Halloween!

After 2 vacations, Mel and Shawn's wedding, and Jack's upcoming 1st birthday party, I didn't give much thought to Halloween this year.  When we bought the girls their princess dresses in Disneyland, part of the deal was that they had to wear them for Halloween.  It was nice to have it already taken care of, put them in their dresses, a wig for Mady, tiara for Sophie, a little blush and glitter, and voila` - Rapunzel and Cinderella.  I was already planning a pirate party for Jack's 1st birthday, so we decided it would only be fitting for him to be Captain Jack Sparrow.  No time for much creativity though, ordered a cheap-o costume and we were ready to go.  My mother-in-law always hosts our family's Halloween, we trick-or-treat, pass out candy, eat navajo tacos, and let the kids get sugared up on all sorts of sweets.  (My kids are funny, they love their candy that night, but basically forget about it the next day...unfortunately I do not:/).

 

That morning was Mady's school Halloween party.  I volunteered to help, and was so excited for her party.  Her teacher Ms. Hovanec is so great, the kids are all so sweet, it was really fun getting to spend time with Mady at school.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a really good pic, so this will have to do.  

Costa Rica

Wow.  Completely spoiled this year.  Following a perfect family vacation to Disneyland/Newport, we left to celebrate York's big 4-0 with our family and friends.  Leaving the kids at home with Kansas City Grandma, we met our famiy and friends in beautiful Costa Rica.  A-Ma-Zing!

We stayed in beautiful villas overlooking the ocean, completely secluded, with personal chefs cooking and cleaning up every meal.  A big thanks to my brother Johnny for this hook-up:).  Two of the days we ventured out on excursions, but the rest of the time was spent relaxing, going to the beach, monkey hunting, playing games, eating, drinking, and being merry.  SO. MUCH. FUN.

At the top of our beautiful resort

As I said, the whole purpose of the trip was to celebrate York turning 40.  After everyone arrived in town, we celebrated with a fabulous dinner, a surprise birthday cake, the good 'ole name game, complete with self-made aluminum foil hats.

The next day we headed out early for a day we will most likely never forget.  Our first excursion to a place called Rincon.  We started out horseback riding, went white water rafting, and ended with crazy, scary ziplining.  I mean, this stuff was intense.  When we were done, we all kept saying, "I can't believe we just did that!".  Here are a few pictures of our crazy experience...

For our second excursion, we went to Nicaragua.  It was...interesting.  I think at the end, we all agreed it was fun, but waaaaay to much driving.  The highlight was definitely taking boats out to Monkey Island, and seeing our first monkeys of the trip.

A beautiful boat ride, and me feeding the cute monkey

Emily celebrated her 26th birthday in Nicaragua.  I'm sure not too many people can say that...nor would they want to;)

And, like I mentioned, the rest of the trip was spent relaxing at the beach and around the resort.  We felt like a bunch of kids playing in the ocean, the waves were amazing!  What a fun, fabulous trip with (most of) our favorite people.  Happy birthday York, and thanks everyone for joining us!

The girls with our cute tour guide Norman

The whole gang!

And of course, a special thanks to my Mom for watching our babies while we were away.  I have to say, although we missed the kids dearly, this break was much needed and definitely appreciated.  I am so thankful to have parents that are so willing to watch our kids and so supportive of us taking time away to spend with each other. Thank you, we appreciate it SO much!

I totally meant to get a good picture of my mom and all the kids before she left...but I forgot.  So here's a pic of her and Mady the day left.

Melissa's getting MARRIED!

So, of course we had to celebrate!  After less than 24 hours home from family vaca, Jack and I (un and re) packed up and headed to KC to shower Mel with love...a girl who deserves it more than anyone!  Melissa and Shawn are getting married October 29th and we're so excited for them.  Shawn T. Furey is one lucky guy...oh wait, this isn't facebook...I can't tag him in my post so I might as well stop there, I'm SURE he doesn't read my blog;).  Anyways, the first night was a shower at my aunt Jo Anne's home with mostly family (and Greta:), and the second night was a shower/bachelorette party at my Aunt Judy's with her bridesmaids and a couple of close friends.  What a FUN weekend it was, and here are a few pics to prove it!

Friday night: A kitchen themed shower for the love of all things cooking/baking and Top Chef.  My mom put together a cute "know you're spices" game, we ate yummy food, and even got a little messy in Jo's kitchen with a fondue relay race that really brought out everyone's competitive sides:)

Saturday night:  A mexican fiesta at Judy's and a trip to the casino...or two.  Oh and did you know that KC casinos are similar to Vegas in that what happens there stays there?  Like all our money.  Except for my very last dollar that Sara Q. turned into $30 to provide us all with one last round of drinks.  That's what I'm talking about.

The lovely hosteses!  And checking out the lovely spread.

The games:  For the spice game everyone used all their senses to determine which spice was which and the winner was named “spice girl”.  And our mise en place relay race.

This one was fun to watch.  The final results of our mis en place relay race.  Looks appitizing, yeah?

Sistas!  And longtime friends, Greta and Mel:)

Opening gifts:  Mel got TONS of great stuff to stock her kitchen.  And Jenni, the lovely note-taker.

The looks for Mel’s Mexi-Casino night.  Love it!

Fun with friends and family!

Hey Kelly!  The cute party gifts she put together.

Opening her “Personal” gifts and our survial kits.

UH, pretty sure we all loved the glasses!

The lovely bride-to-be and Grammy!

Oh the limo.  It. was. fun.  Thanks for all the fun memories ladies!




Oh, and yes, "Hungry Jack" was there too because he's still attached to me at the you know what's.  A big thanks to my dad for taking care of him so I could go out with the girls!  (and of course to my dear husband who took care of the girls at home so I could go to KC - Thank you!)

I'm going to Disneyla-a-a-and!

So after a fabulous time on the beach we headed to Disneyland.  We spent two days there and had the best time but ohmygosh it’s exausting!  The kids loved all the rides, with Nemo and The Little Mermaid being the faves.  It was so nice being able to take Jack on most of them and to have the in-laws help when we couldn’t.  I’m not sure I could ever go back during a busy season...the most we ever waited was about 25 minutes and that was only for like Splash Mountain and The Materhorn.  Most of the rides we were able to walk right on, it was ideal!  Sophie was a little timid with the characters at first, but her and Mady had a fun time filling up their autograph books.  We ate lunch with the princesses and bought the girls each their own princess dress for the occasion.  Mady was so cute...she wanted to be Rapunzul so we got her the dress and this long braided wig.  She didin’t want to wear the wig during lunch except when each Princess came out.  “Hurry Mom, put on my hair so they think I’m the real Rapunzul”.  Pretty sure this will be the Year of Disney at our house...Halloween, Birthdays, Christmas...they are pretty into it right now!

The only thing that went wrong the entire trip was that I left my camera charger in Newport.  So the entire second day of pics are from our phones...boo.  But other than that it was a super successful family vacation, can't wait to go back! 

Toon Town.  They LOVED Mickey and MInnie's houses!

Mady loves Tangled, she was so happy to meet these guys!

The Parade

Family pics in front of the castle

End of the 1st night.

Sophie meeting her favorite princess.  She was pretty excited:)

Mady as Rapunzul

Lunch with the Princesses at Ariel’s Grotto

Breakfast in our hotel the day we left.  And Sophie was so tired she slept in my arms...that was a first!