Elf On The Shelf... A.K.A. Sparty

Have you heard of the Elf on the Shelf? I hadn't heard about it until right about Christmas last year. What I knew about it then was very little. Then on Christmas last year, my dad had gotten the Elf on the Shelf "kit" for us which included the little elf and the book that tells the story about it. Basically this elf comes into your home (around Thanksgiving/beginning of December), and as a family you are to name the elf. Once you name the elf he/she gets magical powers. The elf keeps an eye on the kids behavior daily, and then at night he/she flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa. When he returns in the morning before the kids are up the elf will be in a different spot and the kids have to find him/her. The elf cannot be touched because if he is then all the magical powers are lost. And he/she only moves when nobody is around. There were some days where Sparty needed to be moved before nighttime, like when he was in the freezer, or on the kitchen counter. So I would always have to make sure the kids were out in the car, and I was the last one to walk out the door so I could quick move Sparty. When we'd get home they would immediately look for where Sparty's new hiding place was. One weekend we were even gone to Grand Rapids, and the kids were wondering if Sparty would be at Grandma's. Sure enough when we got there, Sparty had arrived! All this elf fun happens up until Christmas Eve when the elf leaves for good to help Santa with Christmas deliveries. He/she doesn't return until the next year.

So now that you have the background info, our elf came to us at the beginning of December. We had to decide on a name for the elf, and well as you know we bleed GREEN in this house and of course the kids came up with naming him Sparty (Note- this was right in the heart of the Big Ten Championship game time so we were in full swing Spartan mode). I did a little research on the elf and some people just move their elf, but some people have their elf get into a little mischief. I saw a few ideas on Pinterest which I thought would be fun, but many of them I didn't care for so I began to brainstorm things I could do with Sparty. Well, after the first couple days the kids really got into it, and I knew I'd have my work cut out for me. Almost every night before bed since Sparty has been around, Emmaline has said, "I wonder what Sparty will do tonight." Then almost every morning when she gets up she says, "We have to go find Sparty!" Some nights have been a little more work than others setting Sparty's antics up, but it's been well worth it! I'd do just about anything for my kids, and the joy they get out of seeing what Sparty has done is all worth it. These are moments I'll cherish forever and they are truly priceless! If you're on Facebook you've seen my album "Sparty Antics." He's done everything from playing UNO to unrolling the toilet paper, to hiding all the Christmas presents. A majority of the things I did come up with on my own, but as I mentioned there were a few on Pinterest that I "borrowed." Many of the antics related to things that we had done the day before. Here's a few pics of Sparty's antics that were my favorite so far...

Sparty made a snow angel... a.k.a "sugar" angel.

Sparty decorated the living room in candy canes!

"Sparty" was busy a few days before preparing a bunch of snowflakes to hang on the windows. I really loved this one because the snowflakes really added to our Christmas decor and beautified the house!
Emmaline had to take her lunch to school one day because she went at a different time. So since both kids had to pack a lunch, Sparty made their lunch with a silly combo of stuff.

Sparty wrapped some of the furniture, and then he wrapped himself in this box for the kids to unwrap. They had been asking if they could open just one present, so Sparty left a note that said, "You can unwrap this one present before Christmas." They were so excited, but then surprised to find Sparty inside! LOLSparty was guilty of getting in the laundry! I had a basket of the kids clothes to fold the night before, but never got to it so it was perfect for me (I mean Sparty) to throw some clothes around the house!

Tonight is the last night of Sparty this year since tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and it's time for Sparty to head back to the North Pole for another year. It's been fun, and while I'm really going to miss the kids reactions in the morning, I'm a little relieved because I'm running out of ideas! I'm going to have my work cut out for me next year! Merry Christmas everyone!

