Halloween 2009

Can't believe it's that time of year already, but Halloween hit the Storm house last night. (I, unfortunately, spent the afternoon watching Michigan play one of its worst halves of football ever down in Champaign. So, I missed out on all the fun here. Not making that mistake again.) Anyway, Ashley got a few photos of the girls trick or treating.


Alison was a princess and Grace was a Barbie cheerleader.....
2 - 4- 6 - 8, Don't I look really great?

Alison was saying Chuck E. Cheese instead of trick-or-treat for a while....

Almost ready to go......but we're missing one thing.....

.......oh yeah, buckets to take home all their candy in.......

The first house of the night.......

What's behind door #2?..........

Alison dumping out her "haul".....

Look at all the candy.......I think I deemed Heath bars too rough on their teeth, so I ate those for them.....

One last hug for the night......

The Great Wolf Lodge Trip

Our company had a recent thing where employees got a discount to the Great Wolf Lodge up The Dells in Wisconsin. We decided to go with our friends the Williams' for a Thursday to Saturday long weekend while the kids were out of school for Parent Teacher Conferences. Here are a few photos.

This on the way TO the water park.....Alison and Gretchen fell asleep in the van after lunch. All the kids had woken up early because they were too excited about the water park.
They had "story time" in the main lobby every night.....I can't remember this character's name, but I think he's supposed to be a "wolf in Boy Scout's clothing".

The girls in their bed the first night......Alison is a big time snorer!

I think this is from our second day at the water park.......Alison was able to ride in a double tube with Ashley down a relatively calm water slide.....

A close up - Alison looks like she's going to fall through the hole, but she was stuck in there pretty well.

Grace posing in a calm-at-the-moment wave pool.....

Grace and her good friend Emma waiting for the waves.....

Alison posing in the big sweet shop at the resort.......

Emma, Gretchen, Alison, and Grace show off some big smiles!

Our last lunch up before we headed home....Alison ordered the do it yourself pizza.....

Spreading the sauce out......

Grace with the bear we got her with tickets I won playing Deal or No Deal in the arcade......

Grace and Emma ready to head home!

Gretchen did a great job of helping us keep an eye on Alison all weekend!

Two Cool for School

Alison started a new 2-year old program at school last week called, "Parents and Two's." It meets once a week on Tuesday mornings, and they get a chance to interact with other kids, work on motor skills, have a snack, and listen to a bible story. Alison had a lot of fun, but she did have a couple minor tantrums. (She didn't want to wait until "school started" to go in, she didn't want to wear a smock while painting). She's looking forward to going back next week.

On the way to school, in her new "big girl" car seat....with a "big girl bee-belt" as she calls it.

Waiting in the lobby for school to start.....

......and throwing the tantrum when finding out school won't start for another few minutes.

Painting a leaf several different colors....

Alison with her "parent" to qualify for the "Parents and Two" portion of the program... Alison and the rest of her class.....there's only 4 of them and one kid was sick.

A couple of random photos....here's Grace and Alison have a sleepover Friday night.

Grace and her friend Samara before passing out flyers to Trunk or Treat at our church.

Our friends the Williams' had an Oktoberfest party yesterday.....I thought this photo was going to be more zoomed in, that's why I'm hunching over like I have severe back pain. Just focus on the three pretty girls to my right.

Fall Pictures

Summer, if it was really ever here, left quickly.....the girls have turned the calendar and started getting ready for Halloween and fall activities.....here's a few photos from this past week.

Alison broke out a Candy Corn shirt....
She's turning into quite the ham for the camera....

Ashley and Alison have matching pumpkin shirts and they wore them Saturday to go garage sale-ing.....Ali's shirt used to be Grace's.

Our work had a "Western Round Up" and we went with our friends, the Williams'....Here, Grace and Emma ride the ponies.....

Alison was not so much a fan of the ponies.....I guess I can never bribe her with buying her a pony......she did sit on it real quick for a photo op.

Usually she plays this bean bag toss game with a beer in her hand, so her balance was a little off.

Left to right, Gretchen, Alison, Emma, and Grace pose near the pumpkins....

Face painting......Grace picked a pink kitten.....

Alison wanted flowers on her face.....

The finished product........

All the girls with their faces painted....

Alison trying to keep her cowgirl hat on......it was cold and windy!

Cuz They Like New Clothes

The girls have gotten new outfits and PJ's recently, and it seems every time they put something new on they want a picture taken!

Alison in her "Daddy's Little Girl" jammies.
Not really new clothes but she asked to have her picture taken.....

Alison in a new dress we bought on a recent trip to Chicago!

Grace posing in a new shirt that she got for her B-Day.....

We were bored the other day so we started a Cirque de So Lame club.....

.....I'm trying to mask the pain in this one.....

Grace in her new Little Miss Sunshine shirt from Aunt Lucy, Uncle Bud, and the boys!

Double Stuffs

Ashley picked up some Halloween-themed Double Stuffs last weekend, and Alison got a big kick out of the orange filling in the middle.....she kept laughing and so we grabbed the camera.