Halloween festivities 2015

We started out our Halloween week with the Compass Fall Festival. 

This event at our church gets better and better every year and we so look forward to it. 

 Kinley was Pocahontas, Ty was Batman (again), and Dylan wore Ty's old tiger costume from when he was Dylan's age.
We had so much fun meeting up with friends, riding ponies, petting animals, bouncing on inflatables and playing games.
AG's Fancy Nancy costume was the best.
I can't get over that wig.
 So cute.
 
 And these boys are too much.

Kinley did awesome on the climbing wall and made it to the top. Reminded me of her rope climbing days in gymnastics.  The girl has got some upper-body strength!

Dylan loved the petting zoo

We can't go home without some awesome face paint.

The best group shot of our kids we could get.

We had our annual Halloween playgroup at Lindsey's house. We dressed in costume, did our footprint/ ghost craft, played Halloween bingo and just loved having all our kids together.
 I don't know why but, I took zero pictures.
Here is just one of the kids playing bingo.


Halloween day also happened to be the day of our Junie B. Jones tickets at Casa Manana.
 We usually go with my mom but she was out of town, so since Halloween is also Leslie's birthday we took Leslie and AG with us.
We can't attend any show without dressing in character.
These girls busted out Junie B. Jones in no time.
 

 Kinley stayed inspired by Junie B. all day and it prompted a last minute switch of a Halloween costume.

 Ty switched also to being a Ninja. Stacee had come over earlier in the week with Ryland to borrow some of my ski clothes for an upcoming ski trip and the boys busted out some black long underwear which immediately turned them into ninjas. They decided to nix all intentions of being Ninja Turtles and just be regular ninjas in black. 

 

 Since Ty wasn't going to be a ninja turtle, I didn't have Dylan wear the ninja turtle costume I got him either, so he was a tiger again on Halloween night.
 It was a last minute costume switch for everyone! 

We stopped by Pops and Grams house to trick or treat first.
It was so fun! 

 

Couldn't get enough of this cute tiger!

  

 I love a comparison pic..so here is Ty vs Dylan in the tiger costume, three years apart. 

 

Then went over to Leslie's house with the intention of pumpkin carving but that never happened. Somehow we forced Leslie to host and cook us dinner on her own birthday. 

Aren't we great friends???? 

 It was a relaxing dinner and pre-party to Trick-or-Treating and we took the best group shot we could of who all was there.

  

We headed over to Donna and Troy's neighborhood for trick-or-treating and our crew was large and oh so much fun.

   

Did you catch Ross in that pic too? 

 

It was a great Halloween night!

New York City Girls Weekend

A day later than expected, but with just the right company, Stacee and I got on our flight to NYC.

 I was so excited to be traveling with Stacee. I wasn't totally confident our plane would take off but, I was glad that whatever the day brought, at least I would have a friend with me. We were so excited when we got on the plane! 

 

 The New York skyline from the plane is amazing. 

 

We landed and met up with Lindsey, Shea and Lydia at our hotel in Times Square. We walked around Times Square a little before heading back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. 

 

We had dinner reservations at STK. It was delicious and a great meal to start our trip. 

 

After dinner we went to one of my all time favorite NYC spots, Cafe Wha? I am pretty sure the girls were a little skeptical of it when we arrived and went underground but, by the end of the night they loved it as much as I do. The music is unbeatable and we just sang and danced and listened to the music all night long. It was a blast. 

 

Sunday morning we got up and did a little walking around town on Park and 5th. We stopped at Rockefeller Center to see the ice rink and do some window shopping. 

 

We ended our morning walk through Central Park. It was overcast but not rainy and not too cold, just the perfect morning.

   

We made our way to the boathouse and we decided to do the row boats since none of us had ever done it before. It was so fun. I loved my little row boat date with Lindsey and Stacee. 

 

After the park, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our matinee show. We had tickets to see "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder." We knew we would be so hungry if we didn't grab a snack before the show so we stopped for hot dogs on the street in our theatre attire. 

 

The show was fantastic. It was hilarious and so entertaining. I would totally recommend it. 

 

After the show, we went back to the hotel to help Lydia pack up for home. She had to take the train home to Virginia a day early. Then, the rest of us took a subway down to the financial district.

  

We had tickets to the One World Observatory tower. It was so cool to be up there at night and see all the lights of the city. 

 

After that it was dinner at Sofia's in Little Italy. It was delicious and a relaxing dinner. 

 

We ended our trip with a bit of a crazy adventure. 

 Lindsey had heard of this underground speakeasy called "Please Don't Tell." 

 It's very small and pretty impossible to get into. 

You have to start calling at 3:00pm on the day you want to go and you keep calling until someone picks up. 

We tried unsuccessfully to get in Saturday night.  I think they called 42 times or something like that. Ross tried again for us on Sunday while we were at our matinee show and started calling around 2:45.  He texted during the show and said we got in at 10:00pm. 

You basically show up to this hot dog shop in the East Village and go inside. 

 It is a real hot dog shop and that's all you see from the outside.

  

Then you go inside this phone booth and pick up the red phone and dial '1.' This is basically the doorbell for Please Don't Tell. 

 

Then the back of the phone booth opens up and you are inside the speakeasy. We sat down and had a drink and it was a great way to end our trip. I am so thankful for these girls and just a chance to get away and relax and enjoy each other. I look forward to lots of girl trips in the future!