Our Halloween Pumpkins :)

This year we got cute little baby pumpkins and used the fun Happy Meal Mr. Potato Head stickers to decorate them.  We loved them.  I let my kids choose which stickers to use, and then they were so good and put them pretty much in the right place.  I love them!

Happy 6th Birthday Caiti!

This year we decided to have a party for Caiti and combine it with the ward trunk or treat.  We invited her aunt Michelle and her tutors, Whitney and Kim.  We had yummy pies instead of cake.  Of course, it was fun to watch Caiti open her presents.  She loved all of her fun new friends and pretty things.

 We were grateful Whitney brought her camera to capture everything, especially us singing her her Birthday song:

 The ward Halloween party actually went pretty well.  We split up, and Kevin had the duty of passing out candy.  Caiti went with Whitney and Aunt Michelle and basically did her own thing (she was in a very contrary mood...so fun), Garrett got to hang out with his buddy Kim, and I got to carry Jason around trunk or treating because in the craziness I forgot to put his shoes on.  Sigh...  I was proud of us because we actually decorated our trunk this year. 

When we got home, we thought it would be fun to get a pic of everyone in their costumes (I was a ladybug because Caiti didn't want to wear the wings and I didn't want to waste them, Garrett was Officer Muscles, Caiti was Elmo...or Tinkerbell without wings...depending when you caught her, Jason was Thomas the Train, and Michelle was a flapper.  As always, Kevin was a Canadian).  I was so not surprised by the results.  :)

Garrett Swimming (courtesy of Aunt Michelle)

and

Date with Caiti

Since Kevin is on leave from work because he just got home from deployment, we decided to take advantage of the Hero Salute at Sea World (free for active duty military and their family once a year).  We figured she would be in heaven because she loves water, animals and especially Sesame Street, and Sea World has the funnest little place for cute kids called Sesame Place.  Right when we got in the park, I took Caiti to see the Orca Whales.  She was really excited for a second...until she decided she wanted to go swimming with them.  I had to use all of my strength to hold her back and then spend way too much on a cookie to distract her.  Kevin and I decided she would probably want to go swimming in all the exhibits, so we skipped the actual Sea World part of the park and went straight to Sesame Place.

 
I took Caiti on the Abby Cadabby Spinning Jellyfish Ride.  She couldn't decide what she thought of it.  She took turns screaming angrily and trying to get out and laughing.  It was funny...

Kevin got to take her on the next ride.  I was very proud of her for how good she was while they waited in line.  :)

For someone who loves when we give her rides, and spinning and all that...she HATED the Elmo Flying Fish ride.  Kevin did too.  He was freaked out cause Caiti kept screaming and trying to get out of her seatbelt.  Needless to say, he didn't end up flying the fish very high.

The Sesame Street Characters put on a Halloween show.  So Caiti got to see the Count, Telly and Abby Cadabby in person.  She loved it.  However, they started singing a song where everyone clapped to the numbers.  That was a bit too much sensory input for her.  So we decided we'd been there long enough.

On the way out of Sea World, we walked by someone famous' house.  It was the cutest thing ever.  Caiti got to go up and knock on Oscars trash can.  Then she said,"Hi Oscar!"  :)  He let her pet him.  That made the rest of the day worth it to see her so happy and excited. 

Date with Jason

Kevin and I had respite today, so we decided to go on a date, and take Jason with us so he could spend some time with his daddy.  I had originally planned a date to a seafood restaurant and then a trip to the aquarium...that didn't happen.  :)  When we got to what I thought was the seafood restaurant, they had gone out of business and it was some ritzy brunch place.  Sigh.  We ate there anyway.  However, brunch ended up costing $50 (all we had was an omelet and a personal breakfast pizza...never going there again).  Gulp.  So I decided spending another $33 at the aquarium wasn't the best idea. We were just down the road from La Jolla Cove, though.  So went on a nice walk with a SUPER ORNERY Jason to the cove and took a look at the seals.  We didn't stay long though cause a certain cute little boy wasn't being so cute.  We did get to drive by the temple though.  It is so beautiful.