Halloween

This year for Halloween Ashlee was a skeleton bride and Mikayla was a ladybug. Friday night we went to a carnival and trunk or treat at their school. Both the girls helped do carnival booths instead of playing the carnival games.

Ashlee is a Skeleton Bride and Mikayla a Ladybug

Saturday night was our Ward Trunk or Treat. We didn't do much to our car this year. With lack of time and decorations, John just through this together.

Crazy Hair Day

Today was crazy hair day at school. This is how the girls wore their hair for crazy hair day.

Pumpkin Patch

Ashlee

Friday night some friends invited us to meet them at the pumpkin patch.

Alyssa, Heather and Ashlee

Heather, Brooke, Mikayla, Allison and Owen

Mikayla (a little red after running through the hay maze a few times)

Mikayla, Brooke, Allison and Quinn

Brooke, Mikayla, Allison and Quinn

After the pumpkin patch we went to the Stiles home for food and games. One of the games was a pinata. Above is a picture of all the kids waiting for their turn with the pinata.

Harvest Party

Three years ago when we moved to the place we are at now, John said he wanted to have a Harvest Party with skeet shooting. I told him we can't have a Harvest Party during harvest. I work on weekends, how am I suppose to find the time to plan a party? Well we figured out a way to have one and this year was our third year for having a harvest party. Each year it seems to get bigger, better, and alot more work. But everyone seems to have a good time and we have people asking us when we are going to have our next one year after year. Last year we added games for the kids to the party. This year we added a hay/tractor ride which seemed to be a very successful hit with the kids. When it got dark, John and some friends decided to break open glow sticks and put the glowing material on skeet and on their guns and they shot at glowing skeet. We didn't think it would work, but it did. In the process they also got the glowing material on their hands, face, clothes, etc. It soon became a game with the kids and adults to see who could have the most glowing material on them. Unfortunately, pictures in the dark don't work well, so I wasn't able to get any. I'm sure that if anyone saw the glowing skeet flying through the air, they would've thought it was a UFO!

Round-Up

Every year in the fall, the school has an event called "Round-up". Round-up is a western themed, carnival like event for the whole family. Each class has a booth and they make and sale items made by the student's along with food booths. The money raised is used to pay for their class field trips throughout the school year. This year we had a very huge turn out with lots of success. Many booths sold out before the evening was over. This year Ashlee's class made cook books. Each student contributed two recipes and they made one of their recipes to sale at a bake sale. Mikayla's class made fleece scarves and sold nacho's.

Happenings

I just realized that I haven't posted anything in almost a month. That's unusal for me. Life has been hectic. It's almond harvest time and that is to be expected. The days are long and hectic. Homework every night is a struggle(Ashlee even has it on the weekends). Dinner is later than usual and sometime it's whatever we can grab. Bed time isn't always on time. Things still operate, just not as smoothly and efficiently as I would like, but that's harvest time life.
Ashlee and Mikayla are both during well in school. I have received compliments from both of their teachers on how much they enjoy having the girls in their classes and wish that all their student's were like them. I guess this is a sign that we must be doing something right.
John is busy with work and his new business venture. He works all day and then spends another 3-4 hours a night working on his other project. It seems as though Sunday afternoons are the only time we are all ever together, which is sad. I just hope we're doing what we should be doing and that the benefits will come someday to out weigh all that we are sacraficing now.
I returned to work 3 weeks ago. 3 weeks earlier than the doctor wanted me to, but it had to be done. I am still in the healing process. Hopefully I will get the A-Ok from the doctor this week when I return for yet another check-up.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

John and the girls have never been to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, and the one and only time I went there was about 20 years ago. Saturday we decided to go the Boardwalk. We didn't really get to do anything all summer and with summer coming to an end, and the girls back in school, we decided to take a little day trip to the boardwalk. We all enjoyed it. Too bad, I couldn't ride anything though (still recovering from surgery), but John and the girls rode just about all the rides. I think their favorite ride was the bumper cars. They got off of them and got right back in line to ride them again. After riding the rides and exploring all the boardwalk had to offer, we took a little stroll out on the beach (now that we know what it's like, we will come better prepared next time). After the boardwalk, we decided to go check out some campgrounds in the area. Glad we did. Ones we had considered staying at and even had reservations at (but later canceled) looked nothing like they did on-line. We did find one that we liked in Capitola. Plans are already in the works to go camping in Capitola and return to Santa Cruz, sometime next year!