Halloween Pics, Part 1

Yeah, so I really thought that living in Europe would make Halloween much less crazy for us. Apparently, I was completely wrong. Although, I am very proud of myself: having 3 kids has made it MUCH easier for me to simply say "no" to doing things that I don't want to or shouldn't feel obligated to do. And that's huge for me. This year has been pretty enjoyable for all of us. Except maybe Jay, but he's sick on top of being busy. Today was a little crazy, but not too bad. Also, we decided not to buy costumes this year, but to use what we had in the dress-up bin. Hence, Emma has worn a different costume every.single.day this week! :)

Weds, we went to the library on Landstuhl for their story time, which was Halloween themed this week. The kids made ghosts, listened to Halloween stories, did the Monster Mash, and frosted cookies. 

 On Thursday, the kids' school had their Halloween parties. We got to go into Emma's classroom and decorate cookies with her before the kids all had their costume parades. 

She was still napping when we got there. Her little tutu'd butt was too cute!!

Harry's friends, Blake and Katelyn (twins!) went as Thing 1 and Thing 2 this year- SOO cute!

 This year, Jay and I couldn't find the energy to carve the pumpkins, so we just let the kids color on them with sharpies. It was a total cop-out, but they didn't seem to care at all!

Harry made his with "3 round eyes, square toofers, and a beard like GaGa." (Hi to GaGa on skype in the background! lol)

Emma's punkin has "everfing" on it. :)

John-John's pumpkin- its little like him!

 Friday, we had our friends over for a playdate. It was CRAZY with that many kids in the house, but so wonderful to have good friends, both for the kids and I. Three other American families live in our village and we all have 4 year old boys (plus a bunch extra!) and the kids all get along wonderfully. Such a blessing!

Evelyn and John, they're dating and they don't even know it! She's about 6 weeks older than he is, and he's a good 3 pounds heavier already!

 Saturday, we started out at the firehouse on Ramstein for their open house. The fireman came to the kids' school a few weeks ago and Harry has been talking about going to their firehouse since then. He also informed me that "when you catch on fire, I will push you down and drop you, and then stop you, and then roll you." It took me a good minute to figure out that he was trying to teach me to "stop, drop, and roll." Too funny!
Emma was completely fascinated with the firetruck. Maybe we have a future firefighter at our house??!!

The kids with Sparky the Firedog

 After the firehouse, we had a birthday party for one of Harry's friends, Kaelyn. It was at the Gymnastics center on base, and was quite nice and relaxing as the instructor took the kids for the whole 2 hours while the moms got to sit and chat! That does mean I didn't get any pictures, but oh well. :)
Then, we had the Fall Carnival at the kids' school. We only made it for the last hour, but we were all pretty burned out by then, so it was good to only have that long to do games.

Emma and I doing the cakewalk

Emma wanted a "frocodile" painted on her face!