticipation of the Big Decoration Tradition! I took this picture while I was decorating!

There is usually a little more in the way of decorations, but the full time working mom did the best she could this year! Lucy was thrilled with the outcome and that's all that matters!

Here is the new 6 year old with her new "Barbie and the Three Musketeers" movie!

This picture was taken at 6:00am this morning before school!

I think that she had a great start to her birthday, now we have her Build a Bear Party to look forward to this Sunday. 10 little girls, 24 of Grammy's cupcakes and a Build a Bear for everyone . . .Wooo Hooo!

All Play and No Work!

When I took my new job teaching at O'Hara, the one thing I requested from my principal, was that I could still do some things with Sam at his school too. Luckily my principal said "absolutely"! Sam's third grade class has an annual field trip that the 3rd graders all look forward to. It's a trip to our local farm/pumpkin patch, but his teacher also reserves a class set of digital cameras from the school district, and they take a photography course while they are there! So . . . I took a personal day today and went on Sam's awesome field trip with him! It was so much fun, and I even learned a few things about MY digital camera!

Sam and I at Lone Pine Farms

The kids had so much fun taking pictures with their cameras!

Sam's fabulous teacher, teaching them about the "Macro Setting" on their cameras.

Look at these cool pictures that Sam took!

I think that he shows a lot of talent!

Isn't this pretty?

Sam, with his 3rd grade class!

Sam, some of his buddies and one of the Dad chaperones.

He even got to pick out a pumpkin!

My life has been a whirlwind lately, with adjusting to working full time. It was so nice to take a day to play! I even got to go to coffee with the girls at Brendas house after dropping off the kids at school this morning, before the field trip! What a fun day!