Muffins for Moms

So last Friday at Lauren's school was Muffins for Mom's breakfast in the morning.  She was so excited to have me join her for breakfast that morning.  She could not wait for me to meet all of her friends, although I have met several of them lately at all the school events. 

We snapped a few pictures before we left the house.  Lauren loves that the camera has a self timer on it and that it can take pictures "all my its self."  The girls and I had a lot of fun taking these pictures before heading out for the morning. 

I took this one.  They were in such a good mood this morning.  It made it a lot of fun to get these pictures. 

Lauren took this one.  She is quite the photographer, huh?  She took it with my fancy SLR camera.  I am teaching her how to be VERY careful with the camera. 

So we took Addison to daycare and then headed up to Underwood.  Muffins for Moms started at 7:45 and we arrived shortly after that and the gym was packed with Moms and kids.  They had a huge table FULL of huge muffins and donuts.  Lauren enjoyed a chocolate muffin, and I got a cinnamon one.  Yummy!  We wandered around hoping to sit with some of her friends, but the gym was just too packed, so we sat at a table with some older kids.  We talked about school, how fun Halloween was, how good the muffin was, and lots of other things.  Lauren pointed out all of her friends as she saw them coming into the gym.

After we were done eating we took Lauren's things to her classroom.  She showed me every corner of her classroom and explained everything to me around the room.  I learned out the letter wall and letter sounds.  I learned about the "caught being good" fish, the number of days into school, when her friends lost their teeth, stations, journaling, and tons of other things.  Lauren literally showed me around the whole room and told me about all the activities she does in any given day of Kindergarten.

Needless to say, she loves school.  She loved showing me around the classroom, and she loved having me there.  I would not have missed it for anything.  We really like Lauren's teacher, and she does too.  It has been a good year so far, and I hope Lauren continues to love school! 

Fall Pictures

***I started this post over 2 weeks ago.  I am just now getting it posted***

 I have been wanting to get some fall pictures of the girls for several weeks now and it just has not worked out.  Busy weekends lead to little or no extra time.  When we did have extra time one weekend it was super windy and just not a good picture taking day.  Since Mark was out of town a few weekends ago (I know...I am super behind)  I had the girls to my self to do whatever we wanted.  After naps on Sunday we headed out to Unity Village to snap some pictures.  The girls were very cooperative, probably because they knew I agreed to take them to Paradise Park when we were done if they behaved and gave me good smiles. 

Here are some of my favorites...

I love this red door.  I did not get as many pictures if front of this door as I had hoped to get.  The sun was in the girls face, leading to squinting, and it was shaded on the right side, making it look like one kiddo was standing in the dark.  Plus I started there first and the girls just did not have their good smiles ready yet.  But I did like this one of Addison...

I told the girls to shake it out, loosen up a little and give me some good smiles...

I like this one...

and this one after Lauren tickled Addison!

This has to be one of my favorites of Addison.  So cute!

My favorite of Lauren...she did not even realizing I was taking the picture at the time. 

This is my favorite one of the two of them.  I will probably blow it up to a big portrait to replace the one our bedroom.  (I have already blown it up, gotten it in the mail, just need to get it on the wall now!)

This one of Addison is pretty sweet too. 

Addison puts her hand on her hip without me even asking! 

Lauren was totally into this photo shoot.  She kept going from location to location posing for me. 

On our way back to the car she said "take one more Mommy."  I love the way this one turned out...I just wish her hair was a little different. 

It was a great afternoon (hour) of picture taking.  The girls did great, and Mark showed up at the end after his drive back from Minneapolis.  The girls were so excited to see him!  He really helped me capture some amazing smiles from the girls.  I can't wait to get some of these printed up and put into frames all over the house.  (Again, they are already printed up...I just need to get them in frames!) 

Me and the Girls on Halloween Night

I am always the one behind the camera so I rarely get pictures taken WITH my girls.  Halloween night they agreed to let Daddy snap a few pictures.  I love this one of Addison.  She is such a crazy kid...

Lauren is so sweet and this is such a great picture.  Complete with purple/pink hair and all. 

Huge smile, eyes closed.  That is our Addison!

Halloween Party at School

Monday afternoon I was able to go to Lauren's school for her Halloween parade and party.  I am so lucky to have some flexibility in my job right now to allow me to attend school events in the middle of the day.  I arrived a few minutes late and there were a few parents there already.  When I walked in I saw Lauren before she saw me.  Once she saw me she got a huge smile on her face and just waved and waved.  She was so glad I was there. 

