The Allen Family: 2013 in Review

The Holidays Begin

Holiday preparations are well under way at our house, but before I talk about that, I want to share a couple of pictures from back in November. 

The picture on the top left is one that I took at Owen's Veteran's Day concert at school.  They sang a collection of patriotic songs and had a lot of fun.  The rest of the pictures were taken on Thanksgiving. We left town for a couple of days and went to Branson, MO. We met up with our friends, the DeGraws, for Thanksgiving Dinner and we had fun playing games and eating a delicious meal.  It was my first time ever cooking a turkey and it turned out beautifully.

After Thanksgiving, we started decorating for Christmas.  I finished crocheting our stockings after Christmas last year, so this is our first year with our new stockings.  We also have managed to fill up our Christmas tree with our 10 years of memories.  I also put up my nativity sets in my hutch this year to keep them safe from little fingers that like to get into everything. To top it all off, we have the count-down chain that Owen made at school to keep track of how many days until Christmas.

And last, but not least we had a gingerbread invasion.  I made gingerbread men and the pieces for a gingerbread house earlier this past week. Yesterday Owen and I decorated the gingerbread house. Owen did most of the decorating and I just put the frosting where he wanted to stick the candy.  We had a whole lot of fun and Owen thought it was the "best day ever!"

Fads and Fun

Here in St. Louis the big fad of the fall is rubber-band bracelets and necklaces.  I didn't realize how big the fad was until I went and helped out at Owen's class one morning.  I was reminded of boondoggles, POGs, and Chinese Jump Ropes from my own school days. So when the kids and I were at the dollar store last week and Owen chose to buy a bracelet making kit with his own money instead of a toy or candy I was proud of him for realizing that it wasn't Mom & Dad's job to give him what all the other kids had. We brought the kit home and had fun making a couple of rubber-band bracelets together (the blue ones).

The next day Owen went to a birthday party for one of the kids in his class and was given another bracelet kit as a party favor.  That afternoon we made a rainbow bracelet and a necklace for my cute little boy.

Owen was happy to have bracelets like the other kids and I enjoyed making them with him.  My little boy is getting bigger every day and I love him sooooooooo much!

Pumpkin Decorating and Costume Parades

Our week of Halloween fun ended very well.  On Tuesday night the kids and I decorated two more of our pumpkins. Here is Owen posing with the first pumpkin we decorated, and a couple of pictures of MayLynn keeping herself happily entertained while Owen and decorated the pumpkin.

Here we are decorating MayLynn's pumpkin.  I tried to get her to help me take out the seeds, but she wanted nothing to do with it.  She also was fascinated with the way that the top could come off of the pumpkin, and since I broke down and got electric candles this year (turned out to be a very good thing because of all the rain) I didn't have to worry about her burning herself while enjoying a lit pumpkin.

On Wednesday night, Daddy and Owen decorated our final pumpkin.  MayLynn wasn't involved too much, but she had fun exploring and keeping everyone entertained.

And finally, here is our family of pumpkins guarding our front door on Halloween night:

Yesterday we had a fun and busy day as we enjoyed a rainy Halloween.  In the late morning MayLynn and I went to Owen's school to see his costume parade.We started out in Owen's classroom and managed to get a picture of Owen's class in their costumes.

We then went outside and watched Owen's class as they paraded past (luckily their was a several hour break in the rain during they day - I can only imagine the chaos that would have ensued if they'd had to have their costume parade inside the school).  MayLynn wasn't too thrilled to just sit and watch, but she was a trooper as we waited for the kids to parade past in their costumes.

After Owen got home from school, we went to the mall to do a little bit of Trick-or-Treating inside at some of the stores that had treats for kids. We then went to SLU and took some pumpkin cookies to Bryce and his students. After MayLynn went to bed last night, Owen and Bryce braved the rain and made a quick loop around our neighborhood to trick-or-treat one last time. Both of our kids have had a lot of fun with Halloween this year, and while I've had fun too, I'm ready for life to move on and settle down for a day or two. So, with one final picture of a cute little fairy princess, we hope that you all had a good Halloween, because we sure did.

Halloween Prep and Trunk-or-Treat

I will start today's tale with that of a little boy and his dad.  They had both had a hard day at school, but wanted to make the most of their evening's plans.  While Daddy opened up the pumpkin, Owen designed the face of this pumpkin friend.  When it came time to remove the pumpkin goo, Owen dove in with both hands, and Mommy even got to join in on the fun.  After the pumpkin was cleaned, the boys went to work bringing the pumpkin head to life. Using Owen's design, Daddy cut out the pumpkin's features, then Mommy added a candle.  And there it was, Owen's new pumpkin friend.

Next comes the tale of the fairy princess, MayLynn:

And our family's weekend exploits wouldn't be complete without the action heroes:

We had a great pre-Halloween weekend, and now that the kids have gotten their costumes broken in, we are ready to meet Halloween head-on this upcoming week.