Emmaline's Stage Debut

Last Thursday was Emmaline's last day of school before winter break. She had her Christmas party at school, and then in the evening she had her first stage debut in her school Christmas play. Her teacher Miss Shirley does this Christmas play every year with all the preschool classes. Emmaline had been practicing at school for about a month, as well as singing her songs at home. She was so excited to be in the play. She was an angel. She was also "Eight Maids A Milking" in the 12 Days of Christmas which she had to hold up the number eight every time it came up in the song.

The play as I said had all three classes participate so it did get a little chaotic with all the kids, especially the younger one's. There were a few melt downs and some that shouted their line in the microphone. I don't know how Miss Shirley, Miss Sallie, and Miss Gail all stay so calm. I was stressing just sitting in the audience. Emmaline's class did very well, and I was very proud of my little girl. She remembered her line, and she did a great job singing all the songs. Of course she was adorable in her angel costume, and her antlers & red nose for the Rudolph song were so cute! After the play was over, they had refreshments of punch and cookies. It was a very nice way to finish off the year before the start of winter break. Here's a few pictures from the play.

Angel buddies- Chloe & Em

Saying her line- "He is the son of God"

Singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"(The kids had a hard time keeping the antlers up)

"Eight Maids A Milling"

This was supposed to say "Happy Birthday Lord Jesus" with all the letters up. It took a few minutes, but eventually they all got it together.

Sour Cream Cut-Out Cookies

Here's the recipe as promised for the Sour Cream Cookies the kids always make at Christmastime.

Note: The dough rolls out better if made the day before and refrigerated overnight, or at least chilled for a few hours before rolling out.

Sour Cream Cut-Out Cookies:

Ingredients-

1 3/4 cup Sugar
4 1/2 - 5 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup shortening
1 cup thick sour cream (regular not light or fat free)

Directions-

Mix all together well and chill in refrigerator. This may be dropped by spoonfuls or rolled out and used for cut-outs. We always roll out. Don't roll too thin thought. They burn easier that way.

Bake at 325 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cool on rack.

These cookies are so good we never frost them, but in case you want to here's a frosting recipe below. Also, we have colored the dough with food coloring and make candy canes. Example- Red & Green dough rolled in strips then twisted together & shaped like a candy cane.

Frosting:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tblsp water
1/2 tsp almond or vanilla

ENJOY!!!!

Weekend in GR

This past weekend we spent it at my mom's in GR. It was her birthday last Thursday so we headed there for the weekend to celebrate and my sister and Kaite came too. So my mom had a houseful of all of us there! She had foot surgery again about five weeks ago so while she can start driving again, she's supposed to take it easy and not drive too much. So instead of her usually coming here, we headed there. It was a fairly relaxing weekend. The kids made Christmas cookies with Kaite which they loved. Kaite's been designated the cookie maker over the past few years so she and the kids make the cut out cookies. The kids love making cookies with cousing Kaite! They all did an excellent job this year! The cookies turned out perfectly. I just love these cookies which my mom used to make over the years. The kids have grown quite fond of them too. They're sour cream cookies. I know, it sounds weird... sour cream in cookies, but they are sooooo good! We don't even frost them they're that good! I will post the recipe soon!

Here's some pics of my little bakers and cousin Kaite!

This was at the end of making the second batch of dough. They were being silly playing with the flour! They thought it was funny that Kaite put flour all over their noses.

Thanks to Kaite for making the cookies and to my mom for making not one, but two batches of dough! While we were at my mom's the kids discovered the cabinet of games my mom still has from when we lived at home. They were all into checking out as many games as they could. One they discovered was Monopoly. I couldn't believe how well they picked up on playing the game, and how much they enjoyed it. Evan was bummed when we left on Sunday that he wasn't going to be able to play Monopoly with Kaite. Looks like there will be game night on Christmas when we see Kaite again! Here's the cousins having game night!

Saturday night we went to the mall for a little bit. It had been a long time since I had been to Rivertown Crossings so I wanted to stroll around for a bit. Even though it had been awhile since we had been to the mall, the kids surely did not forget about the carousel! They wanted to go with Katie over mom & dad of course. They had a fun time and were being silly on the carousel every time they passed us.


