A Knight to Remember

And a night to remember it was! 

The whole idea for this started after a little party that Ken and Lori threw about a month ago when Ken and Jer started talking about doing something big that we can invite people in to, it began as a costume party the weekend of Halloween, that quickly turned into the night of, that morphed into this thing that included turkey legs for the weary parent trick or treating with their kids, that's when I kind of checked out. I was overwhelmed at the idea of a big party...at our house...not long after the twins birthday party...on a school night...in between days working at the coffee shop...That's when the 'A Knight(pronounced KuNight) to Remember' started. Our home community jumped on board, as did the rest of the church and over the course of the last month we had a couple trees cut down (pretty convenient for seating in the peasant village), Jer scoured Craigslist and found the free hut, Ken and Dave spent hours on their costumes and the castle facade and other decorations, Wendy lady outfitted I don't know how many people (it was a lot), Goodwill's throughout the land were picked over to complete dresses, knightly garb, the friar look, and people got creative. There was a bounty too let me tell you! We had apples overflowing, and the kicker? Those turkey legs that sent me over the edge. Amanda transported too and fro, seasoned, baked and smoked those turkey legs that were as big as Jer's head. It was pretty epic, and the most gratifying thing was seeing neighbors 'welcomed to the kingdom' and all of the time, and love and thoughtfulness that went into the evening by so many people. So sit back and enjoy these pictures ladies and lads!

The fire pit came in handy as the evening got colder...and colder!

Some decor was borrowed from Tadmor

Lady Lori looking beautiful as always

I loved Payden's hair

The scene was set and the knights, and friars were gathered.
We even had a knocked up medieval pricness (Steph)

Lady Lori and Knight Ken

Family picture. Once Lincoln got home from school he put his dragon costume on immediately, because of all the rain he felt overwhelmed and then couldn't recover. Dad gave him a fur vest and he felt like he could be Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon. The lightsaber may not fit with the theme but there was no changing his mind. Notice Taylor's short hair, the reason it's that way? Cause we were making fire for Lincoln THE DRAGON...sigh, if only I'd known.

The old man holding up the castle is my lovely, hilarious Grandma! In my dad's suit and Grandpa's hat. I had no idea who it was when she first got to the party, it was hilarious...and just like all the stories of her I've been hearing about!

My fam minus Princess Hailey plus my Grandma

Hunchback Tony begging for copper for the poor...
curious children looking on

Epic

My knight in shining armor

Later on that evening one of my favorite quotes happened, James look

ed at Jer and said 'If I had to create a Halo character it would be you'

Our town Wizard

Amanda and her petrified princess

Friar Meeting

 

We take care of hunchback's here

Princess Mia enjoying a Turkey Leg

Grandma fooled Tammi, she had no idea who she was
taking this picture with

Nat Grandma and Hailey 

Caramel apples...galore!

Wench Amy went all out...
the tooth didn't last all night

Tay Tay and Grandma

The Mullen family

Trick or Treat

Protector Isiah

Add caption

Erin and Hailey had nearly identical dresses

Me and Some Creepy Old Guy

Fair maidens

Tabitha and her Dark Knight

Purple Ladies

Do not be fooled by the beautiful smile...

For within is a fierce warrior

This face says 'I'm done trick or treating but don't want
to miss the party'

Friar Jeremy and Princess Dea

Ladies in waiting with little ladies

The ladies

The whole crew, that was left anyway, and a stray trick or treater who hung out to watch Monty Python that we had playing all night...and he brought friends.

Taylor Jo enjoying and apple from the bounty

Knight Ken trying to figure out how to drink
with the helmet on...I think he figured it out.

The Bennetts

Just hum to yourself 'All the Single Ladies', when really he was
realizing the limitations of the suit of armor.

End of the night smiles

Jer and the hunchback meeting some neighbors

Everyone who stopped by asked if this is something we do every year, and it looks like we might just have to continue the tradition because it was quite the success. Thank you to everyone who built, created,  contributed and participated in the fun!

It's not funny yet!

We're getting ready for the big Halloween party tonight and I am helping Lincoln make fire for his dragon to breath, actually we were all helping. Take note of this beautiful little girls long hair! I've grown very attached to this hair, actually everything about her littleness, probably because she is our last baby and that stage is fading away more and more everyday!

Lincoln working away diligently.

Hailey being bashful

Methodical Payden helping make fire

Almost there. As you know kids projects get interrupted and this project was no exception. I was cutting the pieces of fire when Taylor needed her diaper changed. When I came back, I finished cleaning up a little bit and then went to cut more pieces of fire when I couldn't find the scissors...weird, I just had them. I looked for about a minute and retraced my steps and couldn't find them. So I checked the most logical explanation...Hailey. That's when I walked in on Taylor with the scissors up to Hailey's hair. Thinking I had just prevented a minor disaster I didn't get too frustrated and walked away. Right about then Taylor walked in to the kitchen and the true disaster was realized...

Hailey had the scissors first...

And now Taylor is about to get short hair!

I about cried

This is still not funny at all!

My plans of a beautiful little crown braid on my cute little knight for tonight has been dashed! For a second I entertained the idea of just giving her a mullet but quickly decided against that. Reinforcements are on the way to fix it and give my baby doll a cute little bob. But I will miss this long hair. Once I showed her what it looked like she was very sad if you can't tell...so am I!

Why don't I respond like that?

