bo peep & her sheep

halloween party with brian & renée. helped austin get girlies ready while i helped set up said party. E wanted "lena curly hair" for her costume so we bought sponge rollers. yes, they still exist.

little bo peep's costume is a gramvi original & cousin lena's hand-me-down from last year. it is gorgeous & people gushed all over it all night. cossette's sheep renée bought for her the day before because cousin luke's sheep was gigantic. :)

ellery totally has her mama's luck. i was so proud when she got the cupcake from the cake walk on the 1st walk around the circle AND picked the rubber ducky with a star under him on the 1st try. probably means she doesn't understand how either game is actually supposed to be played but it was awesome.

hey there darlin'!

cossette was the perfect sheepish sheep. that girl cracks me up, it's like she's always trying to hold in her smiles & just can't quite do it. chin down, coy look on her face, & just bursting at the seams.

oh the cheeks!

i loooove the one of the big sister herding the little sister.

my little bo peep & my baby sheep. :)

we also went to a trunk or treat.

of course néenée's trunk was a HIT. she taught me the ropes so that i will forever be a pro.

on actual halloween we had bryce & jamie over to go trick or treating & hang out.

 E adored trick or treating waaaay more than i thought she would.

& particularly liked the "spooky" (aka super creepy, bloody) homes. coke just toddled up to the doors & held her little pail out. haha. funny.

once we got home ellers quickly handed out a piece of candy to each person before taking her first bite. kids that understand holidays sure make it more enjoyable. haha happy halloween!

georgetown

the boys were at work so the girls went out to play!

i hadn't been to georgetown yet & heard it was quite worth seeing.

started at the c & o canal.

charming townhomes left & right.

i particularly like cossette in the back looking over the handle of the stroller to see where we've gone. :)

just turn the corner & you're downtown.

 it has some other really old, cool buildings as well.

tons of posh shopping & fine eateries.

like the brand new serendipity!

which néenée treated us to!

cossette patiently signing for "more". sidebar: she's a mute. have i mentioned that yet?

TWO frozen hot chocolates?!

grandma & ellery enjoyed the classic.

while i scarfed down the white chocolate. wowza. it was bomb-diggity.

& i found an ABE!!! renée didn't see him. she thinks i have an internal homing device set for president lincoln. oh how i hope she's right! :)

we stopped by the university that my grandpa sam attended for dental school.

very cool but they wanted us to pay. i don't know if it's a closed campus or what but yeah right!

you have to admit it is beautiful from afar.

& then we got lost. we had a nice drive past many of the sites downtown dc.

apparently neither of us has an internal homing device set for home. 

girls outings rock. my mother-in-law rocks. frozen white hot chocolate realllly rocks.

visitors #8

austin's 'rents came to visit!

better known as néenée & pop-pop around our house. they are so fun to have around. they just want to play with the beans all day everyday. :)

they came in on the metro thursday night & the girlies just about died of excitement.

friday they watched the girls for us

while we went the the temple.

the drive up was wonderful & the inside of the dc temple is exquisite.

on getting back, we read a letter from uncle michael while we walked on over to to the neighborhood nursery to pumpkin hunt.

this place had some GREAT signage,

large tunnels, mountains of gourds, chickens & geese to chase,

 901 pound pumpkins,

 & wagons! who doesn't love a good wagon?

 there were multiple attempts for a (meh) family pic.

 & both néenée & me experimenting with our brand new cameras.

 of course the kids suddenly became smiley & wonderful for pictures on the walk back.

which i hate.

we had some of brian & renée's favorite people, bryce & jamie, over for dinner & pumpkin carving.

some prefer to carefully mark out the top of the pumpkin & use the plasticy cutesy baby cutter that comes with the carving kit while others are hardcore rock stars & plunge a steak knife right in. matter of preference. & coolness.

 i got E all naked cause i thought she would just about roll around in the pumpkin guts.

don't ask us why but she thought they were the funniest things she'd ever seen in her whole life. just kept throwing her head back & cackling so hard. weirdo.
it was hilarious.

C, silent as ever, tried to put each stringy piece & every single seed back into the pumpkin. then grabbed the top to put that poor pumpkin back together.

why we were taking it apart was beyond her.

now i'm not gonna lie to ya. this was not super exciting for everyone else. jamie might kill me but i just had to zoom in on this shot. i caught her yawning in the background of like 3 of my pictures. maybe if we'd gotten more pumpkins... we'll let her pick out the next activity. haha :)

it was a very different experience using stencils. still fun just different.

 photobombed! gotta love bryce.