It was a nice weekend. It's too bad cousin Kaite doesn't live closer to us because the kids sure do love spending time with her. Up next I need to tell you about our Elf on the Shelf and Emmaline's Christmas play at school! Slowly but surely I'll get caught up... thanks for hanging in there with me!

Preschool Bake Sale

Yes, I'm still playing catch up on here. Let's just face it... I think it will be that way until the end of the year. The fact that Christmas is now less than two weeks away, the kids are done with school this week, and I've still got shopping, baking, and teacher gifts to make, and a school Christmas party to get ready for means I don't have a lot of extra time for blogging. I'm trying to get a lot of this stuff done this week. Some of the things need to be done this week, but I also want to get as much done as I can before the kids are out of school for winter break.

I had to take a break from everything to share with you the bake sale that Em's preschool did last Thursday. Let me remind you that Em's preschool is at her teacher's house. It's not a huge preschool. Her teacher Miss Shirley is a certified preschool teacher and has her whole basement converted into a classroom. There are two other ladies that assist Shirley with the teaching. It's a very welcoming environment for the children and with only 12 kids in Em's class and three teachers it makes for a perfect learning environment. I believe Shirley has three different classes (divided by age groups). Anyways, Shirley organizes a bake sale every year with Okemos High School students to raise money to buy gifts for needy children in the area. This year the money raised would be given to the Meridian Township Police Dept. to buy gifts such as coats, boots, hats, and toys for Christmas.

Parents were asked to donate something like cookies, cupcakes, party mix, puppy chow, etc. to be sold at the bake sale. I made these coconut chocolate chip cookies that I recently discovered when my friend Brenda brought some over. Super easy and yummy! I'll have to post the recipe. I also made some of my pretzel buttons. Some of the high school students also made stuff to sell. Each preschool student was paired up with a high school student to sell the baked goods. Each child got a baker's hat to wear and a balloon tied around their wrist so they could be spotted easily among the "big kids" as Em calls them, a.k.a. high school students.

Back to the bake sale in a minute so I can give you a little side note. Em had a make up dance class to do last Monday and since it was at a different time than her regular class she had different teachers. One was Kate, my neighbor and the other was Tess a high school student at Okemos High School. Em sees Tess often at the dance studio, and on Monday Tess told her she was going to be at the bake sale. Em was pretty excited. So now back to the bake sale. When we got to the high school the preschool kids had to find their high school buddy. Right away Tess saw Em and since Tess did a lot of the organizing she paired up with Em which made her really happy. Emmaline quickly forgot I was there and went about her duties helping with the bake sale. She was so darn cute! Check her out with Tess!


They took turns with the other kids working at the tables of desserts as well as walking throughout the cafeteria taking trays of goodies around to sell. Here's a few pics I thought you'd like to see. It's just too adorable for words!

Helping set up the goodies!

Working at one of the tables!

Going around to all the tables of students at lunch time to see if they want to buy anything.

The sale went from 11-12:45pm and each item was $1. For example one cupcake, a bag of 2-3 cookies, a cake pop, a baggie of puppy chow, etc. each a dollar. The amount of desserts was phenomenal! Just look at this!

I just received an email from Miss Shirley last night with the total amount of money raised from the bake sale. Drum roll please...... $1,976! Isn't that amazing? I'm just floored by that amount and so proud of all the preschool and high school students! Lots of needy children will be getting some much needed items this Christmas! This event went above and beyond my expectations, and kudos to Shirley for organizing this!

Speechless

Today has been a very low key day for us around here. I spent the last three days cleaning, putting out all my Christmas decorations, cleaning, decorating the tree, and yes more cleaning. Friday night Evan had a friend come over for pizza/movie night. His good friend Gavin from kindergarten isn't in his class this year so they don't get to see each other often. We finally had a free Friday night so he was glad Gavin could come over. I wanted to get the house decorated and everything done before the weekend so that was good motivation. I love the house at Christmastime, it looks beautiful in here! I've had candles burning, the tree on almost all the time when we're home, and the house is clean (well the downstairs)! Love it!

