Over a foot of fun....

Shall we ease into winter this year?  The snowstorm that came through the night of Friday, November 20th says otherwise!!  16 inches of snow over night!!  You can hardly believe it!  But here in Wisconsin, you get up, go shovel and move on with your day...  no biggies!   :)

Just to show you what we're talking about, here's Friday at 3:15pm....  we decorated Amelia's spot for Christmas since we knew the snow was coming and would soon be dealing with frozen ground:

And here is Saturday morning at 7:45AM:

The kids couldn't wait to get out in the snow and play!  The kids bundled up and I finally let them out at 7:45!  

 Look how deep that snow is in the middle of the yard:

 Waist deep on Nate!

While the kids had fun in the snow I headed off to work.  I think it's funny that the Milwaukee/Chicago area got dumped with so much snow and it wasn't a news headline.  When the same thing happens to Boston or New York we hear about their snow for days!  :)

The official totals:

and it will probably all be gone by the end of the week - warm temps are headed back our way!

Halloween Hauntings

The week leading up to Halloween turned out to be a super busy week in our house!  

There was a no school day for Friday, so the kids had their Halloween parties and costume parade at school on Thursday, October 29th.

Mads was Cotton Candy this year...  and it was a big stick of cotton candy that didn't want to stay stuck together!  :(

Nate was a Ghostbuster - with a laser, proton pack, and trap made just for Nate by Daddy:

 Avery and Nate:

 Cotton Candy Mads in the parade: 

We were able to squeeze in our pumpkin carving on Thursday night.  

As we were getting started we realized we hadn't purchased one of the easy cutting kits.  So it was back to classic pumpkin carving, the old fashioned way!  

First off, you have to remove the goo!  Mads gave it a try but Nate was not having it!

 The kids took out the black Sharpie to draw their designs:

 Dad was in charge of the carving with the super sharp butcher knife.  

Voila!  Look at our fabulous pumpkins!  

Nathan chose triangle eyes, a rectangle nose and scary mouth.  Mads had two large square eyes, a heart nose and mouth with teeth.  Amelia's pumpkin in the middle was a cute little pumpkin with eyelashes and pretty lips!

 Three pumpkins all a-glow!

The real fun was on Halloween - it started with the parade around the Square and then Trunk or Treat.  We used our van to hand out candy and eye frisbees for Stateline Vision Center.  Wowza were there a lot of kids!!

But first, a good picture of the kids before heading out into the cold, misty Halloween weather:

 Nathan showing off his laser:

 Also his Proton Pack and ghost trap:

 Ready to trunk or treat!

 After trunk or treating we only made a few stops - Gramma J, Aunt Kimmy & Uncle Jakey, Grandpa Jeff & Grandma Marie, and GG.  Then it was back home to warm up!  

The kids looked through their loot...  it was a lot!  

And Dash thought he should share!  :)

Other than the weather being cold and wet, the kids had a fun day!  Happy Halloween!