The party included arts and crafts,

 and snacks. 

Before the party started the kids paraded around the school in their costumes.  The older kids came in through the Kindergarten classrooms first, then the Kindergarten kids paraded through the school.  It was fun to see all the different costumes.  Lauren loved it too. 

They played games, like make the jack o lantern face,

and ring toss on the pumpkin. 

It was a lot of fun to see Lauren in her classroom.  She pointed out some of the work hanging up in her classroom and told me about all her friends.  At the end of the day she was able to leave with me and be a car rider home.  She loves being a car rider! 

Halloween Fun

So we did several fun things this past weekend to celebrate Halloween.  Lee's Summit always has a Halloween parade and trick or treating for the kids the weekend before Halloween usually.  It was pretty chilly out Saturday morning, but the sun was shining so it felt great.  We trick or treated around the downtown stores of Lee's Summit and kept saying how we really need to get out and shop down there sometime.  We have enjoyed a book store, ice cream shop and the cupcake shop recently, and that was fun. 

The girls got a lot of candy to kick off the Halloween weekend. 

They had a ton of fun going from store to store. 

After naps we carved pumpkins.  It really is a family event.  Mark does most of the gutting of the pumpkin.  Lauren helps, but is usually bored after 5 minutes.  Addison wanted nothing to do with touching the pumpkin.  She felt the same way last year as well.  I do the detail work of the carving.  We make a good team! 

Working hard getting the pumpkin cleaned out to carve. 

Addison spent most of the time riding around the garage playing.  She did this last year as well.  She really has no interest in carving pumpkins. 

After a while Lauren was bored too.  The girls can really be very creative when it comes to things.  I love to listen to them talk and come up with things to do.  They got out their chairs and then set up drums.  They played the drums for a while while Mark and I carved out the pumpkins.  Oh, and the radio (a real radio) in the barbie car was also blaring some music.  It was pretty loud there for a while with music, singing, and drums...

Oh, and then they went inside for a while and came back wearing my hats.  Addison looked adorable in this hat, driving around in the Barbie Jeep. 

Lauren decided to help out again in the end.  She did a really good job. 

Lauren's witch. 

Addison's cat. 

Trick or Treat

I have tons of pictures to share from the weekend but I could not wait to share these trick or treating ones.  They are my favorite.  This is the 3rd year that we have trick or treated with our friends, the Hooper's and the Wright's and it is so much fun for everyone.  One of Addison's little friends, Jenna, joined us too! 

Here are the girls in their costumes, waiting for their friends to arrive.  Lauren's hair is spray painted to complete her rock star outfit.  Addison kept her bumble bee ears on all night. 

Jenna, Addison, Lauren, Charley, Killian and Seth (I don't know which is which) and Macy. 

Addison, Lauren and Seth (I think!) 

Charley as Marilyn Monroe was a huge hit.  She looked beautiful.  Addison was so excited to have Jenna join us to trick to treat.  Apparently at school Jenna told the teachers she was scared and did not want to trick or treat.  Addison kept telling her all day long to not be scared, it was OK, things were just pretend, etc.  Addison is so sweet.  When I picked up Addison her teacher was sharing these things with me.  I told the teacher to have Jenna's Mom give us a call if Jenna wanted to join us, and she did!  These 3 had so much fun! 

Lauren (in flip flops) and her boys...

Finally I got the three of them to stop and pose for a picture.  Almost impossible to slow them down.  They ran from house to house and had so much fun. 

Our neighbors, Mike and Lori, had special treats for the girls so we went back there after we trick to treated with our friends.  We went house to house for over an hour and the kids got tons of candy.  Lori made 2 huge bags full of all kinds of goodies for the girls.  They loved it. 

Here is Lauren with all of her candy, and a can of pop from one house.  Through out the night whenever she got a Butterfinger she would yell "Mommy, I got a Butterfinger for you.  Your favorite!"  She gave them to me last night.  Such a sweetie.  Lauren really prefers sugar over chocolate.  She would be completely happy with smarties and fruit snacks. 

Addison loves the chocolate!  Here she is with tons of candy, and a pop as well.  Seriously, some one handed out pop! 

This in one very tired little bumble bee that did not want to go to bed last night.  It was a great night, perfect weather, and a ton of fun for everyone.