HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Isn't it funny how other people can motivate us to do things? My neighbor had Jenise over yesterday after school for a little while and they spent some time carving pumpkins. When we went apple picking back in September, each of the kids chose a pumpkin. Last night, we finally carved them. I am not good about carving pumpkins every year but we decided to do it this year. Daddy even helped out. All the kids dug out the seeds and then drew faces. JiaLi had help from Daddy and she was very proud of her jack o'lantern:) Happy Halloween Everyone!!

More From Our Halloween Weekend

My sister-in-law Amy(husband's brother's wife) won a bottle of wine(she had her choice of red or white) for having the closest guess for the number of candy corn in the container she is holding. (She is Cleopatra just like her daughter in one of the pictures of the previous post.) There are 305 in the container and she guessed 304. Danny won for the kids with a guess of 276. We had a large bowl of mini prizes for kids to take as they left and Danny was able to choose 5. He was cute--he chcse some and gave them to his friends. We like to at least have some activities for the kida at the party. The candy corn was a hit--it was one that everyone at least tried to guess. I had to post more of my little helpers. Yes, Jenise is trying to prevent JiaLi from sticking her fingers in while Mommy takes the first picture:) No it is not time to trick-or treat, JiaLi is cleaning. JiaLi received a late birthday present on Friday which included all the cleaning supplies possible. Our house is the cleanest it has ever been. The kids did trick-or-treat at our party. Usually, some of the families chip in goodies for the party and at some point the kids roam around our house trick-or treating. It's a question I am asked by the kids now when they walk in the door-"when will we be trick-or-treating?"(over and over again) I know she is not smiling but I liked this picture of JiaLi. Most of the kids had their costumes off by the end of the evening because they were so hot, but JiaLi had her costume on all evening. Although, I suppose she was barefoot:) One other activity the kids did was digging eyeballs and pupils out of the spaghetti. (covered in oil) I have to say, this year was great. I used grapes with the skin peeled off for the eyeballs and as I started peeling the grapes, I thought wait a second, I have children. Both Daniel and Jenise helped so that I could focus on other things. They were great--they thought it was fun. I was going to have the kids use their hands to try to see how many eyeballs they could dig out(there were 62) but Joe had the idea for the kids to use chopsticks. The older kids totally got into it. I timed them. JiaLi was right there watching and trying to show them what to do;) By the way, we always say the more the merrier. So if any of you are ever in the New England area around Halloween, let us know. We would love to have you at our party:)

Our Halloween Party

We had our annual Halloween party this year. I am really bummed that we didn't get a family picture this year. Check here for last year's photos. Maybe Mommy can convince Daddy on the real Halloween to dress-up one more time for a family photo:) Edward this year dressed as Harry Potter and then the rest of the family were characters from the story. We initially planned on having Joseph be Ron but found it easier for him to be Draco Malfoy since he has blonde hair and Ron is a red head(too much work). Jenise was Hermione and Jiali was going to be Ginny and actually said she was Ginny a few times. For those who don't know the story, Ginny is Harry Potter's girlfriend. JiaLi was instead Cho Chang. Mommy dressed as Professor McGonagall and Daddy was Snape. Danny was a dementor. We had the party on Saturday and of course had the World Series on. Half-way through the party Danny and his friend changed from their costumes into Red Sox gear. (I know Danny is wearing a PawSox cap but his Red Sox cap was being used by someone else.) The picture of JiaLi and Jenise baking doesn't fit but I had to post my little helpers:) This cute little dog is my sister's oldest daughter who is in love with dogs. In December, we are supposed to be taking her to a dog show. The next photo is JiaLi with her Auntie Deanna. A little while after this photo was taken, JiaLi had had a chance to study her and realize that it really is Auntie Deanna and then asked "why do you have white stuff on your face?" As you can see, JiaLi wasn't too sure at first. Auntie Jen had the best costume this year. Joe and I have been talking about our party next year. We have never done a costume contest but some people have such great costumes and we want to recognize them:) We are now trying to work on awards:) As you can see, the balloons made great entertainment for the kids:) I know I should stop posting but I can't help it. I love this photo of Edward checking the moon and then the two of the kids drinking.

Last Night

Last night we had our first experience of what it is like to have a family our size. It was soooo much fun!!! Jenise had chorus after school and needed to be picked up by 4:00. Then once a year with soccer, they hold an evening game under the lights. This happened last night. Edward's game was at 5:00, Joseph's was at 6:00 and Jenise's game was at 7:00. Then Danny had tryouts at 7:30 for the travel basketball team. He did not make it but has had such a great attitude and still wants to play in the community program. (which is easier for Mom and Dad) The first few shots are from Joseph's game. He is in black number 9 and he played goalie for part of the game so he has that yellow thing on. I did not take any at Jenise's game. I had parked far away for Edward's game because there were no spaces(they have something like 18 teams). For Joseph's and Jenise's the spaces opened up and Mommy moved the car closer(knowing that it would be very dark by the time we were done). Mommy left the camera in the car and locked the door. JiaLi had a friend at Jenise's game that shared his Fisher price digital camera with her and she was hilarious. The moon was out but the clouds were passing over it. She held the camera and kept saying "wait"..."wait"... and then when the clouds passed, snapped the picture. So cute!! The perfect word for watching Edward play was "fun". We were cracking up his entire game. Only 4 kids from his team showed up so they had to play the whole time. He normally has games at 7:45 a.m. and he was like watching a new person. I guess he's not quite a morning person. He was so full of energy. He may appear like he is holding his hand up to say #1 but he is really just waving. He had a big smile on for almost the whole game. Of course, our neighbors were on the opposite team. There is a little girl named Betsey(Tessa's sister) and they were each making faces at each other during the game. Love this age when the game is not so serious:) O.k. I guess I posted a lot of pictures. I just had to share these of JiaLi. I was trying to take some of her in the flowers. I wanted to share how concerned she is about this tree having leaves. This is the same tree she was trying to put leaves on in our previous post:)