Saturday morning we went and had breakfast with Santa at Bravo. They had a breakfast buffet, a coloring & cookie decorating station, and Santa was there! This was the first year Bravo has done this so we thought we'd check it out. The kids had fun. Here they are with Santa!


After we got home from breakfast I pretty much cleaned all day and prepped some food for our football get together with friends last night. Our neighbors Jim and Kate, and friend Brenda & her daughter Keyera came over to watch MSU play in the inaugural Big Ten Championship game. A rematch against Wisconsin after MSU beat them in the final seconds earlier in the season. I wanted to go to the game really bad, but it just wasn't gonna happen. So the next best thing... invite some friends over, eat yummy food, drink some beer, and cheer on the Spartans! I was hoping for a great performance by the Spartans. I did not want a let down like the Nebraska game. If the Spartans were going to win they had to play a full 60 minutes of football. Well, the game was great! Everything you want in a championship game! The Spartans had some trick plays up their sleeve, Cousins didn't choke under pressure. The big guys, B.J. Cunningham, Keith Nichol, Keyshawn Martin, LeVeon Bell, and Edwin Baker all played their hearts out. As did the rest of the team.

MSU lead most of the game, and then it all changed with about 3 minutes left in the game. I'm really not being a poor sport when I say this, but MSU was robbed of the Big 10 Championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl. MSU did what they needed to do to win that game, and because of two huge plays called back, the officials cost MSU the game. One was a long reception by Keyshawn Martin which he clearly caught with one foot in bounds, but they ruled differently after replay. Then with about 1 min 45 sec left Keyshawn again came up huge for the Spartans and returned a punt all the way to the Wisconsin three yard line. It was clear MSU would score and win the game (they were down by three at this point). However, the Big Ten clearly wanted Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and called roughing the kicker to give the ball back to Wisconsin. The Badger kicker is a former soccer player, and you can clearly see on the replay how he held his leg up (a popular soccer move) until the MSU player got close enough to him to bring it down on him and thus getting the roughing the kicker call. With no timeouts left there was nothing MSU could do. At this point I was totally speechless, I still am. I hate sometimes that I get so wrapped up in football, but I do. I am that true diehard Spartan fan. I'm literally sick over how this game ended. It's one thing to lose, but to lose a deciding game for a trip to the Rose Bowl like this is horrible. Once again MSU gets shit on, and the Big Ten won't have their best team in the Rose Bowl for the second year in a row. I feel so bad for the team, especially the seniors, as well as Coach D. They really are deserving to be playing in Pasadena this year.

It was hard to get up this morning, and with the gloomy weather it just sort of went with the mood. Not much motivation to do anything. It's been nice to be lazy. We did go out for a little bit and went to the Arts and Crafts fair at MSU. It was pretty much picked over by this afternoon. I really wanted to go yesterday, but didn't have time. Tonight isn't going to be much different than today. Sitting by the tree and fireplace and waiting to see if MSU gets any respect for their bowl selection. Doubtful, but I guess there's always a little hope.

Hello Again!

