Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween!!

This morning I took Cassandra over to my in-laws' house so that they could watch her while Avery and I had a shopping date. Girlfriend needed some new boots and she's at the age where I need her to try them on. She's also at the age where she can finally tell me if they fit and feel ok, which is great by the way!  So Avery and I went to several stores...and I realized that she's quite picky! Kohl's and Old Navy had nothing she even liked (just by looks alone). TJ Maxx had no children's boots at all. So that left Target for us to hit. Luckily she found a pair that she liked and they actually fit her good too! Score!

We met my in-laws for lunch and then headed home for Cassandra's nap. We were supposed to go to their daycare for a party, but Cassandra decided to sleep too late for us to go. I was a little bummed, but it's ok.

Gabe brought us home some pizza for dinner and we got the kids all ready to trick-or-treat! We were all very excited about it!

First though, here are the awesome pumpkins that Gabe carved. I swear, he had a hidden talent!

Simba

Strawberry Shortcake

The girls posed for a quick picture, then they were off!

Gabe took them out first while I "manned the fort" and handed out candy. Then we swapped jobs.  It sprinkled most of the time so we all got wet. Amazingly, Avery never complained about the rain or getting wet (she is so water phobic!) and she walked the entire time. She was very into it this year. Cassandra had fun although I carried her most of the time. The houses are so spread apart that it's a lot for her to walk by herself. She didn't want to come home though!

After an hour or so, they called it quits and came home to survey the loot!

Notice Cassandra's bag broke!

Cassandra's pile

Avery's pile

I was going to let them eat whatever they wanted tonight. Go figure-they both chose huge lollipops that took them forever to eat. And they both chose pretzels. Silly kids!

Happy Halloween!!

Pumpkin Patch!

On Sunday we went to a local pumpkin farm. My Mom came out Saturday night and slept over, so we went on Sunday morning so that she could join us. I will say that this is the latest in the month that we've ever gone...it was so picked over compared to what we're used to. Usually there are pumpkins everywhere but today it was pretty slim pickings! Luckily we only had one more pumpkin to get!

Before we headed for the "fun" things to do, I got a pic of the girls together.

Then we went to feed some animals-the girls loved it!

This guy started eating Avery's hat!

My babies

After we fed and saw all of the animals, we went on the hayride!

Ready to go!

It took us all through a forest that was decorated with a lot of cool things. Thankfully, neither of the girls were afraid of it!

After the hayride, we went through the store. Avery picked out some popcorn and a slushie then we found our pumpkin and headed home. Another successful trip to the pumpkin farm!

Halloween Parade!

Today was our neighborhood Halloween parade and party! 

Bright and early at 10am we all gathered at a neighbor's house. We were expecting the local fire truck to show up as our parade escort, but they never came. We're thinking they had an emergency to attend to. Luckily, one of our neighbors is a state trooper so he brought along a police car as our parade escort. Not as exciting as the fire truck, but it got the job done.

So...all of the kids lined up:

and we started our parade around the block! Did I mention it was freezing?!  Yeah, around 40 and super windy-it was very cold!

Avery and Gabe walking in the parade:

I didn't get as many pics as I wanted to because I was carrying Cassandra the entire time. After the parade we went back to the neighbor's house and  had a little party in their garage...complete with TONS of food-breakfast pizzas, bagels, doughnuts, hot cocoa, pastries, cupcakes, etc. It was very nice and the kids all had a blast!

This is one tradition that makes us love this neighborhood!

Twenty-One Months!

Today Cassandra turned 21 months old! Hard to believe we have to start thinking of a birthday party soon! Wow!

Cassandra is still wearing 12 and 18 month clothes....my little peanut!

She's still sleeping well-between 11-12 hours overnight and a good nap in the afternoon. I have to say she is pretty easy to get to fall asleep. Sometimes she doesn't want to go upstairs for bed, but once up there, she's generally pretty easy to put down. Opposite of Avery in the sleep department, that's for sure!

Cassandra is still eating like a toddler-huge meals at times and barely anything at other times. I will say though that pretty much anytime you offer her food throughout the day, she very rarely refuses it! Girl likes her snacks, etc!

Some new words this month include: "hot dog", "buggaga" (bubblegum), "I see him", "all by self", "let's see", "bless you Avery", "fayaya" (pacifier), "where's boogy (buddy)?", "yeah sure", "trick or treat". Whenever we ask her a question now, she says "ummmm..." and thinks of an answer! It's really cute! She has also started singing parts of "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes".

Cassandra has gotten 3 new teeth this month-all canines! She has one more that's being stubborn and hasn't popped through yet!

She went apple picking for the first time a few weeks ago and had a lot of fun eating all of the apples!

