The Growing Caldwell Family

Sarah Graves and I had fun making plans for a Halloween party before we went out trick-or-treating. We made the cake, pretzels in chocolate, punch, chips, and our usual hotdogs and chili. We saw this idea on Pinterest (it's dangerous to let Sissy get on Pinterest) to fill a glove with water, freeze it, and put the giant ice cube shaped like a hand in the punch so it looks like a bloody hand. The glove is harder to get off than we expected, but the amputated fingers added to the gore! My Super Girl is ready for trick-or-treat! Livy wanted to show off how to fly like a superhero. The excitement of his class party left Charlie a little irritable and I was worried he might not make it out for trick-or-treat. He didn't want to wear his Batman costume that he wore all day, so I pulled this one out and with a little work he was ready to head out! Batman and Supergirl were joined by Robin and Wonder Woman for trick-or treating. Then, Batgirl came...

Charlie asked to sign up for karate this year and seems to like it. I had a chance to observe the class and it was fun to watch him in action. Showing me his moves before class.  Doing some warm ups Practicing kicks I didn't get a decent picture of the best part. He broke a board and he was so pleased. I went over to to him to acknowledge his accomplishment and he said, "Momma, last week I couldn't do it and this week I can!" He was really pumped about it!

I had the good fortune of going to Charlie's pre-k halloween party and brought the snacks!  This was a simple idea to add some fruit to the offering and I didn't have to worry about fruit turning brown or sitting out. Cheetos packaged into baggies to look like jack-o-lanterns!       Cupcakes with a topper to look like a witch's hat! Charlie and his teacher, Ms. Carrie, working on the craft They sit so still and polite! Charlie and me! My cutie boy! He is so adorable, listens so well to his teachers, does what they ask of him, it is just amazing to realize my baby is a big boy!

We made a lot of Halloween treats! The kids enjoyed helping out in the kitchen and started thinking about baking Christmas cookies! The older they get, the easier it is to let them come in and help out with me. Charlie helped some with mixing up cookies and cream cheese for Oreo cookie balls. Sissy shows off our finished cookie balls. She helped dip them in the chocolate and loves eating them! He was most excited to help make the witches hats that we used to decorate his cupcakes for his class party. Sissy couldn't resist putting some together too! sissy was a little bummed that 1st grade doesn't do a big party like they did in kindergarten. To be honest, I was a little bummed too. So, we put our ideas to use for a small Halloween party for the family before we went out trick-or-treating! She wanted a fun cake. This is our jack-o-lantern cake!

Our church blesses the children in their costumes for a safe and fun Halloween. It's not something I grew up doing at church, but it is nice how much they do to incorporate God's love into the kids' lives and make church a fun place to go. They wanted a family picture with their kids! When I say they role play as a family, I mean, I never know if Charlie is calling me Mom or Sarah Graves Mom. They refer to each other as Mom and Dad while playing family! I know I'm biased, but I could just eat them up!

The kids were anxious to carve their pumpkins. The weather has been so warm here that we decided to do it outside just a couple of days before Halloween! This was Charlie's first year to carve a pumpkin and he was not too impressed by the experience! He thought it was gross touching the insides. Sarah Graves was a proud veteran and got right down to business. She chose a stencil for her design and it was a little more challenging than she expected. With a little help from daddy, both of their pumpkins were carved up and ready for display! Even keeping them inside until Halloween, they began to decompose pretty quickly. It was fun while it lasted!

Aaron and I celebrated 10 happy years being married! In many ways our wedding feels like a lifetime ago. I think kids do that to you!  And in other ways it feels like a short time ago that we were newly married, getting a puppy, and starting our life together. We have had a lot of good times and have so much to be grateful for! Here we were on our honeymoon! We celebrated our anniversary by going out to dinner. We brought the two best things we could have ever done with us! They really are awesome little people and bring us indescribable joy. I am hopeful that the next 10 years bring as much joy as the last 10 have and maybe, just maybe some more time for sleep!

The first grade did an olympic event. They created countries and flags, fashioned togas out of towels, competed in geography events, and received "medals" made out of rice krispie treats! It was really hot for late October, but the kids had fun.