I'm back!!!! Wow, I've been neglecting this blog for the last couple weeks. Ugh! It's been a busy couple of weeks for me, and unfortunately life just gets in the way of blogging sometimes. As much as I love blogging, even if I have some down time at the end of the day, sometimes blogging just isn't what I want to do. I don't even know if I remember what I've done over the past couple weeks. It seems like everything has all run together. A lot of it has been with my Uppercase Living. Unfortunately UL sort of took a back seat over the past six months or so (especially over the summer). I had been trying an trying to promote it, and just wasn't getting anywhere. Such a bummer because I really love the stuff and think UL makes beautiful expressions. Then our new catalog came out and in September UL launched their new jewelry line Blume. There were lots of changes in the company, and with all that I decided I was going to try to get my UL going again. I created my own UL Facebook page. Slowly, but surely it's picked up a little. Because of my UL Facebook page I got two parties booked. One gal searched Facebook for UL and she found my page and emailed me. Yay! I was so excited! I got the two parties booked, but had to wait patiently because they weren't until November. Those parties finally took place over the last couple weeks, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting back into UL! I had two fantastic parties and even got three parties booked from them. Yay again! I'm still not where I want to be with UL, but I'm not giving up and still working hard to promote it. It's not widely known around Michigan as it is in some other parts of the country, but I think if people just "check it out" they will fall in love with it too. There's so much you can do with UL, the possibilities are endless. I encourage you to visit my website sometime and just take a peek and see what UL offers if you're not familiar. http://lisakohuth.uppercaseliving.net Also, check out my UL Facebook page and if you're not a fan, "like" my page to keep up to date on UL. Sometimes I even do giveaways on there! Invite your friends, family, co-workers to "like" my page as well and to visit my website. If you ever decide you want to order anything you can always order from my website or contact me and I will help you. I'm always looking for hostesses to have a party. I'd love to share UL with you. I even travel within about an hour so don't let distance keep you from hostessing. With all that said, on top of my two UL parties I decided to try out a vendor fair. Other UL demonstrators say it's a way to "get your name out there." We'll see if anything comes of it.

In other news over the last couple weeks, it's been day to day "stuff" around here. Dance continues to keep us busy a couple nights a week, as does homework, housework, laundry, and kids, all the time! I can't even believe Thanksgiving came and went as fast as it did. The fact that Christmas is less than a month away is a little scary! We ended up staying around here for Thanksgiving this year. I really didn't feel like being on the road. It was nice to have a low key long weekend and sort of relax. We went to Greg's mom's for Thanksgiving dinner. Everything was delicious, and of course we ate too much turkey and fixings. I made my sweet potato casserole which Em requested and loved! I also made green bean casserole which Evan fell in love with, and is already asking me to make again soon! I skipped late night/early morning black Friday shopping this year. I ended up going out about 7:30am to Target & Ulta. Picked up a couple things and that was about it. Eastwood Towne Center (the mall right by us) was passing out 100 grab bags at 10am with free gift cards in them ranging from $10-$50. I wanted to go there, but didn't want to stand in line forever. I ended up getting there about 8:45am. The line was only about 30 deep so that wasn't bad. I got in line and then awhile later Greg and the kids, and his mom met me over there. I ended up getting a $25 gift card, Greg, $15, and his mom $20 so that wasn't too bad. We did pretty good! We saw the Muppet movie on Friday which we enjoyed. Saturday was football day, and then I finally decided it was time to tackle the basement mess. I spent a good chunk of the day down there, reorganizing, cleaning, and getting rid of stuff. It's time some of the toys go! What a project! It's a lot better down there, but still not completely done. Sunday we had a birthday party to go to for my friend Marie's kids. It was nice to see them and hang out for awhile. I did manage to get the tree up yesterday morning as well. It still needs to be decorated, but at least it's up. That's my project for this week.

That pretty much brings us to today. Time to get back into a routine after a long holiday weekend. I'm gonna really work hard to try and not neglect this blog again. I'm gonna be more realistic and shoot for three posts a week for now instead of trying to get to it everyday. I've still got a few "old news" items I want to share with you so bare with me as I try to get caught up here over the next week or so.

