Power's Back! Happy Halloween Post!

Even though Halloween was only two days ago it already feels like days and days have gone by...life's been nuts!
Before Halloween arrived we had quiet a few crazy days starting with Saturday.  I was part of a committee that threw a huge Halloween party at one of our elementary schools.  I have been working on the party planning since August and finally the party came and went.  It was a huge success and lots of fun!  I, of course, was working the whole time so I had to steal a couple of pictures from my brother and sister-in-law (thank you uncle michael and aunt crista!) to show off how cute the kids were!

Braden didn't smile once in his costume because he was always roaring!
This is our best "cousin shot" we could get!

Gracie, me, Aunt Crista and Anna

so I bought the costume and tights in 18 months
but the head piece and shoes in 2T, oops!

Gracie wasn't so sure she liked sitting on hay in tights,
can you blame her?

Is there anything more rewarding than
 getting your 3 month old niece to smile!?

That night leaving the party we drove home in a big, wet snowstorm!  On October 29th!?  What!?  The roads were covered in snow and the winds were blowing!  As tired as I was after the kid party, Pete and I still had some partying to do.  We had planned to have a little costume party for my group of girlfriends and our husbands in honor of my 31st birthday.  We all acted like bunch of college students again.  We dressed up, ate yummy food and drank lots of adult beverages.  We even played a few adult beverage games.  I owe a big shout out to, Emma, Erin, Whitney, Liz and Erin for making the night a blast!  I know how much you all have been wanting to make the blog.  Unfortunately, the photos from that night just aren't really blog friendly.  But trust me...it was fun! :o)
Everyone made it home safely that night but we all woke up to dark and cold houses!  Not a great situations after having a big, messy party, I'll tell you.  Dips in dishes, cake, plates, wine glasses, bottles, etc. that all needed to be cleaned but no disposal or warm water made that very difficult!  Yuck!

The next few days is where I feel I've lost time.  We lived in the dark for three days.  We're lucky to have a woodstove so our house didn't completely freeze, although it was still pretty cold.  Actual Halloween came on Monday but it was a snow day for the kids and our town even postponed trick-or-treating until this Friday.  We had already planned on trick-or-treating at my parents' neighborhood since they have a great road for taking the kids out safely, unlike ours unfortunately.  Once again, I was completely neglectful to my camera and I'm SO grateful my friend Whitney took on the paparazzi role for the night...

earlier in the night Braden and Maisie said, "I love you"
and then trick-or-treated holding hands....SO CUTE!

close up of the hand holding

Braden the Dragon making sure someone was home 

Gracie wore her skeleton jammies instead of her
costume because it was way too cold!

All in all it's been a crazy couple of a days.  I'm SO happy to have power back and my poor neglected house is really ready to be cleaned and laundry is begging me to do it.  In fact, instead of blogging, I should be doing that...but, I missed writing!

Happy Halloween 2011!