Happy Halloween!

My girls were so happy with their costumes this year! Penny chose to be Mariposa, a butterfly fairy from a Barbie movie that she loves right now. And what do you know, we were walking through the Barbie aisle at Target a month ago and there was one last Mariposa costume. Penny was overjoyed, to say the least. We added some pink shoes and I made her a flower crown, which she loved. At first, Violet was going to be a matching pink fairy but we were walking through a costume shop and saw a little Dorothy dress in just her size. I knew Target had red glitter shoes for girls (because I shop there way too much) and I knew Violet would be an adorable little Dorothy. I made her little blue hair bows and I may have squealed when I first put her costume on her. I like this kind of Halloween where I just buy the costumes! Easy!


Penny with her adorable preschool class.


Grandma Referee with little Dorothy, who stole her whistle.


Parade time! I remember I LOVED the Halloween parades when I was in elementary school.


We found another Dorothy! This picture kills me, Violet looks so happy with her big twin!


Later that evening, we continued our Halloween tradition of trick or treating with Lana and her kids, Max and Elsa. I love this picture! Those kids are adorable.


Larsen Family Halloween 2013, woot woot. I was a cat for the third year in a row (I've committed to have a different costume next year, I promise!) and Paul was a big, blue Smurf haha. Each department at his work competes in a costume contest and his department won this year! I hope it was worth it, because that blue paint took forEVER to come off. (Both girls were scared of Paul when he came home from work, and Penny wouldn't hold Paul's hand the whole night haha).


First house! Waiting patiently...


Violet had the trick or treating thing down right away. She would push to the front of the kids, say "Hiiii!" whenever someone opened the door, grab a piece of candy, and then walk into their house. I had to drag her out of a bunch of houses. Sorry candy-givers! My baby is just too friendly!


And one last trick or treating action shot. The kiddos were so excited this year and, as always, I love watching them experience one of my favorite holidays. Hope you all had a happy Halloween!

Penny's Pirate Party!

When Penny told me she wanted to have a pirate party this year for her 5th birthday, I was super excited! Nothing's wrong with fairies or princesses, but who doesn't love pirates??

We had fun putting together our outfits the night before, we didn't buy anything and just grabbed stuff from around the house. Our vests are cut up T-shirts. Fancy, right?

What a couple of good looking pirates!

I'm so glad we made it a dress-up party, everyone looked awesome!

 

Little stinker ran around the entire party and had a terrific time but I couldn't get her to crack a smile for the camera once. I call it her pirate scowl ha!

 

Digging for buried treasure!

Pizza and presents!

The kids got eye patches in their goody bags. Arrrgh!

 

Paul and his dad with Violet.

  

Me and my baby pirate, complete with another pirate scowl. Ha!

It was such a fun party! We decided to have it at our church pavilion this year instead of our backyard and I HIGHLY recommend it. We didn't have to clean our house or backyard and there were already tables and benches there, and a little playground as well. We're so doing this every year, it was so easy and fun with lots of space for the kids to run around. Penny had a great time, she honestly just wanted to be pushed on the swings the whole time (thanks, Grandma!) but took a few breaks to dig for some coins, blow out her candles, and open presents. Love that girl!

Happy 5th Birthday, Penny!

 *Showing me how old she is today on one hand. 

I can't believe I have a five year old! I love this girl so much. Here are some things about 5 year old Penny:

- Current favorite character: Barbie Mariposa (we just bought the costume for Halloween - she's so excited, and asks to see her costume every day)
- Favorite color: pink
- Favorite food: grapes
- Favorite playground toy: swings
- Love baby sister and plays so well with her, except when baby sister swipes her favorite books
- Still a little bookworm, she's been taking a flashlight to bed lately so she can look at books before she goes to sleep
- Loves school. She goes 4 times a week and always comes home with new things to tell me about what she did in class that day.
- Whenever she hears some music she likes, she jumps up and says "Come on, Violet! Dance with me!" Those two girls dancing together is probably the cutest thing ever.
- Kind of shy in public, she still sometimes hides behind me when people say hi to her. But at home, she's full of energy and talks non-stop.
- Randomly comes over and pats my cheek and says "I love you, mom." It just melts me!

I'm sure there are more things I could write, but we are just so happy to have Penny in our lives and I still can't believe it's been five years since she was born. Below are some pictures from that special day...