Iceman 2011 Traverse City

Last Friday we headed to Traverse City for the Iceman bike race. It was a short trip only staying one night and coming back Saturday because Evan had his last football game on Sunday. We lucked out again this year, and the weather was pretty decent. The morning was chilly, but by mid-day the sun was out and it was almost 60. I'll take it! Greg did the 30 mile trek from Kalkaska to Traverse City. It was his eighth year racing in the Iceman. He wasn't well prepared this year, as he had been sick with cough & cold for two weeks prior. Plus he didn't ride much before the race. He was quite congested on Saturday for the race, but he still managed to finish. It's more than I could ever do. We're still proud of him. Riding through the woods, with big hills, and mud for 30 miles isn't my idea of a fun time. He enjoys it though. He's determined to be well trained for next years race. Here he is nearing the finish line.
This year both kids wanted to race! This was Em's first year racing, and Evan's third year racing. Emmaline was so excited to get the chance to race finally. She couldn't wait to get on the bike. She did the little kids short version, about a half mile. She did such a great job. That little girl of mine pedaled that bike until the finish line, and then still didn't stop. She didn't get off her bike at all and she finished with a big smile on her face. She was so proud of herself, as were we. She was wearing her medal all night long. She even tried to wear it to bed. Silly girl. Here is Em crossing the finish line! Such a great moment!
Evan did the longer version which was like a mile and a half. Because both races started one right after the other, I wasn't able to watch either take off at the starting line. Greg ran along side Emme in case she were to fall over or something, but she didn't really need daddy. I had to get over to the finish line so I could get both kids coming in. Evan was a big boy and handled it well that neither of us could see his take off. He said he could handle it by himself. It definitely was a proud momma moment when I saw him cross that finish line. He climbed the big hill at the end still on his bike. He didn't get off once to walk the bike up hills. He was pretty excited that as he was finishing he was racing with some of the "big" guys who were also finishing. (These were the first timers that took extra long riding the 30 mile big race & finished 4 hours later from their start time. Hey, at least they finished!) Here's my not so little guy anymore crossing the finish line!
It was a fun afternoon, and I even ran into my old college roommate who I haven't seen in probably 10 years. What a nice surprise it was to run into Becky and her husband Phil. It was nice to catch up and we're hoping to meet up again next year in Traverse City (she lives in Cadillac) or maybe she and her family will come to E.Lansing for a visit. Here's a few more pics from our day at the bike race!

My two little bike racers!

With their medals after the race!

Sunday Funday

Before I tell you about this past weekend I have to back up and get you caught up on the previous weekend. If you remember we had the hockey game on Saturday and Evan's football game on Sunday. We also went to the MSU basketball game on Sunday. Every now and then Greg's office gets tickets to sit in the president's box at Breslin. Unfortunately only employees get a ticket and there's not any for spouses. There's usually a drawing among the employees to see who gets the tickets. His name got drawn so he asked if we had plans for Sunday. We didn't so he was planning to go. Then he found out that not everybody in his office that were offered tickets could go. So there were a few extra and they drew names to see who would get the extras. He got picked for one so lucky me I got to go!!! It was only an exhibition game, but since we don't have season b-ball tickets and rarely ever go to a game, it was still fun! It was nice to have a little "date" kid free and be able to actually enjoy a full sporting event!

Let me tell you folks, this is definitely the way to go to a sporting event. The "Royal" treatment all the way. Nice seats for the game, and whatever food and drinks you wanted. They give you a menu and you order the items you want and when you want them- start of game or halftime. It really was a nice experience. I could totally get used to it, but the likely hood of it happening again anytime again soon probably is slim to none so I'm thankful for the experience. Mark it off the bucket list! Here's some photos from our afternoon.

The view from the door inside the president's box!

Another view

A few munchies pre-game

The MSU basketball team

The one and only "Dancing Bear," Draymond Green at the free throw line! He's our favorite player!

Looking up into the president's box from the "regular" seats. LOL

School Halloween Parties & More

I'm gonna try to give you the quick overview of the kids' school Halloween parties. Evan's party was on Friday. I'm not sure why. I guess they didn't want the kids all hyped up on Monday, but c'mon it's Halloween. The kids are bound to be hyped up. Anyhow, I had volunteered to make cupcakes for the party. I went with some that I had seen on Pinterest. I just used a box mix because well it's 1st grade and they really don't appreciate made from scratch. LOL. I thought they turned out pretty cute with the pumpkins on top!

