All Blacks: Pumpkins and Parties....

The girls had a "pumpkin hunt" at their school. Here they are lining up to head outside....Jocie had to be first in line...shocking :)

Struttin their stuff! :)

Getting ready to "attack" the pumpkin patch....thinking through their pumpkin snatching strategies :)

GO!!!

So, there were enough pumpkins for each child to find ONE. My children do not understand this concept. They think the more the merrier.... I knew conflict was on it's way!

Hoarding their stash...

One kid didn't show up so the teacher let Gabbie keep two of her three. It was a battle, but they each finally gave up one pumpkin each. Oh, the joys......

Here is a class picture...or at least a really good effort for a class picture :)

So sweet Jocie has had a, let's say, a tremendously challenging time at school. Many days she is in time-out most of the 4 hours she is there....mainly for hitting and fighting (her classmates and her teachers...nice.) At the end of every day, if they have been kind, obeyed, etc. etc. they get a smiley face drawn on their thumb. Well, for Jocie, Mr. Smiley hasn't come around very often....BUT, on the day of their class party, she actually did get a smiley face. She was SO pumped and wanted me to take a pic of it (which I gladly did so that I could remind myself that it IS possible for her to have kind hands, obey, etc. etc :) She doesn't act up like this or fight like this anywhere else other than at school. We are working hard with her at home and praying that the LORD will give us patience and give her self-control! So needless to say these pics below were extra special :)

She absolutely cracks me up....

Gabbie's smiley face.... and she makes SURE Jocie see's her smiley faces every day :) Oh....it starts young, doesn't it?!?

Getting ready for the party.....

Decorating sugar cookies with LOTS of icing, LOTS of M&M's, and LOTS of sprinkles....

Yummmmmmm....

That's a whole lot of sprinkles....

Washing the sugar-coated sugar cookies down with sugar-filled apple juice= not-so-great naptime

Look at this cuteness!!

Jocelyn became obsessed with the sprinkles bottle (shocking! she gets obsessed with the most RANDOM things!). She was determined to take it home with her...she even tried to secretly stick it in her lunch box not once, but twice! Thankfully, the teacher caught her both times :)

Another class picture attempt!

Henry (son of our friends Zach and Ellen....Zach went to seminary with Shane and they now live here, too) had his 2nd birthday party on Halloween. All the kids (and most of the adults) dressed up in their costumes. It was so much fun!

Here is the birthday puppy... Too cute!

Family pic....obviously we were Georgia Bulldog fans....despite their very disappointing season thus far....

Shane and Zach....yes, he is in costume if you were wondering :)

They consumed just a small amount of sugar at the party....starting with yummy brownie cupcakes with chocolate icing....

Jocelyn LOVING her brownie...

Happy birthday Henry!!

Next on the sugar list....birthday cookie cake....

Sugar-filled juice boxes!!

And birthday cupcakes!!

Henry opening his gifts....He LOVED his soccer ball!

The girls graciously offered their services of helping Henry open all his birthday gifts :)

See the sucker in Jocie's mouth....yeah, that was seriously the first of like 17 suckers she had during the course of the party. They had a huge glass container full of suckers on the coffee table and she helped herself....ALOT :)

Checking out all Henry's toys to make sure they are safe and work properly :)

Gabbie REALLY wanted to bring Blue home with her....

RIGHT after the party we headed to the church for Car's with Candy....more sugar of course! Here the girls are in their carseats while I was trying to force a sandwich down them so they would have atleast had ONE nutritious thing to eat all day....but they weren't very hungry....imagine that!