Elmore Family Halloween Party

This last weekend we debuted our 2010 Halloween costumes at the Elmore Family Halloween Party. Lem's cousin Mike and his wife Megan live about 30 seconds from us and hosted a super fun party in their garage. Megan went all out with cool decorations, Halloween themed and shaped foods, crafts, games and even treat baskets for the girls! We had quite the family crowd there including Rod, Bonnie, me and Lem and our girls, Mike and Megan, of course, Aaron, Amanda and their two girls, Jesse and his girlfriend Rachel. The girls had a real blast with their cousins and were a real hoot playing pin the eye on the ghost, smacking the pinata and bobbing for apples. We're looking forward to all our other Halloween events still to come. If the Elmore's party is any indication, we're in for a spooktacular Halloween season!

Alaska State Fair

This year's trip to the State Fair has all the same highlights of years past. Animals, cheese curds, sunshine (go figure!), the petting zoo, face painting, and of course, rides! This year Ella was big enough to go on a few of the kiddie rides while Sycely kept to her tradition of favoring the carousel. Ella was focused on seeing herself some hens, not quite sure why, but sometimes, she's just a funny character :) Nanny and Papa joined us again this year and Ella enjoyed taking a break from the wagon to hitch a ride on Papa's shoulders. Sycely had fun with nanny checking out the Secret Garden. We brought along the girls' jammies and, after an afternoon and evening full of fair food, sun and even sun, the girls were tuckered out and both asleep less than 20 minutes down the highway. Below are some photo highlights:

Fall Fun

It's been a busy fall around the Wheeles household! School's in full-swing and first quarter just wrapped up last week. Sycely's still stoked to work on her weekly homework (picture with her first assignment below) She's settled into the routine of school and though she still craves "quiet time" and play time at home with Ella, she's making friends at getting to know her way around school. Last week her class went on their first field trip, to the fire station. Her ballet class is learning their number for the December Nutcracker production.

Now that Sycely's in school all day, I'm trying to squeeze in lots of Mommy Dates and special times with her. Recently, we were asked to film a commercial for the Athletic Club/Skating Rink at Dimond Center, and though they sought me out first, Sycely ended up being the star of the show, being featured much more than me in the shots they used. We also painted some pottery at Color Me Mine last month after she came along for one of my Mrs. Alaska appearances.

Ella and I have been enjoying some quality time of our own as well. We have fun doing errands, snuggling and she's been able to do a few Mrs. AK events with me as well. The Step Up for Kids Rally we recently attended even featured us on the newstory! She's quite a character, saying some of the most adorable, humorous things. The way she uses such advanced words and phrases correctly, in context constantly amazes us. She had her two year check-up in September and though she's still not technically on the growth chart for weight, she is growing on her own curve and she has surpassed 20 pounds finally. She's getting used to having the space and toys to herself all day with Sycely in school, but she's still happiest with her favorite playmate around, even if it does mean sharing.

Lem and I took Sycely to a High School musical performance of Cinderella last month. It was a really great production and they'd invited the audience to come dressed in their princess attire and it was super fun to be amongst a bunch of little princesses.

The girls aren't the only one enjoying some quality time dates. Lem and I are fortunately to have Nanny and Papa around and willing to watch the girls so often for us. We've been having lots of fun going on some double (and triple!) dates. Recently we spend an evening at Chuck E Cheese with Ian and Kathryn. We followed up our game playing with a more mature, sophisticated dinner choice :)

I celebrated my birthday at the end of September. We'd planned a huge brunch with friends, that ended up not amounting to much since most of our guests cancelled on us :( But, it shaped up to be a pretty fun Birthday weekend, nonetheless, as we made up for it sharing pizza, games and hot tubbing with Lem's family (Ian and Kathryn, Aaron and Amanda and their girls, Jesse and Rachel and Megan) and having family dinner (and cupcakes!) Sunday night.

Oh right, hottubbing! Well, we got a hottub...kinda for my birthday. We found a super great deal (from someone we ended up knowing) on Craigslist and ended up paying even less than the list price and having a friend do all the wiring and installation for added savings. We use it almost every night and we're excited to get to enjoy it even more this winter as the temperature drops and the snow flies. Speaking of snow, it's definitely headed this way. It's making it's way down the mountains and there is a noticeable nip in the air every morning when we head to school-to the tune of 25 degrees last week!

Fall has offered us some nice, fairly warm, sunny days though. Homecoming day for Dimond dawned bright and unseasonably warm. I'd like to think the nice weather inspired success all around. The football team brought home an awesome victory over their rivals and the dance has been touted by some students as one of the most fun at Dimond in recent history. The girls got to come enjoy some of the festivities, taking in the half time floats and presentation of the court. Sycely stayed the rest of the game, hanging out with her good pal Angela whose older brother is on the team. Tennis is wrapped up so Lem's afternoons have freed up. The JV team ended the season undefeated and Varsity tied for second at Regions and placed second at State. All in all, a pretty successful season! I've been keeping plenty busy and have now done over 30 official Mrs. Alaska appearances and events. The calendars looking just as full for the remaining 6 months of my term, too! To catch up on what I've been up to check out my Mrs. AK blog: www.mrsalaska2010.blogspot.com So far it's been a tremendous adventure and I'm excited about some of the upcoming events I'm going to get to be a part of. I'm also doing a Bible Study on Esther with Bonnie and group of ladies from her church. Esther's my favorite Biblical character and has been such a source of inspiration and direction for me in the pageant realm that it's been a real treat to do an in-depth Beth Moore study solely on her story.

We're gearing up (literally!) for winter and are in the throes of celebrating Halloween. We've had an exciting, joyful fall and are looking forward to all that the winter season and the holidays have in store for our family (except maybe the weather!)