Halloween!

Another fun Halloween is in the books! It was back on a school night, so that's always a little harder, but we still had so much fun. After school, we painted some Day of the Dead cookies and started to get ready. Kacy, who was Skelita Calveras, had quite the makeup! I was afraid that she would hate it, but she hung in there with it. We also had Dory and a beautiful Leopard. The Hrobars joined us for our annual trick or treating excursion. This year we went a different way, and the houses were much more decorated and fun! There were quite a few really scary houses, but all the kids were totally fine with it. It's nice to have older kids that don't need to be carried. We did get a little too aggressive in how far we went, and all of a sudden the kids were done - completely! Dana and I sent the guys back to "rescue" us, so we didn't have to listen to them whine all the way back. The pickup crew arrived, and we all jumped in the back of the truck and headed home. We had a huge candy haul as usual and great memories to go with it!

Pumpkin Swim Meet

The girls had their first two day swim meet over the Halloween weekend. It was pretty cute because after warm ups, they got to do a costume parade. They were supposed to do a little parade outside, but at the last minute they all stayed inside for some reason. I'm not sure why, but it was kind of a bummer for the parents because we couldn't see any of the cute costumes. The venue was a huge natatorium! There were two 8 lane pools set up to run at the same time. It was also going to be Kacy's first meet to do any 50's, and Adilyn's first meet to do any 100's. Adilyn had a tough program with four races each day, 2 50m races and 2 100m races both days. They both did really well, although Kacy seems to be getting a little frustrated with not winning any medals. There are just so many ridiculously fast swimmers that they are trying to compete with. She had an amazing backstroke race, and after she said, "Do you think I am going to get a medal? I swam as fast as I possibly could!" I had to tell her that I was almost certain that she did not get a medal. She ended up 14th, medals were given out through 8th place. I hope that she will focus more on her time improvements, and not get too frustrated with not winning races or getting top places. Adilyn is totally fine with just time improvements, but Kacy is not there yet. I understand because I would totally feel the same way! Adilyn dropped a lot of time on her backstroke, didn't get disqualified in her IM, and felt good about her meet. It's definitely a different environment, and it's a lot to get used to, but they still seem to be enjoying it. So, we'll stick with it until something changes!

 Brooke gets pretty bored at the meets, which is totally understandable. We color, we read, she meditates, she eats, we take silly face selfies, we get really bored...So, here are some pictures of our fun while cheering on the sisters!

Pumpkin Carving Party!

I love fall, and I love carving pumpkins! The goo, the annoying little cheap knives, and of course, the final product. We invited the Hrobars over to join in the carving fun and have dinner. It was nice weather, so we all hung out outside and got to carvin'. Each girl chose their design - a cat, a chubby ghost, and a simple vampire jack-o-lantern. Hudson decided to freehand draw a dragon, and he did a great job! They all did quite a lot of their own carving and pumpkin guts removal. Brooke even did a lot of her own carving this year. I was pretty impressed with her ability to stay on the lines. The kids played outside for a long time, and then we went back inside for carmel apples. They all got a little crazy with the carmel apples and sprinkles! It was a great night together - we don't get time to do that much these days with our busy schedules.

Cook-off Fun

Our friends invited us out the their company's cook-off again this year. Dad and Kris were in town, so I wasn't going to drag them down there. Once the girls found out about it, they wanted to go! They love it because there is a ton of free giveaways and free candy. They also get to roam around free and kind of unsupervised, which is always fun! So, we headed down for some good food and fun. It was crazy hot, so that kind of sucked, but we still had a good time. Their tent was decorated like Alice in Wonderland, and the girls loved it! Everyone liked the food. I found a delicious bean salad at one of the tents that I was very appreciative of! The kids got all kinds of cool little toys, and they had a great time hanging out with all the other kids.

Volleyball Pictures from Dad

Dad always loves taking pictures when he come to visit, so I can always rely on him to get some decent volleyball game pictures for me when he comes. He didn't disappoint this time either :) I am pretty good at multitasking, but coaching and taking pictures is not one that I have mastered yet!

 Intense strategizing with my ball boy :)

 "Let's go Hot Shots" beginning of the game cheer!

 Our cheering section!

Adventure Run

The girls had a new fun run this year called the Adventure Run. It was a little different because they weren't trying to get a certain number of laps, they were just running on this little "adventure" course. They seemed to really enjoy it, but it seemed a little blah to me. I was expecting some cool obstacles. They pretty much just had to crawl through things and run through some pool noodles, but like I said, the kids liked it! The school made about as much money as they normally do, so that was good also. The weather was really nice, so it made for a nice morning!