Happy Halloween! And other fall happenings

Friday night was Christine's baby shower. Lois made this adorable banner for it.

Two words: Cupcake Bar. It was terrific!

The expecting mothers who were there, including Christine.

Here's the group. Congratulations, Christine! We love you and we are so excited to meet your little girl!

Allison Morgan gave us these Barbie razor scooters. They were missing the grips, so Chris ordered some new ones online, as well as knee pads and elbow pads. I got helmets for the girls, and since the weather warmed up, we headed outside to test the ride. The girls did really well and they love them. Thanks again, Allison!

Halloween shirts were worn with pride this week!

Both girls have had a great week at school with all the Halloween festivities. Cate and her friends--with their moms--went to Homestead Farm on Monday. Perfect weather, perfect timing, we got there before the big school buses full of kids. It was a beautiful morning! Thanks Lois for giving us a ride, and thank you Wendy for these pictures! (Of course I left my camera at home that morning.)

For Wednesday's class, Cate got to wear her costume to class--she is Bea Spells-a-lot, a Lalaloopsy doll (the one she's holding in her arms, in fact). She was so excited!

On Halloween day, Lizzie was able to wear her costume to school. She is Crumbs Sugar Cookie, another Lalaloopsy doll.

Later that evening, we went to the Myers' house for dinner--delicious! Then we set off for trick-or-treating. We, I mean the girls, got a tone of candy! :D

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

More pictures this week!

I made it a point to take more pictures this week. Thankfully I remembered that I had made that point.


We walked over to the park by the pool. We didn't stay long because soon after we got there, Cate announced she had to go to the bathroom....

I found these pajamas on sale at Old Navy--I couldn't pass these up! The girls LOVE them because the bones glow in the dark.

I bought these fairy costumes last Halloween for $5 a piece (AFTER Halloween--that's the best time to buy costumes :D) The girls were happy to try them on!

Cate + Lizzie + Reed + Blake =laughs and fun times!

The girls love to put on a fashion show!!

We had Lizzie's last soccer Saturday this weekend. We are sad to see it end but we had a wonderful time! It's a win-win situation--the kids have fun, learning soccer from Coach Clark and we parents get to chat ;)

It poured most of last week. POURED. It was so very dark with all the rain that the girls didn't believe it was time for school. "Mom, it's NOT morning time. Look out the window!" I know, daughters, I know. I felt like I was home, driving through West Wildwood during high tide. Literal rivers flowing through the streets....Thankfully the sun is shining today!

Last night was really fun! We went down to GWU with Chris. The girls and I met Linda Flores in the law building. Linda was on my floor in U Hall when I was a Resident Assistant for Deseret Towers in 2006-07. She now works and studies at GWU, where she is currently in a folklife class. She's doing a project, studying "Mormon Stay-at-home Moms under 30," and she wanted to interview me! So we met up on campus while Chris was in class. I really enjoyed the experience, and I hope my answers to Linda's questions will be useful for her project. Linda took this picture of us before we parted ways--

So really the only other pictures I have are from today! Lizzie went on her very first field trip with her preschool class! The pumpkin patch (at Butler's Orchard) was their destination. Lizzie was so excited to ride on the big yellow bus.
Here she is holding her lunch before we left this morning.

Cate and I walked from our house to school to pick Lizzie up this afternoon. (A huge contrast to last week's rain and gloom, this week so far has been beautiful sunshine and warm breezes.) Liz was the very first person off the bus and she had picked out a pumpkin to bring home. She also brought home an apple for Cate, to which Cate said, "Thank you very much Lizzie, for my apple." SO cute! (They DO listen when we talk about manners....occasionally ;)
Lizzie, Leah, and Gavin with their pumpkins (we missed you for the picture, Sophie!)

All in all, everything in the Killion house is good. :)

The beginnings of October

Last week was my first week of teaching the preschool co-op. Our week's theme was the Letter A. On Monday, we took a walk around the neighborhood looking for acorns, ants, airplanes, anything A! I enjoyed my teaching week. The kids are eager to learn, full of energy, and sweet as can be.
On our quest: everyone is holding some acorns

The crew as we sat down to lunch

On Wednesday we focused on the "A" crafts--we made airplanes and "apple" butterflies stamped onto paper. We again took a walk, not only to fly our airplanes but to enjoy the BEAUTIFUL weather.
Airplane flying lessons

Group shot!

On Friday we went to Lizzie's preschool orientation at Northwest High School. Siblings were welcome, so Cate was able to check out Lizzie's classroom and see all the exciting sections of the room.

The director of the Child Development Program spoke to us parents while the high school students did some activities and snack time with the kids. Everything seems so well organized and planned; I was very pleased.