We love you, Penny! Happy birthday!

Comic Con!

Last week Paul and I went to Comic Con in Salt Lake, and it was a riot! We're not particularly comic book fans or anything but we do enjoy a good spectacle. Paul brought up the idea of getting tickets a few months ago and I secretly bought them for his 33rd birthday. (Happy Birthday, Paul!)

We saw some interesting things...

A couple of Iron Men.

Two (or three?) Spider-Men and their lady friend, Black Widow. (Yes, I know some comic book names. It helps my street cred.)

A T-Rex holding hands with a buddy.

An Aquabat! Yes, I took a picture with a total stranger, but I couldn't pass up a legit Aquabats costume! (Also, I have crazy eyes in this picture.)

 

Batman getting an interview. ("I'm Batman.")

And I took some illegal pictures of people from far away, and got chastised after each one by a Comic Con volunteer. Whatevs, I'm a rebel.

The original Hulk!

Chewbacca!

TV's Superman!

 

And then we became good, honest people and actually paid to have pictures taken with actors.

I couldn't pass up Kevin Sorbo, TV's Hercules!!! I watched Xena and Hercules back to back all growing up through high school. Hercules was awesome to meet in person, but I think I would've lost my FREAKING MIND if Lucy Lawless (aka Xena) was there. Xena's my fav. (Okay...so maybe I'm more of a comic con nerd than I thought...)

 

Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer!!! Eeek! When I saw he was there, I was like, duh, I'm totes paying $10 to take a picture with Xander. Nicholas Brendon was so nice AND I got an autograph AND I got a hug! I'm a huge Buffy fan and Xander was always one of my favorite characters. So fun!!

(Don't we look like a cute couple? I think so.)

So I bought the tickets for Paul, but we both had a fun time. Maybe we'll go again next year. And maybe we'll dress up. I need to let my inner nerd free! 

First Day of Preschool

Today was Penny's first day of preschool. Hooray! She missed the cutoff for kindergarten by one week so here we are doing one last year of preschool. But I think it's great for her, she'll be that much more prepared for kindergarten next year.

All ready to go!

Walking to class.

Standing underneath her Penny owl.

She was really excited to take pictures before class, but then when it came time to line up with the other kids and walk to class the waterworks started. Poor girl! She just got super nervous but I gave her a big hug and she only had a few sniffles as I snuck out the door. She loves going to school, and I'm sure she'll get used to her new class and be just fine. I'm so proud of you, Penny!

Bear Lake

Before the summer ended we wanted to do a little weekend trip and Bear Lake sounded perfect. We went with my sister's family and stayed at a nice little condo we rented. It was so fun having all the kids in one place and watching them play together.

Our day at the lake was so fun! It got a bit drizzly at times but it was super warm and balmy outside so it was all right. All the kids loved splashing in the warm water and looking for seashells.
     

*My cute sister is expecting baby #3 this fall!


This last picture just melts me. Violet was so content just to let her dad hold her while she watched everyone play on the beach. It was such a nice little break. We relaxed, hung out at the condo, had yummy raspberry shakes (they really are the best!), watched the kids play together and enjoyed the lake. We'll be back, Bear Lake!

Happy 4th of July!

We spent our 4th of July weekend in St. George and it was hot, hot, hot! It was between 110 and 115 degrees every day so we spent most of our time either in the air conditioned condo or in the pool. It was awesome! We usually go down with Paul's parents since it's their time share, but they were out of town visiting other grandchildren so we just went down by ourselves, and had a great time!

On the Fourth, we went to the local festivities at a park and only stayed for an hour because we were melting, but it was great! Penny got her face painted (with a pink butterfly, her specific request), we bought a ticket for her to ride the swings, we watched some bad karaoke, and called it good.

Paul was so nice to wait with Penny in the hot sun in the long line for the swings.

She loved it! She just kept saying "Wheeee!" the entire ride.
They had yummy food stands at the park but we opted for a nice air-conditioned restaurant. These girls were so giggly and cute during lunch. They really are best friends.


And that's all the pictures I took! We didn't even see any fireworks because the girls were wiped out (and maybe we were, too) so we just put them to bed at their usual time and watched a movie. But I think they had a great Fourth anyway. We spent a bunch of time in the pool and generally lazed around and relaxed. It was great!