A slumber party and a Huskers game

Yesterday, Mike took Briana to her very first Huskers game!

They got their Huskers gear on and headed down to Lincoln together.  Briana was sooo excited to go (and I'm sure that the fact that she was going to miss some of her sister's slumber party had nothing to do with it)!  I told Mike he had  to take tons of pictures and send them to me.  He didn't dissapoint.

There she is!!  My girl!!  At Memorial Stadium!!  Mike said they had a really good time, even though it was pretty cold out.  He bought Briana a hot chocolate, so that warmed her up.

She must have had a good time, because she was out like a light on the drive home.

Meanwhile, back at our house, we were having Sydney's slumber party for her eighth birthday!!  I know!  EIGHT!!  How did that happen? 



She wanted to invite her two BFFs over for a sleepover, so that's just what we did! 

The girls had a blast.  They ate pizza, did a ton of crafts, they did makeovers and watched movies.  It was really a pretty easy party!  And, it was Smurf themed!  Guess what cake I had to make again this year?

It was just as much fun to decorate this year as it has been in the past.  But, she's worth it! 
Happy Eighth Birthday, Sydney!!!

Halloween-y weekend

I cannot beleive it tomorrow is Halloween!  It seems like we were just swimming in the 100 degree heat yesterday.  Where does the time go? 
Friday after school, the girls got to go trick or treating at Terracon.  It is a highly anticipated event every Halloween. 

Ellie didn't get to go trick or treating, but she still got dressed up.

We decided to take the girls to the mall for trick or treating afterwards, which resulted in quite a bit of candy!



In true fall spirit, we got the girls outside to play in (rake) the leaves up yesterday.  They loved every minute of it. 

And, if the weekend wasn't exciting enough already, the girls got to sleep over at Mamaw & Papaw's house last night.  They were so excited and were counting down the minutes till they could leave all day yesterday. 
Even though we didn't have the kids with us, Mike and I decided we still wanted to go see the pumpin lighting at Village Point.  Guess who we saw there?

The lighting was pretty neat.  The pumpkins all looked great. 

No witches noses out of stems or anything, but still good.  :) 

The kids really seemed to like it too.

Pumpkin Carving

After school yesterday, the girls and I carved our jack o lanterns.  To my surprise, they carved and cleaned out their pumpkins all on their own!  I just got to sit and watch.
 

Lovely!  The pumpkins turned out super cute.

 Sydney carved a traditional jack o lantern face with vampire teeth.  Her very own design. 

Briana made a singing face on her pumpkin.  Partly because she is being Taylor Swift for Halloween, and partly because she signed up for the school choir yesterday!

See?  There they both are singing a tune.

I made my pumpkin into a mean looking face with a big, long nose.  Possibly my best pumpkin ever. 

Don't they look great?  Unfortunately, Mike had to work late and couldn't carve his pumpkin yet.  I'm sure he'll come up with something good though. 

Happy Halloween!



Happy Fall!

A Story By Sydney

Last night I went into Sydney's room to give her one last kiss goodnight and turn off her lamp.  On the pillow next to her, I found this story.  It's very cute.
When Me And My Mom Turned Into A Smurf
by:  Sydney Reif

Update!

I've been wanting to post tons of pictures on my blog for a while now, but of course the card reader on my laptop broke.  Great!!  I finally got my pictures off of my camera, but I had to use an old external card reader, a rubber band and a magnet to get it to work.  Geesh! 
Anyway...
Briana had her first day of dance last week!  This year she is taking ballet & tap and musical theater jazz.  So she dances two days a week.

So far, she LOVES it.  Best part of all?  Those jazz shoes she's wearing on her feet.  She's been wearing them around the house like slippers all week!

Today was Sydney's big day.  She started piano lessons!

She absolutely loved her lesson, and came home and practiced for an hour! 

And, while Sydney was practicing her piano, Briana thought it would be the perfect time to practice her viola, so we had a very musical house today! 

While the girls have been busy with all of their activities, I have been making pillowcases! 

My mom's new store is doing a pillowcase drive for kids with cancer.  So that's where these babies are going.  We got tons of stuff like this when Sydney was in the hospital, and we loved it all, so I am really happy we can give back now.  And, can I just say, aren't those pillowcases cute?!  I love the tree fabric the most.  Might have to go back and get some more of that for myself!

Monkey Bars

Sydney has been practicing the monkey bars at school recently.  And, in typical Sydney fashion, she just took off and started doing them all on her own last night!  I'm so proud of her!!