And so today was Lizzie's first day of preschool. I got up early (much earlier than I usually do) to get showered and dressed before the girls got out of their beds. When they did wake up, they ate breakfast, got dressed, etc. Cate and I dropped off Lizzie at 8:20am and Lizzie walked right into the room without any hesitation and gave us a wave as we left. She is so excited to be a "real" preschooler!

We are looking forward to a great year of school :)

September!

I'm almost caught up :)

September was a great month. Chris and I joined my parents and my sister Katie at the temple on Labor Day. This was my sister's day, as went through the temple for the first time and she received her endowment. Julia watched Lizzie and Cate for us. It was a truly special morning and I was so happy that Chris and I could be there to support her.

Cate had her first day of school. In our preschool co-op, there are three moms from the Montgomery Village Ward and three of us moms from the Quince Orchard ward. We rotate between our houses--classes are every Monday and Wednesday, 9:30am-noon. I teach once every six weeks. It's a really great system. Best of all, it's F-R-E-E!
Cate was so excited to go to school that day, she was ready to go at 7:15am! (She is excited to go every day, really!)

Lizzie was a bit disappointed that she wasn't going to school that day :) But she felt better once she got into a picture.

After school picture of Blake and Cate (with the Lizzie photo bomb)

We went to Valley Forge, PA this month. Every so often, Chris gets to work at a different site. Two years ago, Chris had to spend three days in VF so we joined him for that trip too. Here's a picture from VF 2011:

And VF 2013:

I wish this trip had been another three day trip, so we could have done a bit more around the area. BUT, one thing we had this time that we didn't have last visit: AUNT KATIE! Katie drove up from NJ to meet us at the King of Prussia Mall and the girls were so surprised and happy to see her. We did lots of shopping for Katie (aka mission clothes, accessories, shoes) which was lots of fun!
Aunt Katie had plenty of quarters for a ride :)

One of the girls' favorite moments of the month was dressing up for Krispy Kreme doughnuts! We got two free dozen doughnuts for dressing up like pirates. Such a sweet deal! *pun intended

Later that night, we drove to New Jersey. We had one last weekend to spend with Katie before she left for the Mexico MTC and the start of her mission.
This weekend also happened to be Irish Weekend in North Wildwood, and Katie sang the National Anthem at the start of the festival on Friday morning. She did a wonderful job and many people came up to her to tell her she was amazing.

Later that night, we went to The Ravioli House to celebrate my dad's birthday! Everything was delicious, as usual. The whole restaurant joined in to sing Happy Birthday to Dad. Happy Birthday, Pop-pop!

Katie wanted to get a good picture for Intsagram, so we had a little photo shoot outside of the restaurant.

On Saturday morning, Katie was kind enough to watch the girls so Chris and I could enjoy a breakfast date. We walked to Samuel's Pancake House= awesome! I love going there (I used to work in the adjoining candy store oh so long ago).
When we returned, we headed down to Cape May Point. I've been meaning to take the girls there forever, and I'm so glad that the weather was beautiful that day!
The sunken ship

Pretty quiet since it was late September

The ONE AND ONLY TIME you will EVER see ME wearing sneakers on a beach. Just had to put that out there.

Katie and the girls went swimming, too!

We decided to go over to the Seafarer's Festival in Wildwood Crest. There were tons of vendors, lots of food stands, and fun things for the kids!

The girls got their face painted.

They loved the bouncy house, too.

Sunday was bittersweet. At church, Julia and Joe performed a special musical number "I'll go where you want me to go"--Julia played the guitar while Joe sang. Katie spoke next and it was a beautiful talk, straight from the heart. I don't think there were many dry eyes in the congregation.
After church was finished, we transformed the back of the chapel into a buffet line with tables, chairs, and LOTS of food. If there's one thing we know, it is: to have plenty of food when feeding a crowd. Some branch members also brought food and desserts, which was so nice! Looking around the room, you could see everyone smiling and enjoying themselves. That was our goal ;)
After the luncheon, we took pictures outside of the church. As you can see, it was quite a process. (Mainly involving my children :D)

In the end, we managed to get one decent shot.

Katie with some of her friends

Before we drove home to MD later that Sunday night, we went with my family to meet President Corbitt in the Vineland Chapel so he could set Katie apart to be a missionary. The spirit in that room was so strong. We bore our testimonies to each other (again, no dry eyes here). That was the last time we saw Katie...she will return home in March 2015.

Katie is now at the Mexico City MTC. I created a blog for her entitled, "The Field is White." (http://hermanakatiejett.blogspot.com) Please check it out! I'll be updating it whenever she sends an email.

That was our September, a very memorable one indeed!