.happy halloween!.

Whew! What a busy day! I dressed up for work today as Emma Pillsbury, the guidance counselor on “Glee.” I thought the students at school would recognize who I was right away, but no such luck. Hardly anyone dressed up at school – students OR staff! To keep in character, I stood in the hallway in between classes wearing yellow gloves and offering everyone hand sanitizer. I thought it was fun!

For cheer practice, Melissa dressed as Sue Sylvestor, cheer coach on Glee. I think our cheerleaders think we’re freaks. :)

At home, we had the trio of pirates to greet the Trick-or-Treaters. They were a hit!

 

 

Aunt Melissa found this costume for Samson. He took care of business as Sheriff Woody tonight! The hat didn’t last long, in case you were wondering!

Kamryn the cow stopped by for some treats. She was loving the candy part of Halloween!

Mom gave her some bubbles in her little trick-or-treat basket.

  

Samson trying to hide under Mom’s pirate sleeves!

    

Kamryn was “moo”-ing for us in between mouthfuls of candy corn!

 

 

Showing off her jumping talents!
”The cow jumped over the moon!”

 

 

And, we got in some piggie time. I love playing “this little piggie” with Kamryn. She loves piggies and always signs “more!”

So glad Nick, Kate, and Kamryn could stop by for a little bit. I miss them when we don’t see each other for a few days!

My cousin Lisa shared these pictures of her sweet girls dressed up for Halloween!
Frances is Dora the Explorer and Louise is Boots the monkey. TOO CUTE!

         

We didn’t have too many trick-or-treaters here at the house. Mom, Grandma, Karlye, Melissa, and I had lots of fun hanging out together while we waited for people to come.
Now it’s time for the candy hangover and Halloween detox. Karlye, Melissa, and I *may* be hitting the Halloween clearance sales tomorrow to stock for next year! :)

.halloween: the beginning.

It seems like Halloween has already gone for a week around here. Melissa went to a party last weekend, then we had our Beta party on Tuesday, and tonight, Melissa & Karlye stopped by on their way to a party! The fun never ends!

These two are looking pretty hot!!

 

 

There’s already talk of planning for next year’s costumes. YIKES!

.cheer clinic, senior night, and football game vs. riverview…whew.

Yesterday was a big day for the CHS Cheerleaders! The Junior Cheer Clinic (which was the senior project for our two senior cheerleaders), senior night, and oh yeah, a football game too!

The Junior Cheer Clinic is usually a really fun afternoon, with a little bit of chaos thrown in! We had about 52 little girls participate so it was a lot of giggling, squeals, tutus, and excited smiles.

Here are some pictures from the afternoon….

Emily & Carly’s group of 4 year olds

Vanessa leading the 5th graders

 

Selena and Madison with the 3rd and 4th graders

 

Kayla and Kirston with K/1st graders

 

Sommer and Allyson with the 1st/2nd graders

Sommer and Allyson had them do an exercise we make the cheerleaders do to feel if they’re yelling from their diaphragm. Cracked me up when I saw these little girls laying on the floor!

 

Two crazy cheer coaches!
“How to avoid talking to people you don’t want to talk to!”

     

The whole group practicing the dance to a Justin Bieber song. I’ve never seen so much Bieber fever – I just don’t get it!

 

One worn out cheerleader!

 

The whole group! That’s a lot of girls!

 

These pictures are from the pre-game warm up.
There’s no explanation for this one… :)

 

Cupie! (Way harder than it looks!)

 

 

I love the cheer clinic t-shirts Allyson designed! Good pick for sure!

 

Still smiling after a long day! Senior project, check!

 

I love our new tradition of spelling things with Styrofoam cups in the fence. I hope the crowd likes it too!

Our senior cheerleaders: Vanessa and Allyson

Melissa, Karlye, and I sat through the COLDEST cheer clinic football game EVVVVERRRR! It rained at the beginning of the game then turned windy. It was so so so cold! The hand warmers couldn’t even keep up! The football players did great – got a 40 point lead by the 3rd quarter so we got to have a running clock for the remainder of the game. Thank goodness!! The final score was 42-0, making the Eagles League Champs! The first round of play-offs is next Friday against Granger. Go Eags!

.it’s a shutterfly kind of christmas.

Yes, sorry to be the Grinch here, but it’s time to start thinking about Christmas cards. I usually order my cards in October so I can get them sent out soon after Thanksgiving. I love sending them out pretty early and then get to enjoy receiving cards throughout the rest of the month. The hold up for me right now is having the right picture – that’s always the toughest!

I remember LOVING receiving Christmas cards growing up. I’d volunteer to get the mail in the morning so I could be the one to open the cards. It was so fun to get pictures from friends and family, near and far; read their letters and the little handwritten notes to our family. I like the personal handwritten notes so I try to include those on all my Christmas cards. Now, I love getting cards and pictures in the mail from my friends – seeing their little families and how much their children have grown in the past year. Even though Facebook, email, and other social media helps make the distance between us seem smaller, I still think sending and receiving cards are an important tradition to uphold.

Last year, I ordered cards through Shutterfly. I love the paper they use and the quality of cards they provide. There are so many options available – which I love too! You can choose cutesy, classic, religious, whimsical, or modern. I like cards that are creative with a fun font…

These are some of my favorite 2011 designs…

 

 

Shutterfly wants to help make your Christmas card sending fun and easy too – so thanks to them, I can give 25 free photo cards to the first three people to reply to this blog post or reply on Facebook! How fun is that?!

UPDATED: Giveaway is closed! Congratulations to Betsy Kohan, Stephanie Park, and Megan Baumann who commented on my Facebook link! Can't wait to see what you create!

.zombie cheerleaders.

The cheerleaders were asked to help at the Mid-Columbia Library Halloween Party again this year. They wear mis-matched uniforms, paint their faces, and have crazy hair….and turn on the sass. I think they have a lot of fun with it!

 

Barbie stopped by on her way to another Halloween Party!

I hope they didn’t scare the little kids TOO much!

.beautiful girls.

Our pretty cheerleaders wanted to get their pictures taken together at the Homecoming dance! I love it when they sorta-kinda-like each other and like hanging out with each other!!

They always have to have a goofy shot to show their true personalities!!