Happy 11th Birthday Lucy!

Our precious girl, born in the 11th month of the year 2011 turned 11 this fall! 

This year Lucy opted for a party at our house. We decorated for the big day - the Dollar Tree had a 3 balloon limit so this is what our birthday girl selected. 

We planned a whole bunch of Minute to Win it Style games for the girls. 

We had 11 tween girls at our place to celebrate! Whew! 

There were lots of fun challenges throughout the evening - nothing better than eating a cookie off of your own face without using your hands, right? ;)

One of the fan favorite games from the party was wrapping up the kids up like mummies in streamers. 

So much fun! 

We also worked to quickly unwrap candies while wearing oven mitts. 

We had a few Harry Potter oriented games - I mean you can't turn 11 without a few Hogwarts references!

This year Lucy said she wanted an ice cream sundae station instead of a cake and Mama said Absolutely! ;) 

How cute is our 11 year old! 

This was the year of the squish mallow! Hahaha! Lucy got a bunch of these critters for her birthday from her friends and now her bed is completely full. 

Lucy had the best night! So awesome to have a fun-filled party with these girlies. 

The next day we had a little family party. Grandpa Ken and Grammy Nola joined us for some delicious lasagna. Such a nice evening!

Our best girl got cozy in her new robe from Grammy Sharon and Grandpa Glen. 

Hedwig even flew in with a letter from Hogwarts - stating that Lucille would definitely have been admitted to the school but that her family would miss her too much! ;) Instead of getting a cauldron or wand, Lucy got a bike for her big day. 

Happiest Birthday to our magical girl who fills the world with light and joy. 

Happy Halloween!

We kicked off Halloween festivities at Church. The kiddos jumped into their costumes after day care/after school and we headed outside for hotdogs and Trunk or Treat. This year we had a lion, Iron Man and a sweet angel. We took pictures in the lobby and ran out to the parking lot for trick our treating round #1.  

Next up - Trick or Treating in our neighborhood! Leo still loves cruising around in the wagon. 

Leo looked like Scar for much of the evening with his scrape from the playground. It was just starting to peel off on Halloween. You can see that this scab is just hanging by a thread - ugh. Leo finally pulled it off and exclaimed, 'Look Mama! I don't have any blood on my mustache!' Funny guy.

Lucy was an angel for Halloween and her bestie Harper was Devil. How cute are these girls?!? 

All of our trick-or-treating crew in one pic. 

This year was a magical one because, for the first time, we were able to Trick or Treat at Grandpa and Grandma's house!

We did have some pasta for dinner - Aldi bats, pumpkins, and spider noodles for the win! 

Man these kids got a huge haul of candy!!! 

I mean - who gives out these huge packages of 10 Reese's footballs?! We had one happy Ironman at our house. 

Here is our delighted boy before hitting the hay on October 31.

The next morning Roman and Lucy did a full candy count before heading to school and a fateful decision was made to not secure every last treat. Ugh. While I worked upstairs, Ranger must have consumed a pound of two of candy in the basement. Believe me when I say we were paying the price for a week or two afterwards. Ai yi yi. I left a work call and ventured downstairs to find piles upon piles of wrappers. 

Graphic photo alert - this is what I was finding for days - piles of puke {and dog poop} laced with even more candy wrappers. So gross.

Of course Roman was devastated .. hopefully he learned a valuable life lesson about storing candy safely. Yuck! 

Happy Halloween everyone! 

Life Lately - Spooky Season

Here is the latest and greatest from the Storm crew in late October. 

Roman headed to his friend Brock's birthday party. Nothing better than time with friends at High Rollers. Cheek out this haul of goodies and popcorn that he took home! 

We took advantage of the last beautiful fall days to clean up the yard, fill the shed with flower pots and summer things, move out the snow blower, etc.

This sweetheart took some of his last spins around the block for the season; zipping around the neighborhood on his scooter. Love that he was sporting his ninja vests on his ride.

You know it is fall when we bust out the buffalo plaid jammies!

Poor Leo had a little accident at day care - he got a wood chip stuck in the front wheel of his scooter and did a face plant. :( It is like the first layer of his skin from his forehead down his nose to his lip got shaved off. We are very lucky that he did not have a dental injury or anything more serious. This sad little peanut got picked up early and received lots of hugs and kisses from mama.

Lucy had a Halloween themed night at her Dance Studio where the kids did special spooky routines for family and friends. There was a lot of dancing to Harry Potter music which was delightful. 

The students could wear their Halloween costumes but, it is not easy to dance with angel wings / white robes so Lucy just wore her halo. 

Ken and Nola packed up the last of their belongings from Fargo and headed to Eau Claire! YAY! So happy to have them in the neighborhood!

Lucy had fun making some spooky cookies for the family! Love that Aldi has these holiday mixes. 

We zipped down to Onalaska for a swim meet. We brought Leo {with his lil scar} + Grammy Nola to be part of the our cheering section,

Always great to get a ribbon! Lucy placed in the 10 and under Girls Medley. So proud of our swimmer and all of her hard work! 

We headed home for a Halloween party with the Cihacek crew. 

Gotta love a festive Bingo game.

Roman got an IronMan costume at the Fall consignment and he wore it at every possible opportunity during the month of October. ;)

I found some cute Halloween balloons at the Dollar Tree! After months of a helium shortage, there was finally no limits on balloon purchases so you better believe that I bought 5 of these guys - one for each kiddo.

Look at these delicious and fun desserts - candy eyes make everything amazing. Love these mummy brownies! 

The little guys found my ropeless jump ropes and pretended they were microphones. Haha! 

We had tacos for dinner.

And carved pumpkins for the win!

These two did a terrific job with their Jack-O-Lanterns!

The Cihacek's stayed overnight and we all went to church the next day. Here is our pack of boys quietly working and coloring during services.

We came home and had some brunch with Batman. What a great visit!

Oh yeah - had to include this g-r-o-s-s picture. Lucy got a Bio Hazard bag from her friend Marnie on Sunday evening; filled with red kool-aid. She and Roman gleefully drank this liquid from the attached plastic tubing. Yuck!

It was such a fun few days leading into Halloween - next post will be about the big night! :)