last day of school party!

may 31 was flower's last day of school.  we threw a pool party for both of the girls friends.  we had a great time!  they both made some good friends.  because of the nature of flower's school she will be with all the same kids next year!  maizy is moving though and we are sad about that.  especially since she's moving around the corner from our house!  she will be going to longfellow.  the good thing is we'll keep in touch for sure!  and if we ever move back to our they'll be right there!

Flower's birthday at 2nd grade

flower requested my gluten free brownies for her class treat.  i was happy to oblige and the few kids in her class that are gluten free were thrilled to be able to eat the same thing as everyone else!  they all loved them and i guess the scraps that were left were evidence of that!  this is my own recipe that i developed and it's quite good. :)
ms. schmillen is great.  each kid sits in the hot seat for their birthday song and then at the end she puts her hands on their head and makes guesses on their age(obviously they are all turning 8) and goes around and around before finally saying 8 and the kids get the biggest kick out of it.  she's a good sport.
She had ms. schmillen last year, too,  but next year she moves on and she will miss her. 

halloween 2012

halloween started at river's preschool party.  they did a costume parade outside.  then they went inside and painted pumpkins, decorated cookies and played games.

river made this the first week of school and it hangs on the wall in preschool.  this is what she thinks she looks like.  so cute!

there were three covered boxes for the kids to put their hands.  they were filled with slimy things to resemble eyeballs, worms and brains.  the kids reactions were so fun!

that afternoon we went to flower's class halloween party.  they had a good little feast, played bingo and won some prizes.

after flower's class we stopped by the aquarium because kids in costume got in free.  they were also doing a costume contest.  everyone said we should have won, even the employees, and we kept waiting for over a week to see them post the winners on facebook.  finally someone asked and they claimed that they handed out the prizes(free year membership) all through out the day to costumes they loved.  not at all what they told us when we went and i frankly don't believe them.  a few asked to see photos of the winners and they never posted any.  makes me question whether anyone really won.  kind of shady and disappointing but oh well.  we still had a good time!
that evening we started our trick-or-treating at kris' as usual. 

i love my little family of starfish, in honor of amanda.  kg worked hard on these costumes and i think they turned out great!

kristen and cam joined us this year, too!  i was so excited. next year, if it all works out, she and cam are going to join us in an amazing costume ensemble!

we hit our usual houses in kris' neighborhood and then headed to barb's.  lynnette's mom just moved into a retirement facility the day before so we stopped by to say hello and show off our costumes.  then we went on to my parents.  we trick-or-treated there for over and hour.  we were pooped and will plan better next year.  by the time we found our favorite house in their neighborhood they were taking everything down.  we were bummed and will be hitting it first next year.  we also regretfully didn't make it to kg's parents or grandparents.  it was a crazy day!

the loot