We were gone all day. From 8am to 8pm. After we got home I went upstairs and I smelled something...I had left my straightener ON! ALL DAY LONG! And the edge was sitting on a shirt!?! One of my favorite white shirts has now been burned, but the weird thing is that it was a small burn and the other weird thing is that we came home to a house at all! I still can't believe that nothing worse happened. Jer was standing there as I discovered the mystery and he just started saying in his sing songy voice he does sometimes when he's having a good time, 'praise God, praise God, praise God, thank  you for protecting us from that'. Seriously, why don't I respond like that? And why do I try and find reasons to explain away the provision? I'm sure that the little contraptions have been designed in some way that they wont literally catch something on fire, but maybe they still do. All I know is that I'm thankful for our house right now and that we're not dealing with insurance and destroyed possessions, and more than that I'm thankful to a God who has a plan and can work through my own short comings and, what I perceive, cares for the small things, and a husband who points me there!

Paige

I had to run to my computer and type out Lincoln talking the other night cause I knew the words would get lost somewhere in the pile of dirty dishes waiting to be loaded, the conversation would fall out of my brain and into the saggy bottomed diaper that needs changing, the memory softly reminding me to call friends that I'm bad at making time for, the loading kids in and out of cars, the supervising of homework, the answering of literally a million questions about what we are doing next and what the menu looks like for the rest of the day, the planning out a menu so I actually have an answer, the sweeping the floor, and washing up old milk spills, the loading up backpacks and making sure library books are included, the realization that it's time to rush to the bus stop so the bus driver doesn't get mad at us again, and not to mention the mountains of laundry that need to get put away what feels like all the time, the words would have never made it to this page had I not rushed right over and typed exactly what he said. It wasn't a long rambling, or even extremely significant, it was just one I knew I'd want to remember, like how I want to remember shortly after he was potty trained and the urge hit he would exclaim 'my timer is going off'. Maybe I'm remembering him littler because I feel like I am getting so many glimpses of what life will be like, who am I kidding, what life is like as my boy is turning into a man right before my eyes. But for now this is what went down, and so matter-of-factly (Paige is a girl in his class)...

'Paige is funny sometimes she calls me funny names like fish, that's why I like her cause she calls me funny names. sometimes she doesn't say nice things but I like her.'

Costco Employee

We were running a few errands today while Hailey was at preschool. It is amazing how simple running in and out of stores can be without that spirited 3 year old! One of the stops was at Costco and while we were checking out, Lincoln helped load things to get checked out, then he put the divider up after our stuff and the worker gal was so impressed/tickled by him. She started chatting away with the kids and talking about how 'when you turn 18 you need to come back here and apply for a job because you are such a good worker'. Well the kids then went on to explain that 'we are twins and that our birthdays are on September 13th and our other sister Hailey is 3 and at preschool, and this is Taylor, her birthday is May 13th and we are in kindergarten but we go in the afternoon', you know, normal conversations with strangers...right? As we said goodbye to our new best friend Lincoln sighed to himself and under his breath says "I need to come back here when I'm 18". My favorite things he says are said under his breath, and this was no exception!

Occupy Minivan!

On our way home from watching the Duck game at James and Amanda's the kids decided it would be a good idea to insist on something different for dinner than what was offered. I was out of the car for a bit and when I got in this is what I witnessed...

Lincoln then tried to convince us that we should go to Applebee's because Jer and I have never been there and we don't know what it looks like. As we were almost home we drove by a house that had an inflatable Frankenstein in the front yard and Lincoln mid chant said 'uh I think I just saw a monster' and then continued in the revolt!

Confessions...

I confess that this has been sitting in this exact spot for at least 2 weeks...

I need to ask guests to come use my bathroom more, it gets sorely neglected when all the other bathrooms in the house get cleaned regularly. It's just that by the time I get to mine there is a huge list of things that take precidence, such as; picking up Payden and Lincoln from the bus stop, snacks, drinks, diaper changes, awake Hailey (need I say more). And this sits unused for far too long...not even put away, how embarrassing!

I confess that I've been listening to my Glee Christmas CD when I'm in the car by myself

I confess that tonight I called in Pizza Hut because I did not want to make dinner and quite frankly, it sounded delicious, I've been watching what I eat and pizza would not get out of my mind.

I confess to eating too much pizza

I confess to doing this to my nails instead of making dinner!

Pay no attention to the scraggles around the edges.

I confess that we let the kids stay up until 10 tonight for no reason, except that Payden and Lincoln took naps today and didn't wake up till nearly 5...Lincoln sighed at about 9:35 and said, 'this is such a special night'.

I confess that I put 3 things in the garbage outside the kitchen tonight and every time I came in I realized there was an empty milk carton waiting to be taken out...and it's still sitting on the counter.

I confess that we played I Spy tonight just because I wanted to play a game!

'I just used my really strong hands'

We have always referred to Hailey as freakishly strong, and she really is! She has an insane grip, a ridiculously high pain tolerance, and a unique control of her body/muscles (she is also a bit on the clumsy side but that's another story) and I think the other kids have picked up on it. After the kids birthday they were desperate to get into the gifts they received and Jer and I were working on something else and I let them know we would help them when we were done, but that they needed help cause kid toys are complicated and kind of frustrating to open. Well, they already knew that because they had been trying to get into them with no success.

When we made our way into the room we were greeted with victorious shouts...and the toys were free. When we asked how they got into the impossibly packaged toys they informed us that "Hailey really is strong" "Hailey got our toys open for us" and Hailey looked at us like this...

And said..."I just used my really stwong hands"

Yes these pictures are with her new haircut, I just asked her to show me her really strong hands and this is what I got!

Shortened Up The Scragles

Hailey's hair had been growing for a while, and while I love that it's long enough to fix, the time had come to shorten it up. So Jer called and set her up for an appointment since he has always been the one to take them in. Then Hailey had a little freak out and wanted me to take her, which I'll be honest...didn't bother me one bit! So here she is pre-cut...

And after...

And we had a coupon for a free kids ice cream from cold stone and she picked cotton candy and marshmallows...

She is so beautiful!