halloween

the kids love the cartoon "maggie and the ferocious beast," so we thought it'd be fun for them to dress up as them for halloween.  of course mia was maggie, and george was the ferocious beast.

when eliza was here before we left for hawaii, we put the kids in their costumes so we could get a picture of them together.

costume parade at mia's preschool

mia and her teacher, miss janie

my brother, skaught, loves halloween more than any other holiday.  we went to his house in the afternoon to show him our costumes and see what he had cooked up for the trick-or-treaters in his neighborhood.  he had this creepy clown mask to wear to pass out candy.  the kids thought it was hilarious!  i thought it was freaky.  i talked to skaught the day after halloween, and he said he had 1,000 or more trick-or-treaters!!!  he had to go to the store 4 times to get more candy!

george, mia, mylee and kai

we have a tradition of having a chili dinner at the koelliker's home every halloween.  we've been doing it since i was a toddler!  they graciously had us over again this year, and we had a great time!  malia has kids the same age and gender as our kids, so it's really fun for them too!

the kids posed with grandma and papa before we headed out to load up on candy!

george was getting tired of walking, so we got the wagon.  papa steve was making dirtbike sounds and poppin' wheelies!  i think they had more fun doing this than trick-or-treating!

pumkin patch

we took the kids to the pumpkin patch.  it was a total rip off, but they had a blast!

they did a lot of things, but they definitely had the most fun on this ride, especially when mia figured out how she could spin their car!

salad bar

one afternoon, mia spent about an hour making food out of play-doh so we could have a salad bar.  she even got me a plate and let me serve myself!

aloha 'oe

we took a wonderful vacation to hawaii with russ's parents and his sister's family.  it was great to be with them for a whole week uninterrupted.  we finally feel like we are getting to know eliza.  she is just darling.  we stayed on the western shore of oahu at the marriott ko olina beach club, and it was beautiful!  we had so much fun together and wish it didn't go by so quickly.  it's difficult to narrow down 400 pictures for the blog.  here are a few, though, of our trip...

mia and george were very excited to finally arrive at the resort after a long day of traveling...

they were even more excited to go to bed!

mia just HAD to have this hula skirt!  how could i say "no"??

we went to haleiwa on the north shore to get some world famous matsumoto's shave ice.

mia sure loves her grandma dolores, and grandma dolores sure loves her!

both kids love nature more than anything else.  whenever we walk anywhere, we stop multiple times to look at a tree, pick up leaves or smell a flower.

a passerby at the j.w. marriott offered to take our picture.  the grounds there were immaculate.

we hired a photographer to take our portrait out on the beach.  here is the whole group.

it makes me so happy that the kids love each other!

the cousins...

mia opened an oyster and found twin black pearls inside!  it's rare to find twins!!!  grandma dolores had them made into earrings for her, so she has that to look forward to when she gets her ears pierced.

hilariously, i thought pineapple grew on trees (i found out the truth on our honeymoon)!  this picture was taken at the dole plantation.  i think pineapple plants are so cute!

i love this picture of eliza.  she looks so thoughtful...

ridin' the pineapple express!

at the j.w. marriot, they had sharks and stingrays in their ponds!  we had so much fun looking at them.  a couple of the stingrays were 4-5 feet.  the sharks were small-medium sized.

first soccer game

after 4 soccer practices, mia's soccer team, the tigers, was ready for their first game!  the weather was nice and crisp...just how a fall day should be.  grandma jill, papa steve and aunt jamie came to support our little athlete.

mia pre-game...

mia and kate...

the cutest goalie EVER!

mia in action!

dump truck party

a couple of weeks ago we took george to the party store and let him pick out the theme of his party.  he quickly picked out dump truck "stuff."  we headed up to spring mountain ranch for his party.  we played some games and had a picnic.  it was a beautiful day, and the surroundings up there are just gorgeous.  it's my favorite close get-away.

the two georges...

uncle skaughty and aunt jamie...

playing croquet...

more playing croquet...

present time!

we played "stick george in the dump truck" (like pin the tail on the donkey).  i made a poster of a dump truck and then cut out a bunch of little pictures of george.  the object of the game was to stick george as close to the driver's seat as possible.  mia won (we didn't even cheat for her!)!  here's a picture of papa steve taking a stab at it.

grandma dolores makes her best guess...she's WAY off.

uncle tyler said this game was just creepy.  now that i see it, it does look a bit creepy :).

it's cake time!

who can smile for the camera when there's cake to eat?