Cassandra is getting very independent now and wants to do everything all by herself-especially eating things! She uses her silverware and gets really mad if we try to help her eat something now! She loves going up the stairs, but still needs a lot of help going up and down them. She also really loves petting Jerri and giving her treats!

Here are her photos for this month:

So big!

Practicing her splits!

My faves:

Tickle Toes
 

Big hugs!

Smile!

Silly face!

Flashback: Avery at 21 months!

Rec Center Halloween Fun!

Last night I took the kids to our local Rec center for a family Halloween event. We went to it last year and the kids had fun, so I decided to go again. Gabe was still out of town, so he missed it this year. Instead, my Sister-in-law, niece, and nephew came along, which was a lot of fun.

I got the girls all ready to go:

Cherry Jam and a strawberry

We got there, had a few doughnut holes and headed to the craft room to wait for the others to show up. Avery is big into coloring right now so she was loving this!

Cass colored a little too, but I think was more in awe of all of the costumes!

We met up with Molly and the kids and took a few quick photos...first up, the twin Cherry Jams! (they each picked this out by themselves having no idea the other did as well!)

Love the kids peeking through the windows!

And all 4 kids:

Then we went to the trick-or-treat room, the tattoo room, then to the gym to play some games.

Cass playing with one of her prizes

Avery and Bianca ghost bowling

After games, we headed out for the hayride. The kids got a kick out of the juggler and huge spotlights they had outside! It made the wait in line more tolerable!

The hayride is pretty long, so by the time we got back, it was very close to closing time. We said our goodbyes and headed home for bed! Another successful Halloween event!

Ah, The Memories!

My Mom came out today to spend a few nights with us because Gabe is going to NC for a work conference.  When she got here, she unloaded a few things for me....including a huge tote full of some of my old dance costumes!

The kids were in heaven and had to try some on right away. Man, it brought back some memories!

Avery in one of my ballet costumes

This was a Halloween costume of mine that my Mom made me. She guessed I was about 4 when I wore it. Can I just say that Cass looks freakin' adorable in it?!

Another Check!

It's been almost 2years since we've moved into our house (how is that possible??) and today we crossed something sort of major off of our to-do list....a driveway!

See....when we moved in, we wanted to get a concrete driveway. So we waited to look into it until last summer. Then when we started pricing it out, it was just crazy expensive compared to doing blacktop. And of course we also had to tackle the landscaping project. Our priority last year was the landscaping, so we did that and let the driveway slide.

So, this year's project was the driveway and they finally came today and put it in! YAY!!

Now we just have to wait 10 days to drive on it...ugh!

Happy 60th Dad!!

Today is my Dad's 60th Birthday! Crazy, right?! 

On Friday, his wife threw him a surprise party so I went along for the fun! Gabe and the girls stayed home since the party started at 7pm (in Buffalo) and it's right around their bedtime.

When I pulled up to the house, this is all you could see out front!

And the coordinating cake:

We all hung around for maybe 20 minutes before my Dad showed up:

He claims he was surprised (if you know anything about my Dad, I'm sure he wasn't surprised) until he pulled up to the house. Once he saw the big sign, he knew something was up! But I think he was surprised at who was there (like me!).

After some pizza, wings, and antipasto, we sang to the "old man":

and he made a wish:

I hung around until about 10pm, then hit the road home. Short and sweet, but it was nice sharing his special party with him!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Apple (Dump) Cake

While searching for something to do with all of the apples we picked, I came across this recipe. It looked ridiculously easy so of course I questioned how good it would be...but decided to give it a try.

I found it called just "Apple Cake" but it seems it's also known as a "dump cake" too!

Apple (Dump) Cake
-apples-peeled, cored and sliced (I think I used about 7 of them)
-1 stick butter, melted
-1 box yellow cake mix

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Cover the bottom of a 9x13" pan with sliced apples
3. Dump cake mix to cover all of the apples
4. Drizzle melted butter over the cake mix
5. Bake about 35-45min or until apples are cooked through
6. Serve warm! Bonus if you add whipped cream/ice cream too!

(Notes: I also sprinkled some ground cinnamon and a little bit of brown sugar on top of the cake mix. I had no idea how long to bake it as many of the reviews had very random times that ranged from 20-60min! After about 20min, some spots on the cake looked dry so I took a spoon and spooned in some water to get the cake mix a little bit wet. I think I ended up baking ours for about 40min.)

This ended up turning out really yummy! It's sort of like an apple crisp, but I think I actually liked it better than apple crisp, and it's way easier if you ask me! I'm sure you could play around with the fruit and cake combinations and come up with some good ones too (strawberry/chocolate?). Definitely will be making this one again!