Evan's party was only for about an hour. Not the whole morning like last year in kindergarten. They had Halloween themed centers to go to. The kids had a good time. Here's a couple pics from the party. The whole class was cute in their orange & black and Halloween shirts.

Here's Evan working on his "Dem Bones" graphing.

Emmaline's party was on Monday. She got to wear her costume to school. It was cute to see all the little one's in their costumes. Here's her class all dressed up. Even her teachers wore costumes! Here they all are.

They all got to parade around the neighborhood by her school and show off their costumes. It was too cute. Em's teacher Miss Shirley had her dog lead the kids. Too funny!

I was the party planner mom for Em's class, and I had volunteered to bring snack. I found these adorable Pumpkin Rice Krispie treats on Pinterest and thought they'd be perfect for her party. These were pretty sticky to make into pumpkin shapes, but with the help of my wonderful husband, we got them done. They turned out pretty cute!

And, one more Halloween thing to share. Saturday we took the kids to their first hockey game. I got an email that the Jr. Spartan Club kids got two free tickets to the game with their membership card. I figured this was a great opportunity to take them to a game. Ev's been saying he wanted to go to a hockey game. So we went, and it was also trick-or-treat night with Sparty there so the kids got to wear their costumes. Here they are with Sparty.

Hey Sparty, "Trick-or-Treat" Sparty has such big hands that he gave big handfuls of candy!

Trick-or-Treat 2011

Wow! I'm so far behind on this blog, I don't even remember what I've told you. Until my busy life with two kids slows down, I think this blog is going to always be behind. :( Before it's Christmas, I better get our Halloween pics posted. We've had a fun week of Halloween festivities. It started on Wednesday when Em got to wear her costume to ballet. All the little kids got to dress up at dance. Here's all the girls in Emme's class. Love my ballerina cheerleader!

The girls doing their ballet moves in their costumes. Cute!

Then on Thursday we went to T-or-T downtown E. Lansing. It's been a tradition for years to take the kids downtown for the Great Pumpkin Walk. They always have a blast trick-or-treating and then heading down M.A.C (the street with a lot of the Greek houses) and enjoying all the festivities the Greek students put on. My little MSU cheerleader and MSU football players were HUGE hits with the MSU students! Everyone was asking Evan if he was playing in the football game Saturday, which I think he should have and maybe MSU would have actually gotten a touchdown with my little guy playing. Ugh, what a depressing game that was. Get your act together on the road Spartans! Anyhow, here's a couple pics from our night.

My Spartan trick-or-treaters this year... cheerleader and football player obviously.

T-or-T at one of the businesses downtown E.L.

I love this pic of the kids in their costumes with Sparty.

Evan had his school Halloween party on Friday and Emmaline had hers on Monday. I will post about that next time so this doesn't get too long. I want to post trick-or-treat night pics in this post. It was a perfect night tonight for the kids to be out trick-or-treating. The weather ended up cooperating, and it wasn't too bad out. We did some group shots with other kids in the neighborhood before we started t-or-t. Then the kids were off and filling their bags quite quickly. I went to a few houses with them and then came back home and passed out candy while Greg walked them around. Here's a few pics from Halloween night.

I told her to show me her cheerleader pose... I guess she has it down and doesn't need told how to do it!

I love my little football player!

I was glad I got such a great picture of the kids with Grace & Matt.

Chloe & Drew stopped by to t-or-t!

The kids got back to Jim & Kate's house just in time to wipe Jim out of the last of his candy!

We had a lot of fun with trick-or-treat this year, and now we've got LOTS of candy!!!! I think we'll be giving lots of it away. Another year of t-or-t in the bag. Wonder what the kids will want to be next year????