Halloween 2009

Annakin Skywalker and Obi Wan Kinobi (from Star Wars Clone Wars in case you aren't familiar...) ready to go!



















Andy was a bit of a devil, I was a bit of an angel... A little bit true to life ;) har.














What would Halloween be without some Star Wars action?!



















And what would Halloween be without men dressing like women?! Isn't our neighbor Jerry so pretty? :)














The neighborhood gang started out the evening doing crafts in Lily's garage (Happy Birthday, Lily!!)...














Each year the gang gets bigger and bigger!!














Us moms get in the spirit too (especially some of us... Aloha Byung!! ;)



















It's a bit overwhelming with a gang that big shows up at your door yelling trick-or-treat!!














Run! Run to the next house before they run out of candy!!


















Super Titus!



















Whazzup? (Annakin lost her mask!)



















Our little neighbor boy Michael. The cutest little devil you ever did see!














May the Force be with our neighborhood!!














Some of the kids piled into the back of a Suburban so we could head down to some of the other neighborhoods in our development. When Halloween is on a Friday night you might as well make the most of it, eh?!














Oh goodness. Checking out their loot...

Any day now...

...the kids will need glasses thanks to their genes! Asia had been complaining about her eyes so off we went. Thankfully the eye doctor said she's fine for now... Asia thought the eye exam was really cool with all those weird looking machines!

Gearing up for Halloween...

October is one of the busiest months for my job (as an events coordinator) b/c there are so many Halloween events going on all over the place. Asia, er, I mean Annakin Skywalker came to "help" me out at a Halloween event in Kent. Her friend Riley and family were there too (so she hung out with them more than she helped me ;).














Ezra came to "help" me at an event at KidsQuest Museum and spent most of the evening watching the magician.














All set up at the zoo in Seattle for their three night massive trick-or-treating event. I ordered 15,000 units of candy for this!

Go Eagles!

Taylor and Asia cheering for their team, The Eagles.














Go Asia!














Looking like she's in control :) Like I said about Ezra, she won't ever be a soccer star either but she really enjoys playing soccer and has played for something like 5 or 6 seasons now!














Knuckle knocks from Coach Rick (she so didn't want to pose for me)

Team Awesome

I realized I hadn't posted any pictures of Ezra playing soccer this fall. His team name was Team Awesome. Um, yeah.

I do love my boy and I think he has many strengths but I'll be the first to tell you that soccer ain't one of them. But you know what? He has fun and he's a good team player and that's what matters! Rah rah... :)














We play near the airport in the flight path so there are planes constantly flying not far overhead. Quite the distraction for some of the younger players :)














Trophy time!














Coach Tucker and Coach Jeremy, they were great with the kids and Team Awesome had a fun season.


















Go Team Awesome!!

Happy Birthday, Michele!

We took the birthday girl out for lunch. Cheers!

Rock on!

Asia's Girl Scout troop made tye-dye t-shirts at a meeting and then a few weeks later we all went to the 65' rock climbing wall at REI in Seattle.


















Asia and Sylvie all harnessed and ready to climb...


















Some of us moms climbed too--don't we look great? ;)


















Sylvie was Spider Woman! She shimmied herself all the way to the very top, it was impressive!!














There's Asia on the left reaching for the next thing to grab.


















I'm so brave! Oh, wait, I've just barely left the ground... Let's see how I do!


















Not too bad, but not all that impressive either I'll admit :) I got a little weirded out being that high up!


















One more climb for Asia... (she never did make it to the top, but we had fun!)

A sunny afternoon at the pumpkin patch

I've been working a lot at Halloween and fall related events with lots of other people's kids so I was happy to get to spend some time at our local pumpkin patch with my own family! We drove 90 seconds to this pumpkin patch and started out with a super exciting (okay, not really ;) hay ride.


















The pumpkin patch in all it's glorious splendor


















This is what makes me happier than almost anything in the world--the kids getting along and having fun together :)














Wheelbarrow madness!


















Yup, this wheelbarrow is a better size :)














Aww, aren't they beautiful? I love when I manage to capture the Kodak Moments!


















The Tanis family likes the fast pumpkin decorating method--instead of the mess of gutting the pumpkins and carving we just stick these funny eyes, arms, etc in our pumpkins and call it good :)

Mr. Huong

Mr. Huong, our neighbor across the street, is such a great guy! After school when the weather is good you can usually find a gang of us playing out front. The other day the kids started doing cartwheels and somersaults in Mr. Huong's lawn, then he came out to give them some pointers. What a trip!














The guy is 60-something and has some mad skills! :) I'm pretty sure he had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth when he did this cartwheel.














I asked him to do one more cartwheel so I could take a picture with my phone to send to Andy. He kicked it up a notch this time and landed in this back bend! Seriously, he's something special. :)

Fred is loved

On the first evening with Fred Asia fell asleep on the floor right by his cage while writing a letter to him telling him how much she loves him. Aww, I'm so glad she has a pet :)














Lovin' Fred Skippy


















Andy and Asia think that Fred enjoys watching TV... The truth is they enjoy cuddling with him while they are watching TV and he doesn't care about the TV part, he just enjoys the cuddling.