Happy Halloween!

What scary creatures! Gotta love these too. They are such a funny duo. Claire is silly and unpredictable and I think Brynn loves her because she can be herself around her. She doesn't have to worry about what she is wearing, or what she says...she knows that Claire likes Brynn for who she is and will always be her friend!

I loved Brynn as a pirate this year. She really played the part well and looked very piratey and cute! Alayna kept saying "Arrrrh!" every time she saw Brynn in her costume:)

Oh man! This is still one ofAlayna's favorite things in our dress-ups to play with.

Our ward play group being mummies. I took Alayna a while to warm up to the idea. Sadly we no longer have the play group. It did take a lot of planning and organization, but Alayna and I loved it while it was going.

"Ok, I'll try it"...but just for a minute. She sported the look for about 60 seconds and then had to tear it off!

My little lady bug! Dang this blurry picture... atleast I got one! True to form she wore her costume for about 3 or 4 minutes and said "take it off...take it off!" We were on our way to the ward party and so instead of taking her screaming with her costume on, I took it off and she turned into some kind of a dalmation I guess. Atleast we got a picture, right?

Our little fam at the ward party. Claire really is a part of our family too:). We love it when she is over. I can't remember where Seth was...the gym? Definitely not excited about coming to the party! The costume contest is always fun. People are really creative and really go all out. Brandalyn was nice and let me borrow her witch costume.

Seth kinda got in on the fun. He bought this wig so he could pose as his business partner, Sean Miller at work on Halloween. Brandalyn helped him style it and gel it a bit. He was so careful to carry it to work so it didn't get messed up before he got there. When he got home I asked what everyones' reactions were to his costume and he said he got so busy he forgot to put it on! What??? Such a bummer...Oh well, like I said atleast we got the picture!

Effy, as "Aunt Sam" I thought it was a really creative costume that she came up with all on her own. She said everybody loved it at school.

Grandpa Mike and Grandma Julie came to visit on Halloween before trick or treating broke out. Grandpa came on through the garage door wearing his mask and holding up scary hands. Alayna was right there and I told him he better take that off quick! She didn't find that stuff fun or funny this Halloween. Apparently he made my 5 year old niece, Ava burst into tears also when came through their door! The kids loved having grandma and grandpa come for a surprise visit:)

Neighborhood Cookie Party

Such fun little friends! These are some of the buddies that Kira has been hanging out with this year. Katelyn Erickson, Avery Fossum and Brinley Fossum and Kira. They are all girls in our ward within walking distance. It has been a great thing that Kira has been able to run out the door on her own and go ask a friend to play. I love the independence! We thought a cookie party would be fun with her girlfriends.

Lots of black tongues from the black frosting! FYI: black food coloring is very dangerous if spilled! The lid to the bottle was broken and Seth tipped it over that night and it went everywhere! So black liquid food coloring, not my favorite thing:(

I could easily steal this girl! Little Brinley has the cutest voice and says the funniest things. Just one of those kids that is pure joy! I love having her over:)

Finished products... We had Mummy hot dogs and french fries for dinner and I'm sure there was some dance and play in there. I do recall Katelyn asking me to get Justin Beiber on the I-Pad, but I didn't deliver. We don't have any of his albums, because Brynn thinks her is too in love with himself!

I love my Kira Belle! We made Kittties, pumpkins and ghosts...it was so much fun for Kira to have a night just to herself with her friends. She spends a lot of time tagging along with Brynn's friends. Brynn was out on a date with her dad seeing the movie"Puss and Boots", so I think everybody was happy!

Spooky "This is the Place"

"Little Spooks" days at This is the Place. This was a week or two before Halloween and we thought it would be fun to check out this pioneer village in the fall. We came with Seaquists and Alicia and Bryten and Aspen came along too.

Cute cowgirl Brynn squeezing our little Layna bug. I didn't even attempt to put Alayna in her costume. She was pretty resistant to putting it on, stinker! Brynn's costume hadn't come in the mail yet, so she improvised with the cowgirl idea, I thought she was super cute!

Dr. Kira, ready to collect some treats at all our stops. Below was a little camp fire area where this witch was telling stories. When we arrived she was telling a story with this skeleton/pirate guy. Alayna terrified and started crying. Halloween was tough for her this year. Every time we went over to Brandalyn's house she would start crying and go hide in her laundry room. We would have to move her big tall standing witch and then the coast was clear for her to come out. A lot of anxiety during the month of October!

Notice the not-so-happy face...

Giddy-Up!

Alayna was in heaven, she loved it! And she was holding on really well, but I stayed close because she was up so high.

The Dr. a real natural

Loving the goats. Last time we were here she layed down with the little pot bellied bigs. No fear here!

A piece of the night time spook alley, in one of the barns. Freaky, huh? Apparently at night they had really scarey ghosts and ghouls come out.

Kira playing the pioneer bear game

Can't we just him home, mom?

My favorite photo of the day! It is so hard to get them to hold still for a picture and she posed for me like she was in a photo shoot!

Layna and Tommy taking a much needed break!

Sooo tired!! We really walked her till she dropped. We were outside of the gates headed to the gate and she collapsed and decided she couldn't go another step. I'm glad we brought our membership there though, it has been a lot fun pretending to be pioneers and indians!

Thanksgiving Discovery Park

This was one of our last outings for the summer. And probably the 3rd or 4th day after Effy arrived in Utah! The kids had a blast, but I thought Effy was going to melt away from the heat quite a few times!

There were a lot more places to play than I expected once we started wandering around.

Cute Holly and Brynn-these girls have been buds for a long time!

This was definitely the highlight if the day. It was so busy that we had to get a scheduled time to enter this Noah's ark water splash park. But it was worth the wait and we just saved it till the end when everyone was hot and tired. Nobody had a swimsuit, but that didn't stop them from getting drenched!

These sprays were coming out pretty hard, but they stood there and took a beating and laughed and laughed!

Our whole crew that day: The Knudsen girls: Carly and Ella, Kira, Holly, Brynn, Jeffery. Also, Tommy, Luke and Noah Jensen and Effy was was safe resting in the shade or "shadow" as she kept calling it:)

Getting sprayed and loving it!

Water, water, water!

Fun, fun day! Thanks to Mary for organizing it. Time to go home and wring out these bodies!