Halloween 2009

We had the best Halloween this year! We had a bonfire between the Giglio and Yori Homes (thank you Tony!). We had a table full of homemade chili (thank you Grandpa Rich!), homemade cornbread (thank you Mark and Mama!), chips and nacho cheese dip (thank you Uncle Mike!), sodas, candy - all yummies! It was fantastic!
We took the kids trick or treating, Ella pooped out after one block. Grandpa Steve took her home. Karsten and Ava stuck it out for a couple more blocks. My shy little guy struggled with saying "trick or treat" and "thank you", but we kept working on it and by the end, he was a pro. Ava was so adorable! This was her first real Halloween, last year, she was not walking yet. The kids had so much fun and so did we.
I love that my family and good friends were able to celebrate with us! The only thing missing was the Jones family. This was the first Halloween we haven't been together since Karsten was born! I kind of figured as the kids got older, they would want to stay in their own neighborhoods to go trick or treating, but what I didn't figure was how much I missed them! Love you guys! I hope everyone had the Happiest of Halloween's!

Halloween Eve

Ava and I had so much fun on Halloween Eve. We had to go to two different Halloween Parades - one at Ella's school and one at Karsten's. Ava and I were Devils (she doesn't know how to work a camera, so I only have pictures of her in her horns).

First Parade: Love of Christ Lutheran Church. Ella and Gracie were fairy princess butterfly girls. What's funny is that they each picked out their costumes independently of each other, Jessica and I did not plan to match them. Unless they talked about it at school together . . . Maybe?

Lined up to start the parade. (Look how Ella is looking for Gracie's hand to hold. They love each so much - very co-dependent.)

Little fairy tushies.

Not a happy fairy . . . she started crying after I took this photo!

Fast forward a couple of hours later . . . waiting in Karsten's school hallway for his Halloween Parade.

Look at the rock star and Darth Maul, waiting to walk in the parade.

This was so cool! This is Karsten's principal, each year they pick a book to dress up as . . . this year was The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The principal was the beautiful butterfly and the office staff was the caterpillar with food and fruit. So cute!



Second Parade: Karsten was Darth Maul, but he wasn't allowed to bring his mask or his light saber (weapon) so he was a little kid in a black robe.


Both kids trashed their costumes! They were so dirty! I had to do some major laundry to get them ready for Halloween. At least they got a lot of wear out of them. They had fun!

Pumpkin Patch Picking

The Yori's ventured out on a Monday night to pick out some pumpkins! We had a nice time picking out some BIG ones and some small ones too. Holidays are always more fun with the kids. I love my family!

Happy Birthday Gracie and Ella!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet girls! Well, I only actually gave birth to one , but the other is just as special to me. Here are the girls as newborns; Gracie is on the left and Ella is on the right. I can't believe we just celebrated their FOURTH birthday! But we did and we ROCKED it OUT! See below!


Marky transformed the backyard into a stage!


I made guitars out of boxes and paint stick stirers, painted them and attached rubber bands as strings. (Thank you to Aunt Mimi for helping me with that!)






Here come the rock stars!












Aunt Jessie and Little Ava


My best buddy . . .


Check out these tats!


The rock star princesses!


Grammie knows how to ROCK!


Beautiful girls . . .


And MY Nana and Papa were there to celebrate also! I was so happy they could come!


My Mama and Rich


Gorgeous Jessica


Uncle Mark and Ava, they are best buddies!


Here the kids are decorating the guitars with jewels and stickers. So much fun!





Make a wish!


Mark and I asked Kar if he wanted to paint his fingernails. At first he yelled "NO", but then I showed him pictures of guys on the internet with painted nails (like Dave Navarro and Steven Tyler) :) So he said yes after that. I thought he looked very edgy.


Ha! Ava tried on every piece of Ella's new dress up clothes! Such a ham!


All in all, it was a wonderful day. I love setting up these parties, these girls are everything to me and I want them to have the best birthday ever!