Simonton's Fall Festival

Saturday, October 23rd was the boy's school's Fall Festival that they have every October. The boys absolutely love it and look forward to it every year. There are lots of games to play such as a fishing pond, a duck pond, a lollipop tree, face painting, a cake walk, chick-fil-a spin the wheel, and lots more! There is also a lot of food and treats there for purchase as well. The kids always like the 50 cent snow cones! :) Some of the favorites of course are the big jump-houses, slides, jousting, and the obstacle course. Here are the boys coming down the big slide:

And jumping in the Superman bounce house:

And Connor perfectly content to be sipping on mom's smoothie and watching his brothers.

It was a fun 2 hours of a beautiful Saturday afternoon! And the boys both came home with a bag full of candy and little trinkets so they are happy as can be!

Fall Break Part 2...

So my mom and sister Jenna (10) and me with our kids all arrived back here in AZ on Tuesday evening. We just spent the rest of the week playing. I didn't get any pics all week because honestly, I wasn't thinking about it. I was too busy having fun with my family! My dad and brother Derek (16) drove down and got here on Thursday to spend a few days as well. It was so fun having them all here!

Saturday was my family's last full day here so we tried to pack in all that we could. First thing in the morning we went to Brady's first soccer game! He did great! He LOVED having everyone there to cheer him on!

{whenever I get the camera out, Connor is always wanting me to take a picture of him}

After playing together all afternoon, we went to Shawn's first flag football game that evening. It was fun having everyone there to cheer him on as well! (These pictures aren't very good - my brother got some great ones that I need copies of!)

The proud mama watching her boys play:

Grandpa Dave and Aunt Jenna:

After the football game we went out to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings (pretty good! We had never been there before and wanted to try it.) Then we took them to Yogurt Jungle for some yummy frozen yogurt! Here is the whole gang:

Sunday morning they had to get up early to drive all the way back home. It was so much fun having them here and we miss them so much already! It was a fun Fall Break!

Fall Break Part 1...

Our Fall Break began a couple days early since we were traveling up to Utah for part of the week (Emily's HS Reunion was Friday night). So Wednesday night (October 6th) we drove 1/2 way - to Las Vegas. We had gotten a FREE room at the Rio Hotel there in Vegas so we used it! We got there about midnight (we couldn't leave home until Mike and Emily were both done working for the day so it was a late drive) and Mike went to check us in. Well, he was just chatting with the person checking us in and she decided to be nice to us - and upgraded us to a suite for the night (since it was vacant) - still for FREE!!! So of course we took it! We weren't sure what to expect, but when we walked in....HOLY COW!!! It was crazy huge!!! We were thinking "Man! Why are we just spending one night here? We could easily spend a week in this place!" But we couldn't obviously. So we decided that we may as well get some use out of this nice {free} room and we all hung out for a couple hours. Yes, my kids didn't go to bed until 2:00 am. But they had been asleep in the car for a few hours before that so it was okay. :) Here are a few pics of the room.

Part of the gigantic main room - dining area - with a full-size dining table!

The other half of the dining area (with sink/mini fridge/etc)

Our cute boys hanging out on the couch:

When you first walked in the door, there was this entry area with a separate 1/2 bathroom through that door you see (we called it the "pooping bathroom" so it wouldn't smell up the rooms or the other bathroom everyone else had to use) heehee! :)

The giant bedroom:

And the bathroom. This picture doesn't do it justice to how huge it was. And it had a huge jetted tub and a huge walk-in shower with double shower heads!

Mike and the boys hanging out trying to find something on TV at 1:00 in the morning....we didn't have much luck with that one.

Thursday morning we got up and headed out on the road again to finish our long drive up to South Jordan, UT. We got there Thursday evening (we had stopped at the outlet stores in St. George to do a little shopping on the way.)

Then Friday was Emily's 10 year High School Reunion. We went to dinner first with Mike's brother BJ (who graduated with me from High School) and his wife Leslie. Then we went to the reunion. It was fun to be able to see people I haven't seen for 10 years! My closest friends I've seen since then, but most I haven't. It was fun to be able to chat and catch up and laugh about old times. Over all it was a good time.

After the reunion the four of us went to a movie - I couldn't believe I let mike talk me into a movie that didn't even start until 11:30! It didn't get over until almost 2:00 in the morning! I haven't stayed up that late in forever! Felt like high school all over again! lol

We had a fun weekend hanging out with family - Emily's and Mike's. It's always fun to see and spend time with everyone. The kids absolutely LOVE it too. They hate when we have to go home. Here is Connor (2 yrs) playing with his cousin Parker (8 mos old). They were playing with my little sister's "computer" - it was so cute!!! Connor kept showing Parker how to push the buttons and which ones to push. Funny!

Connor also loves the little play kitchen at my mom's house. Since we have all boys, we don't have things like that at our house. :)

Mike flew home Sunday so he could be back to work for the week. I stayed with the kids until Monday afternoon then we headed for home along with my mom and my sister Jenna who came with us!!! We drove to Page, AZ on Monday night and stayed in a hotel. Then Tuesday we drove the rest of the way to our house in Queen Creek, AZ. That takes us to Part 2 of our fall break.....

Getting ready for Fall/Halloween...

Back in September I did a little decorating for "Fall" - mainly just some fall leaves around and things like that. Then once October hit, I added my few Halloween things to the mix. Here are just a few of the fun things I've done this year. (Not a lot, but enough to make the house a little festive.)

Here is the small entry-way table and wall above:

I got the idea from a craft website to use past years Halloween pictures for decoration and I thought that was a cute idea, so I pulled out a few! I think it makes it extra fun for the kids to look at. :)

Kitchen counter:

shelves in kitchen/dining area:

And the top of the TV stand:

I wanted to try and make my {ugly} chandelier look cute and festive, so I wrapped it up with some black netting and ribbon and added some bats and letters to spell BOO to hang from it. Worked pretty good. One of these days I am SO going to buy a cute chandelier! :)

The table runner/decor:
(I actually later swapped out the candles with black and orange ones for Halloween, but I don't have a picture of that.)

And my new creation for this year was this banner that says "Trick or Treat"
I love the way it turned out, simple but fun! I LOVE all the colors of the scrapbook papers together!

I am so happy that the "fall" season is here. Or at least as much as we get of one here in Arizona! We are all ready now to enjoy the beautiful weather outside and have a fun Halloween Holiday!