Trick-or-Treat

Ever since we got Joey's costume a few weeks ago he would ask every day "When we go trick-or-treat?" in his adorable two year old voice. He was beyond excited when the 31st finally came and we told him that today we were going trick-or-treating.

Cecilia debated participating this year, but after hearing that most of classmates were planing on trick-or-treating and one of her good friends from our parish was as well, she decided to go too. Our family split into two groups this year as the older kids wanted to go with friends and the younger kids wanted to go to our Grandparent's neighborhood.

Our crew consisted of a Masquerade Ball person named Evelyn, a Mad Scientist, a 1920s Newsboy, Princess Aurora, Mickey Mouse and an M&M. At Grandma's house a little Lion joined the younger kids.

After dropping off the older kids we went to Grandma and Papa's house where I stayed back and helped hand out candy with my grandmother while Papa and my parents took the little kids out. It was a wonderful evening and everyone had a blast.

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And since Halloween, everyday Joey asks "Can I have my trick-or-treat?" He asks when he wakes up in the morning, and he asks after he eats breakfast and then he asks before lunch and then he can finally have his "trick-or-treat" (his candy) after lunch. :)

~Mary Kate

Fall Frolics

It's fall here folks and the boys are seriously enjoying the leaves :)
~Mary Kate

A Year of Blessings

 I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my amazing family. We had a total of 26 people (including my whole immediate family). Actually only a fraction of my extended family was at our house. My Dad's whole family except for one brother {he's in the Navy and actually he's overseas right now on patrol so please keep him in your prayers} lives near us and were able to come. And one of my mom's sisters came with her family {keep them in your prayers as well - they are adopting a 13 month old girl from China and will be flying to China in a couple weeks to bring her home}. All in all it was a wonderful Thanksgiving and I couldn't have asked for a better one!

Speaking of grateful, I saw the ABC's of Thanks hosted over at finding joy and I wanted to join in

And onto more Thanksgiving pictures:

Left: Me all ready for the big dinner, Right: One of the centerpieces

My two stunning grandmothers.

Grandma and her grandson, David

Football in the backyard.

Left: my adorable cousin, Lauren Right: some of the kids playing on our jungle gym

Have a blessed weekend!
~Mary Kate

The End is Just the Beginning

In other words, fall is almost over and winter is just starting :)
The other day I happened to look out the window and notice that the light was at the perfect golden hour light. Most of our leaves are gone, so I wanted to capture some pictures with the gorgeous light and some to-die-for bokeh. AND as it just so happens, MaryAnn at Shutter Happy is having a photo challenge with the theme being "Color". So my color is a mixture of golden yellows, orangey reds and dusky browns.

The colors started off as a light undertone of the beautiful golden light to come:

I'm entering this photo in Mary Ann's photo challenge {Shutter Happy} :

By the time I found a tree in our back yard to photograph, the sun and sunk a little lower in the sky...

I'm not exactly sure what I love about this shot - I almost deleted it right after I took it because my camera was being stubborn and not focusing on the whole leaf, but I'm so glad I decided to keep it.

The golden light became more intense...

And the following photo I'm entering in golden hour photo challenge @ The Three Photographers Adventure:

Until it forced me to stop because all I ended up with were jack-o-lantern-looking leaves...

{Our five kittens have just started to open their eyes, here are two of them.}

~Mary Kate