tidbits of October

I wanted to include some of the little memories of this month that keep our family smiling and having fun!

hanging out with C

 A BEAUTIFUL Fall day at the Zoo!

 

our little sleeping beauty

  The reason the kids had 2 days off of school and why Halloween Trick-or-Treating got rescheduled!
Yikes... this is our adjacent street.  Needless to say, there was not getting in our out of our community!

Happy Halloween!

newest lil superhero!

Congrats to Mary, Justin, and Mira Mae!  

They now have a beautiful baby boy blessing their family! 

Welcome Finlay Thomas Sikora

Fall Fun in Dayton

This weekend we spent a wonderful and relaxing weekend with Jeremy, Heather, Annie, Millie, and little Owen.  We took off Saturday morning and headed straight to Kings Island.  Our family has never been to this amusement park and the kids were extremely excited!  However, I think the kids were really just excited to spend time with their cousins!  We must have heard Isa tell us about 15 times on the ride down "I miss Annie so much."  =)
We spent a couple of hours at Kings Island.  We started off at their Dinosaurs trick-or-treat area.  Needless to say, Will was less interested in the candy and super interested in ALL the dinosaurs they had.  It's amazing how many he knew, and how much he could tell us about them!  The little ones were a little afraid, but lost some of their fear after the first couple of candy stops!  They got candy treats along with many other cool things like mini pumpkins, apples, and toys!  It was a hit!
After a few rides at Snoopy's Place, we had a warm dinner before heading back to their home in Dayton.

Will was certainly in his glory!

   

  Sunday was a bit chilly so we all decided we would just relax at their place.  It was a perfect decision.  The kids all got along real great and it was actually real nice for the adults to hang out together while the kids played.  From princess dances, to jumping on the trampoline, to crafts, and dino books.... the kids had a marvelous time together!  We love how they just seem to pick up right where they left off!  We are hoping for many more fun times together while they are in Ohio!

(I appologize for the quality of these pics... my camera was out of batteries and these were from my phone)

no shortage of hug and laughter!

Night Out

Tonight several of us from the cul de sac (now "the sac")  headed out to Panini's in Westlake for a benefit to help one of Will's classmate get a service dog.  We took full advantage of going out as a group without kids and stayed out LATE (even late for ME!).   We started off the night with dinner at Micheal Simon's B Spot for some great hamburgers.  Then we headed to the benefit and had a great time together!  We are lucky to have great friends!

Group Halloween 2012

 

 I know I say it every year... but it's hard to think we are on our 7th year together celebrating Halloween!  Our group now has 16 kids in it!   Our neighbor Tracy and her son Evan were invited to join our party by Audra, and then they were welcome by the rest of the group to join!  So now we have (in order of birth): Brady, Kevin, Will, Evelyn, Sam, Gina, Evan, Isa, Natalie, Elizabeth, Grant, Alex, Kaitlyn, Gabi, Elin, and lil Jacob!

Audra was gracious enough once again to host this year.  We dearly missed Julie and the boys, but were so glad to have everyone else make it.  The weather was amazing, and as always... all the kids played like they see each other every day!   After lunch we had an opportunity to go outside for our group picture and then the kids decided to just stay outside and play!  It was a truly wonderful afternoon!
This year our kids are dressing up as Question Man (a superhero Will created), Rapunzel, and Belle!  The kids were so excited to get into their costumes and show them off!

the greatest show on earth

Special treat for our little man and Daddy.  They had a wonderful gift of time and amusement as they went off to see Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's DRAGON show.  Will was beyond excited for this day to come, and it was especially sweet because it was a time for just the boys to hang out!

 

Great Great Aunt visit

On Monday we spent the afternoon with Great Aunt Maggie and Great Aunt Ollie (great great aunts to the kids).  They accompanied us for lunch and came back to our house to chat and look through pictures and watch family videos (yep... I was entertaining =).     The kids warmed up to them rather quickly, Gabi holding both aunts' hands while going to lunch, and of course Isa offering many many lovely hugs. 
We then all went over to Gramma and Bapa's for dinner when Will got home from school.  It really was a lovely day!

 The kids STILL doing "The Trick"

 

Soccer and stuff...

On Saturday Will finished off the Fall part of this soccer season (it resumes in the Spring).  He may not have been the best player on the team... but he sure did have the best smile during all the games! So proud of our little man for sticking with this.

 

Will's best fans! (mommy is missing from this pic... but you know she is his #1 fan =).

 

Will and his buddy Evan have joined the girls at Great Lakes Gymnastics.  They also go on Fridays, but at a different time.  They go after school together.  The girls are still loving gymnastics, and they do even more now that they get to sport some cute leotards!