The new house has vaulted ceilings... which would have made our little 6.5' tree look like Charlie Brown's tree. I was able to score a fabulous deal on CraigsList on a 12', prelit tree that had never been used or opened. I LOVE IT!

Posted via Anastasia the Android.  

So, what do you do if neither Mom nor Dad has time to take off work in the morning to take Kaiden to the Ortho doctor to have her cast removed? Well, that is when I tell Dad that if he cannot handle helping out with the doctor appointment, he has till bedtime to handle getting the cast off himself.  Of course, being a boy... he accepted the challenge.  Fifteen minutes, some vegetable oil and some kitchen scissors and the cast is off!

And Voila!  No more cast.  Now neither of us has to miss work for a doctor appointment and we just saved ourselves a $50 copay... SWEET!  Kaiden said "Man, you guys are so CHEAP!" HAHAHA!  YES WE ARE!!!

Another year... another Halloween with the Gilkes Family. We all met up at their house to get ready for trick-or-treating, have some dinner and then get out the door for some serious candy collecting.

Kaiden and Kevin once again dressed up together - they have been a Zombie Bride and Groom, Alice and the Mad Hatter and this year they were Dog the Bounty Hunter and his lovely Bounty Hunting wife Beth! I thought they looked perfect... but poor Kev, I cannot even remember how many times he was asked if he was Joe Dirt.  His response... "Who is Joe Dirt?"

Ashton STILL loves Star Wars and he still loves costumes - he is not one to be talked in to creating a unique costume. He counts down the days till the Halloween Costume catalog comes in the mail so he can spend days looking through it and deciding who he will be. This year it was Jango Fett that won his vote - although it was a close decision. He was seriously considering Darth Maul.

I cannot skip over Riley's costume. Anyone who knowa this child, knows JUST HOW PERFECT this costume was for her. I have never seen another human being beg for, cry for and consume more mac 'n' cheese than this kid. So this was the perfect costume for her and she was so happy to go out as her favorite food.

It was a great Halloween. The kids all had a blast running the streets in the neighborhood and collecting their parents candy. Can't wait to do it again next year.

Kaiden wanted to celebrate her birthday this year with a party at the Trav-L-Park campground. We rented a cabin and invited her bestest buds - all her soccer pals, plus family, The Gilkes Family and Clavier Family. This particular campground goes all out during October for Halloween, so there were lots of activities going on for the kids to take part in. We almost were not able to get a cabin, because they fill up and are always booked, but there was a cancellation and we were able to slide in. Kaiden was SO HAPPY.

The first thing that the group did was take a hayride all around the campground to see how all the campsites and trailers had decorated for Halloween. The weather was absolutely perfect for being outside and the girls all had a lot of fun.

After the hayride, the girls played at the park and ran around the campground acting crazy while they waited for the scheduled dog costume contest and parade. I was able to get them all together for about 30 seconds to be able to snap some group photos.

Then it was time for presents. Kaiden loved all the great and thoughtful presents that she received. Her friends did a great job of picking out everything she would love. After presents, we cooked all the kids hot dogs and hamburgers. As a general FYI... a soccer team of 11 year old girls can put down some damn hamburgers and hot dogs - like it is their jobs!

From there, we moved on to cake and ice cream! Her cake turned out great, with a real looking campfire and edible rocks. Everyone loved it... except some of the rocks were a really hot cinnamon flavor so the kids did not like that so much. BUT I DID, man their faces were priceless when they expected a delicious fruity flavor, then realized their mouths were on fire.

Once we were done with all the eating and presents, the campground hosted trick-or-treating, so the girls grabbed bags and walked the entire campground stopping at each campsite and collecting candy. They made out like bandits. I bet they got more candy then they get on a typical Halloween night.

Of course EATING is what comes after COLLECTING. They hung out in the cabin trading, eating and throwing candy EVERYWHERE. I have never had to spend 30 minutes sweeping up candy before... I can now say that is something I have done. This was all done while we were killing time waiting for the 8pm Halloween Dance Party at the campground pavilion, complete with disco lights and DJ. This is when the girls went absolutely crazy, dancing and jumping around. It was fun to watch and made me think of how happy I was that we were outside at a campground and NOT inside my house.

Kaiden and all of her friends had such a good time. I am so glad we were able to do this for her. I have a feeling I should go ahead and rent a cabin for next year to do this again, because it was so much fun for them! HAPPY 11TH BIRTHDAY PEANUT!!!