FHE + MNF = F.U.N.

We did a little Halloween festive

Family Home Evening

plus

Monday Night Football

with the Mortensens!

And let's just say it involved tons of sugar induced comas

and overly hyper children.

We had Pizza,

made Mummy Oreos,

(Disclaimer: We released all creative control to the 3,4,5 & 6 yr olds!)

and made Caramel Apples

(I swear somewhere under that mess there really is caramel!)

What happens when a Devil, Zombie & Ghost collide in an Apple Orchard..?

Exhibit A:

 Everyone had a blast.

Except the Arizona Cardinals.

They forgot to show up to the party.

They were out still looking for a Quarterback.

Anthem Fall Festival

As promised,

we headed to the Carnival rides Saturday night.

You just have to turn your head and succumb to

 how ridiculously expensive these rides are!

$25 blown on 4 rides each!

But they had a blast!

And yes Taylee had pink/purple hair.

So Anden felt he needed to reapply his black hair as well!

Luckily the Carnies felt bad that we ran out of tickets

and let me and the kids ride a few more for free! :-)

Princess Tea Party

Immediately after Soccer,

Taylee, Sophia and I rushed to Makynlee's Birthday Party!

It was such a cute girly Princess Tea Party!

The girls came dressed in their Princess dresses.

Then there was hair painting, mani/pedi, princess tattoos, flower headband making!

Taylee wanted her "sassy buns" to be purple and pink!

Drying their Pedi

Then we moved over to the Tea Party.

Then girls dined on mini sandwiches, mini fruit kabobs, pink and yellow tea (lemonade).

 The desserts were beyond amazing!

I've never seen that amount of detail on a mini cupcake.

And yes Audra made them herself!

 

Such an adorable party!

The girls truly felt like little Princesses! 

Soccer Game #4

This week we had the distraction of the

Anthem Fall Festival

rides in the background!

It's always something!

OK boys if you play really hard we'll go over there later!

The girls intently watching the game.

We only had 6 players this week.

Which meant no subbing!

The kids were SO tired!

But did great!

They tied.

Then Tracy grabbed the boys

and I grabbed the girls.

And off we rushed to the next event!

Busy Busy Saturday!!

Church Halloween Party

Friday night was our Church Halloween Party!

The kids were beyond excited.

I admit I really get into the costume part also!

I figure once a year you can make a fool of yourself to amuse your children!

(or wait, I think I do that every day!)

I had let the kids pick their own costumes this year.

(I know, that was big move for me! lol)

We bought them back in September the second they hit the stores!

But I'm just not a fan of commercial character costumes.

Well somehow the day of the party,

everyone wanted a change of costume plan.

And somehow, miraculously, all the ideas matched.

I couldn't have been happier!

Introducing,

the Vampire Family!

Normally I would fix the red eye.

But I found it very appropriate this time!

Yes I was deathly scared painting Anden's white locks black.

But he was elated about having black hair!

And if it doesn't wash out,

 he just might have it for a week after too!

I was a little concerned about having my adorable daughter dress as a scary thing.

But she was ALL into it.

I kept reminding her that she was the cute dracula girl from the new cartoon

Hotel Transylvania.

(super cute movie if you haven't seen it already!)

As soon as I finished saying this to her,

she put up her hands up and growls at me as loud as she can.

Ok..or maybe not.

Pumpkin Patch

On Monday we headed to

MacDonald Ranch Pumpkin Patch!

We went last year and loved it.

So we happily decided to become Repeat Offenders!
And we hauled the Mortensens with us!

We rode horses.
My kids nonstop told the workers about how they know all
about real horses from Papa Nolie's house!

We mined for gold!

We played games!

Then we dodged knocking each other's heads off accidentally with golf clubs.

We had our own horse races!

Anden took his own practice lap

(I love that he's so happily galloping that he's actually floating! lol)

Then the real race began!

  

We were cracking up laughing that Ashley's kids were galloping like normal horses.

But not my kids.

Once they realized this was competitive,

Taylee busted out running.

There's no way Anden could allow her to win.

So he sprinted to catch up.

The stick horse rather became an obstacle between their legs during the 20 yd dash!

So much for innocent stick horse races.

Next up: Petting Zoo

As usual, Anden petted every crack and crevice of each animal.

Taylee, who usually loves animals, walked around waving her hands in disgust.

"Ewwhh smells so gross in here!"

Haha that's my girl!

Finally she got over it and was right in there touching the animals too!

The kids were SO hyper to have their friends with them.

That they were having a hard time listening!

I almost asked the workers if I could release these animals

and borrow their timeout masks for my children!

After we were done harassing the animals and kicked out,

(literally...ahem...Anden)

we loaded up on the horse drawn hay ride to the pumpkin patch.

Of course the kids all climbed right up with the driver

instead of sitting nicely on the hay bails.

And luckily reincarnated Marlboro Man enjoyed their presence!

He thought they were all siblings.

And gasped, "Where did all those blue eyes come from?"

3 of the 4 kids just stared at him.

But not Taylee.

She put her hand on her hip and batted her eyes back at him, "From my mom!"

So the 5 of them "drove" the horses on out to the pumpkins.

"Hey Mommy! We measured it. It's only $12!"

 

Finally we loaded back up,
again in the driver seat,
and headed back to the Hay Maze!

And then were lucky enough to run into our other good friends from church!

The Jensens

And attempted a few last pics in the dark with all the kids!

We made use of  every spec of sunlight and were finally ushered out!
Such a fun time!