The Beach

Two weeks ago, Brian had to work,but our parents were going to the beach, so I decided to take the kids and go too. The weather was absolutely beautiful and there was a clam dig scheduled Friday & Saturday evening, so Avery got to go clamming with everyone (I stayed at the house with Blake because it was almost dark & getting cold). Saturday morning we woke up and the girls all went into Long Beach to the arcade. Avery, Mommy, Nana & Nani all got to play lots of games and Avery got fun prizes with her tickets. We played on the beach that afternoon, but no clamming that night. It got too dark and we didn't have lanterns. The kids and I headed back home Sunday morning. They did great in the car and were overall really well behaved all weekend. And it was great have 4 other people to help out!
Here are some of the highlights...

The Birthday Girl

Avery turned 4 last Saturday! We can't believe that we have such a grown up big girl!

We told Avery a long time ago that she could chew gum when she turned 4. Several months ago she said that she wanted to have a bubblegum birthday party, so that's what we did! We found gum ball machines at the dollar store to give to everyone as party favors, I created a "bubble gum machine" cake, and we even had the kids bob for gumballs in plate fulls of whipped cream. I think they all had a great time and tons of our family & friends came to celebrate.

Here are some pictures of the highlights.

Happy Halloween

We had so much fun trick-or-treating this year. Avery is totally addicted to candy & sweets so she was in hog heaven, and Blake, he just loves riding in the wagon, so he was happy too. He really got the hang of it after about 3 houses. He would trot up to the front porch and hold his bucket, not really knowing why. He didn't care about the candy, he's never had any...yet. Anyway, they were totally cute twin dragons and loved every minute of it.

My Nana and my parents were at our house for dinner and handing out candy to other trick-or-treaters. Avery had just about as much fun handing out the candy, as she did getting it! We had 75 goblins come to our door this year.

The Perfect Pumpkin

Last Wednesday, Avery's preschool went to the pumpkin patch for a hunt for the "perfect pumpkin". We had so much fun, we were there for 2 hours. Just Mommy got to take her, Daddy & Blake stayed home. The morning started out with a maze through hay bales, next it was the petting zoo with all sorts of animals, then all the kids got to climb on the giant hay pyramid and finally, a tractor ride out to the fields to find our prize. It was such a beautiful day, we couldn't have asked for anything more!