I was just surveying my kitchen counters and looking at all the crumb filled plates, empty bowls, silverware begging to washed and half drank cups of water. All the while smiling because every bit of it was worth it.Last night the girls had a few friends over to spend the night to celebrate their birthdays. Usually I hate letting the girls have slumber parties, but last night they did great. No one fought or cried or refused to go to sleep. It was success. They also ate and ate! Which is good because, well, it's always a good thing when kids like your cooking.

On Saturday Rusty and I hung Christmas lights all over the back yard trees. The picture definitely doesn't do it justice, but it was so pretty. The girls all said it was like walking through Pixie Hollow at Disneyland, which is exactly what I was hoping for!
Rusty was so sweet. For the last few years, he's had to be out of town for their parties, so this year he was home to help me out. He helped them with roasting marshmallows..we didn't want anyone burned! He let them kick his butt showing how they can all karate kick, which I think actually hurt him more than he'd like to admit. And, he made them all laugh, which is huge. They all had a wonderful time.

I like the way this picture turned out a little more than the first one. You can't see them, but I had Mallorie's butterfly wings from previous Halloween costumes hung out there. I had plans to hang little puff balls made from tissue paper out there, but ran out of time. The end results were beautiful anyway and I can still make the puffs and let the girls enjoy the backyard. I wouldn't mind keeping the lights up back there anyway, it looks so pretty.

Here they are painting pumpkins. I hate making goody bags for everyone to take home. I think they take away a large chunk of your party budget, so I always try to have something for the kids to make and get to take home.

I've done pumpkins before so I knew it would be a huge hit. Hannah and Mallorie have such a wonderful birthday since it is so close to Halloween. There are ton of things you can do with a fall birthday.

Thankfully the kids are out of school today so we can just rest. Hannah is laying on the couch right now, and i think she's already asleep. Mallorie is watching her new Barbie Musketeer movie for the second time this morning. For once, I do not care. We can use this day to rest and write our thank you cards for so many wonderful birthday presents.

I hope you have a wonderful week and are enjoying some beautiful fall weather. I think Rusty wants to head back over to Disney one night this week. If you haven't guessed already, he's loving the Disney passes. A huge THANK YOU to Mom and Dad for helping us out with those. It's proving to be a great form of entertainment, and I think it might be possible that Rusty and I are enjoying going more than Hannah and Mallorie are. They go out of their way to keep it clean all the time and make it feel like you're no longer in Los Angeles. Which for us, equals happiness.

More pictures to come from the week. Hopefully a video or two as well. Have a good week.