Day 2~ VOTE VOTE VOTE!

Today I am thankful for the brave women that went through so much to gain me the right to vote in this country and my girls the right when then come of age! I am off to the polling place this afternoon. I will wait until I pick up the girls from school so they can come with me.It's been 90 years since American Women were first allowed to participate in elections by voting. Only 90 years! Our country is 234 years old!I am grateful for the 19th Amendment- when passed to amend the constitution, it gave me the right to vote! Way to go ladies! Votes for Women!Please exercise your right to vote today!

Countdown to Thanksgiving~ 25 Days of Thankfulness!

If you were excited that I am blogging again- wait till you read what I have planned next! Inspired by some of my friends on Facebook that are going to post something they are thankful or grateful for over the next 25 days, I plan on doing a blog post every day up to Thanksgiving! I will post other goings on in between (Halloween night pictures coming soon!). I'll get the girls and Rick involved in this also- but today I will start because oh boy am I grateful for this...

I am so grateful I have a husband that is mechanically inclined! Long story short- we had a group of people coming over to trick or treat last night. A couple hours before their arrival I was well into dinner preparations and house cleaning when our garbage disposal decides it is kaput! Water was leaking out of the cabinet under the sink and onto my feet (ick!). Rick had the old disposal out and a new one in place in less than an hour!!!! WOO HOO! He rocks and saved the day!

No sooner did I have everything cleaned up when I turned into the kitchen and found a lizard hanging out right in the middle of the kitchen floor. A quick yelp to Rick and he had it in a cup and the girls and him were releasing it in the yard. Hubby saves the day again! Did I get any pictures of any of these events? Nope! You'll just have to get mental pictures in your head. Here's a picture of Rick though- in case you forgot what my knight in shining armor looks like. :o)

Favorite Photo Sunday

Things are eerily calm around the house today considering its Halloween and all! We are decorated, dinner is in the crock pot and we have no other plans until our friends and family arrive in a few hours. The girls have been playing outside most of the morning and have now moved to their bedroom and set up blankets over their bedsides to make forts underneath (I think a few of my battery LED tea lights may have disappeared underneath with them). So while I wait for my memory card to finish loading so I can clear it for tonight's festivities, I thought I would post a Favorite Foto post- yes, it used to be FFF (Favorite Foto Friday)- but you take what you can get right? :o)

I have a new camera! I am still learning how to use it. It's an entry level SLR camera by Olympus and I love it! There's not too many bells and whistles- but there are enough to keep me happy and testing.While we (we meaning ME) were cleaning up the front yard yesterday Emily got out the Touchable bubbles and started playing with them. They aren't easy to catch- but if you do- the bubble will hang out for quite some time.

We hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween tonight!

I Love a Costume Parade!

We had the annual costume parade this morning at the girls' school. Its always fun to go and see everyone dressed up and excited for the holiday. Ashley was very excited because today was her day to be helper and line leader in class- so she got to lead the class in the parade.

The weather was beautiful today (high 70's, low 80's) and we are hoping it will continue through the weekend!

And she's free!

Maddie had an appointment with her orthopedic doctor this week and I'm happy to report that her cast is OFF and she is on the mend! They gave her a splint to wear to remind her to take it easy and she still has to rest it and not participate in sports or PE for 4 more weeks. Still- she is happy to be free of the cast! She is still favoring her left hand over the right, but we'd rather her be careful. To celebrate we carved a pumpkin for her to enter into the school pumpkin carving contest. She choose the design and helped me as much as she could with the carving process. Her pumpkin says "Give Blood" and has a vampire bat on the back. It's very cute and while it didn't win- she's still happy with how it came out and we are proud of her!

School Pictures!

Such young ladies! I still can't believe these girls are 6! We had a marathon morning the day of school pictures! Luckily I had the morning off and was able to be home to tackle all this HAIR! I still remember lamenting at their first birthday (and second) that they had no hair to do anything with! Sheesh! I whipped out my spiral curler and tackled three heads of hair. I worked up a good sweat and got a super good workout! In the end they looked super cute and we're very happy with how their pictures came out! EMILY

ASHLEY

MADELINE

A Day at the Patch!

The rain finally gave us a small window this weekend on Sunday and we took the opportunity to try out a new pumpkin patch~ Tanaka Farm!It wasn't really a patch- but a farm. Pumpkins were still on the vine and we could literally "pick" our pumpkins (which is a big deal for us city folk!).Spooky ghosts!

The girls had a great time exploring. There was a corn maze, a petting zoo, tractor rides, hay mazes, and the favorite~ pumpkin canon.

Somewhere in that puff of smoke there is a mini-pumpkin destined to be smashed to smithereens on the nearby hill. Much to the delight of all the onlookers!

Everyone picked their own pumpkin this year. We can't wait to carve them!

The rain was back by the evening- but we were already home. It was perfect timing and a perfect day!