Grandma and Grandpa Gray Visit!

We had such a nice visit with Grandma and Grandpa Gray these last couple of weeks. We kept so busy that the time flew by.

We visited the Arboretum and finally got our pumpkins!

Opening Halloween gifts from Grandma Morabito

Trick-Or-Treat! Thank you, Aunt Allison, for the BEAUTIFUL Cinderella dress and accessories!!

Dallas Zoo

New Leotards for the Christmas Show

Flying kites with Grandpa!

Mom reading to Cleo ... er ... the kids. :)

Making ice cream! I was tasked with helping figure out how to make ice cream for "I" week at school. Here Christian and the kids are trying out one of my ideas.

More adventures in cooking

In the midst of our birthday month, I decided to take on a few cooking projects. I made these mini cupcakes (60 yellow cake/white frosting, 60 dr pepper cake/frosting) for our dance classes celebration of September and October birthdays.

One of the moms from our music class asked me to make some cake pops for her son's birthday party. Since it falls so close to Halloween, we went with a Halloween theme - eyeballs, pumpkins, sprinkles and orange/black foil. (FYI - I found *CANDY* writers. They created a much clearer line than the food writers that I had been using. The candy writers don't come in as many colors as the food writers, but I just needed red and black this time.)

Happy Birthday, Erica!

We had a simple, little party for Erica. Most of the kids were sick or were not available, but we had one friend show up. It ended up being a really nice playdate. The girls had a great time and I was actually able to visit with the other mom - which I usually don't have the opportunity to do when hosting 20+ people!

I had fun with the mini-cakes. Erica kept going around and around on what her theme should be. So, I figured I would repesent the more popular ones with different cakes. For some reason, I am always inspired to use fondant with her cake. The "rocks" on the Nemo cake are actually jelly beans made to look like rocks. Lots of fun. (FYI - I was able to get the Tiana and Pooh cake toppers from the grocery store bakery department for less than any party store.)

Erica loved all the gifts from our family (Thank you!). Here she is showing off the new Christmas dress from Nonna!

Pumpkin Patch

Well, it was nothing compared to Jackson's Farm back home, but the kids had fun! Christian joined us when I went to check it out for school. Then a few days later we went with our preschool co-op group from church.

The Masterpiece

The girls enjoy drawing on magnetic pads in the car. One day, Stephanie declared that she had drawn a picture of me and her. I just happened to be at a stop light so I was able to capture it before it got erased. I was quite impressed and touched.

More dance class pictures

Columbus Day at the Dallas Arboretum

We had such a great time at the Columbus Day celebration at the Dallas Arboretum last year, that we decided to go again this year. There are pumpkins EVERYWHERE. They also set up a number of "castles" around the garden that represent the castles or homes associated with various fairy tales. The highlight of our day was the Eddie Coker concert. He is a lot of fun and welcomes the children (and sometimes the parents) to join him on stage.

Admiring the "'ad 'itch" at Ariel's castle ("Bad Witch" according to Erica)

Cinderella's carriage

Helping Cinderella with her chores

 
Coveting the glass slipper

 
My little rock stars!