My mom has a tradition of eating an "orange dinner" every Halloween night. She made us yummy grilled cheese sandwiches with cheesy potato soup, orange chips, carrots, orange juice... the works. For desert, we had orange sherbet and pumpkin cookies. The girls LOVED it! We all had a lot of fun. My mom is the best!

Today was a special day. Yeah, I know it's Halloween and all of that, but... it is ALSO the day that we got to go on another field trip to meet Sparky, the fire dog!!! That's right! Today was a major day! Ryen has been excited about this for weeks and today was THE day. Actually, I don't know what to say about the actual experience other than that, but there you go. HUGE news. :)

It has been SO much fun teaching my mom how to scrapbook! I've loved sharing with her my favorite shoppes and shortcuts. The nerdy world of computer crafts has been a lonely place. :) Hopefully more and more of my family will pick up the hobby. Just in case anyone is interested, I'll let you in on a little secret: My favorite site for cute fonts to use for scrapbooking and other fun projects can be found here. Oh... and they are totally free. :)

So I have decided that this is the best toy ever. I love to look at different toy reviews and saw Honeybee Hop in Family Fun's toy awards. Exercise, music, fun, easy... perfect. I have to say that this toy has totally lived up to my expectations. The girls have probably played with that thing for 5 hours off and on today! Instead of hopping over the little bee, they prefer to run around in circles with it like a game of chase. I have never heard more squealing, laughing and screaming! It is hilarious watching my girlies play with this little gem. They are going to sleep so well tonight! Brilliant.

Here are the girls at our church Halloween party. They loved going from trunk to trunk for the candy- and also to chat with all of their "friends".

Ryen checking things out with her Dino Daddy.

Madelyn and Ry with their friend, Anabel.

My froofy little fairy.

We all had so much fun at our ward Halloween festival! I wish everyone could have see Ryen as I was getting her ready for the party. Every three seconds she would run to a mirror so she could admire herself over and over again. She was absolutely beaming and smiled from ear to adorable ear the entire night. She felt like the most beautiful and special girl who ever lived and I have to admit that it was one of my favorite parenting experiences so far. Seeing your daughter feel so good about herself is a beautiful thing. Very cool.

We have some more Halloween activities coming up this week, but since our ward party is where we thought the girls would get the most candy, we decided to invite The Great Pumpkin to come last night. The girls picked their three pieces of candy and happily threw the rest into the jar. They took it outside without even the tiniest bit of hesitation. I was seriously thrilled! They were so excited about The Great Pumpkin coming that they didn't get out of bed one single time last night! They were ecstatic this morning when they ran outside to see what The GP had left them in place of their sugary treats. So fun!!!

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday. I think dressing up is loads of fun. I love the pumpkins and scarecrows. I just really don't like all of the "scary" stuff and focus on the icky, the creepy, and the dead. I could also do without the greedy candy-hording and sugar highs. Each year I try to get "treats" that children will like, but that won't cause me to feel horribly guilty. For the last couple years we've gone with little containers of Play-Doh. This year I bought mini pretzels in orange and black Halloween wrappers. It's a tricky business. So... I came up with an idea to help us celebrate Halloween in a way that is fun and exciting for the kids, but won't rot their teeth. They get to choose any three pieces of candy they want and the rest stays in their bag. Just before bedtime on Halloween night, we put it outside as an offering to The Great Pumpkin. He comes when the girls are sleeping, takes their collection of junk food, and leaves them with a present instead. I think it's going to be lots of fun!

We're taking the girls to Walt Disney World again this year. (Hey, I asked if anyone wanted to come!) We leave tomorrow. Ry and Maddie are SO excited! Oh man, they are just dying! It's going to be so much fun. We'll post a thousand pictures when we get back.
See ya real soon!

I love Michigan. I really do. Each time a new season sneaks up on me, I think about what that time of year is like there. Each season seems so dramatic in that delicious state- more so than anywhere else I have ever been. Sometimes I think Mother Nature lives in Michigan. ...Or at least has a cottage there.

(Above are some random photos I took in MI this summer)

I made these little treat bags for Ryen's classmates. Aren't they cute? They were so easy! I bought some goodies and put them in these little clear treat bags. Then, I scrapped a simple little tag, folded it in half, stapled it onto the bag and presto... a super sweet treat for your favorite boys and ghouls.

Ryen is the most social person I have ever known. Hands down. She cried the other day when she thought she had missed the meter reader who was outside our house. Whenever we go anywhere, she simply HAS to introduce herself (and Madelyn) to everyone. And when I say everyone, please know that I seriously mean EVERYONE. Don't think being in a separate car will stop her from chatting it up either. I turned around the other day to see her mouthing a conversation to a woman parked in the car beside us at a stoplight. Sure enough, she got the woman to roll that window down and the two of them proceeded to have a delightful conversation. When the light turned green, I wasn't sure whether I should hold out for them to finish their little chat or go on ahead. I finally decided to go and as I did, I heard the woman yelling out after us, "Bless yoooou!" Our little chatterbox may have an enormous vocabulary, but the word "stranger" is most certainly NOT included.

The other day, we showed Madelyn a picture of the Savior and asked her who it was. She paused for a moment and then told us it was Jesus. She looked at his picture for a long time and then smiled and said, "He helps me. He my brudder (brother)." My heart just melted and I stood there in total shock. She then said, "He makes me happy." Her voice was so soft and small, and yet, those few sentences spoke more loudly to me than any other witness could. It amazed me that she was able to say everything there is to know here on earth in those three sweet sentences. I can't help wondering how different the world we live in would be if everyone had the wisdom of my two-year-old. I also can't help wondering what other amazing things she has tucked away in that beautiful heart of hers.

Sometimes I feel like we live at our local children's museum. We have certainly gotten our money's worth on that annual family pass! The girls love going there!

We took the kids to a laser light show at the museum planetarium. They were just in awe. We went on Friday night and had the entire place to ourselves. It's a good thing because the girls were so noisy with their "ooh's" and "ahh's". Also, Ryen couldn't keep herself from dancing in the isles, the little hooligan. Not that I blamed her. It was hard for me to keep from rocking out myself. SO much fun!