Happy Halloween!!!!

warning : LOTS of pictures!!!!

Howdy ya'll...

i must forewarn you that i have a weeks worth of catching up to do, so i am going to go with the flow and give you the photo update...

FRIDAY night, i hosted a Halloween Crop Party for my scrapbooking peeps and

i think it's safe to say that it was a blast!

i had a ton of fun putting a theme crop on and i hope that those of you who attended

enjoyed a fun Hallow'd crop!

...the crop also gave my fellow Slice Girls and I a chance to have a quick little "birthday celebration" too....thank you all again for my thoughtful and lovely PINK gifts!! i love it all..you gals know me so well...THANK YOU!!!!!

~ giggle ~

..ahem...i will let the following costume photos speak for themselves...

hahahaha!!!


....and THANK YOU again to Miss Tara for making us some yummy spooky cupcakes!
YUMMY!!!!
You Rock.

...i threw out a little optional contest for the scrapbookers to challenge their creativity and scrapbook one of THESE!!!!

...and here's the fun results!!

..the "Cock-A-Doodle BOO" punkin' won... ( michelle nyhof )

loved 'em all, it was very hard to pick only one...thanks for sharing all the awesome creations!!!

...and then it looks like next event i uploaded photos of was tonight...

HALLOWEEN!!!!!

i made us all a quick little pizza bagel supper and some halloween punch to have before the 'trick-or-treatin' festivities began!

NOTE my cool pumpkin carvings on the table...3.5 hours of devoted labour i tell you...

heeheehee!

...then we were onto finishing putting out the decorations that we didn't want to get stolen if we put them out too soon! hahaha....I am serious though!

( the sidewalk is lined with my leftover mini pumkins from last nights hall crop! )

...and then our little creatures of the night got ready for their long awaited fun...

( where did courtney go??? )

...and Batmans trusted and loyal sidekick... ( just like my little man )

ROBIN!!!!

"ready for action"

...the mini malinowski's came over around 6pm and the dad's were off with them on their

trick-or-treatin' adventures...

...and then reaping the rewards after with two very happy and excited kids...

OK.

now the catch up part..still lots of photos comin'!

meet BELLA.

this is one of the three dogs that our next door neighbors own and tend to neglect.

yes. there we have issues with the lack of care given to these dogs, which i won't get into or else i'll be here typing for hours...anyway, courtney has taken such a loving empathy to this little sweetheart. she is always at our fence the moment we come out of our house or pull up in the back. she CRAVES attention and we give her ( well, all three of them of course ) as much attention as possible through the fence.

i think that if she could, she would squeeze herself right through the fence to come and be courtney's puppy!!!

( courtney took this photo of her...amongst a few others!! )

last friday night we went out with Linda and Dave, all the kids and some of their friends to go

GLO BOWLING ( i love bowling...and i love kicking daves BUTT even more! )

hahhaha Malinowski...anytime, anywhere...

:O)

anyway...we had a very 'grown up' night out with our families and then to their house later for

some more self inflicted fun....

linda's adorable new onesies p.j's!!!

SOCK MONKEY??? could this BE any cuter?

...heehee, just having fun!

i am a TRUE supporter of catching those magical moments in your life through my photography...

NEVER pass out around who you thought was friends...it's one big 'free for all'

has the hair on your legs grown back yet dave??

hahahahha!!!!!

( and yes, that is sausage stacked on his head...he was also decorated with onion peels, and peanuts in the ears....)

nite nite, princess!

( we also stuffed his belly button with sausage, which was later found by their dog! )

....and then the following night, last saturday, mike, courtney and i went with the Pinters to

the Haunted House in Dugald...

unfortunately, this is as far as my camera was allowed at the venue...

BOO on that.

:O(

THAT was a fun little visit to Screamsville, compliments of Courtney and Taylor!!

hahaha....too funny!

...WHEW...

and i think that about covers this past week!

WELCOME NOVEMBER!!!

...19 more sleeps...

Mmmmmm, Edward!

:O)

monday night sketches and grandma's geese!

these are the sketches we did at my

Monday Night Sketches class this week!

-using paints and a bit of stamping..creating art!

if you would like more ino on the sketches classes, please email me at

thegriffs@mts.net

and i'd be happy to fill ya in!!

...i took my grandma on tuesday for her eye doctor's appointment, and afterwards when i brought her back home, i came in for a visit and her 3 geese were waiting for a visit too!

they've been coming back a few times a day to their patio for feedings.

like clockwork, always the same time of day!

it is soooo sweet how she gets them each their own little bowl of cracked corn ( from the Wild Bird Seed store ) and makes them share a water bowl. Amazingly, they don't go after each others food either. as she's putting each little bowl down she talks away to them about their day! they each just wait their turn until she puts their bowl down to eat...like little kids!

sooooo sweet!!!!

they come right to their patio and sqwak away until she brings them some food...she has them so tame now that i bet if they opened their patio gate, the darn geese would just waddle right into their apartment and make themselves at home!

...just the sweetest thing...

:O)

I was torn...

yesterday was a pretty emotional day for me...

not only was it my birthday,

BUT

both the kids had events happening that I could only attend one of.

Courtney - dance competition

Tyler - First Tae Kwon Do competition

WHAT does a parent do?

considering courtney has had many, MANY dance competitions already, I weighed the pros / cons and decided that since the TKD was still a new thing to our family ( tyler only started this January ) that he should have his mom at his very first competition!

courtney was okay with my not being at her event as mike and my mom both went with her to support and encourage her on

( i was more concerned with the focusing and warming up...but i have a great family of dance mom friends who took courtney under their wings for the day and also watched out for her )

THANK YOU LORI, SHEILA and SUSAN for your help at the competition!

Anyway...as I was organizing the kids' uniforms and costumes late friday night, i was still really

feeling torn about not being able to be at both of their events.

i'm sure this was the first time of many more to come that i will be put in this

position, but i sure didn't like being in it!!

tyler was going to compete in two events at his competition, and here he is getting ready in line to compete in his Patterns competition...

...tyler demonstrating Basic Pattern One...

here we go!!!

...all done...

...so excited...he won second place in his first event!!

this little award presenting podium was the cutest!

...tyler and diane, his instructor and my cousin!!

Very proud!!

...and one proud and ecstatic mom I'll tell ya!!

way to go little man!!

...tyler's second event of the day was a Sparring competition.

i was a little in shock at this event as at lessons, sparring is always 'no contact'.

so when i saw the first few sparring matches in tyler's group, and saw

LOTS of full contact...i was quite surprised!

i was unaware that at the competition, the kids were supposed to 'attack' and go at their opponents....yikes!!

now i totally understand why i had to buy tyler all his protective equipment!

( i thought it was for 'just in case' he gets hit....not knowing about the full contact! )

ANYWAY...here's some shots of his sparring matches...he is in the white helmet with the red on his chest in all of the following photos!!

-nice kick buddy -

the kids spar for 1 minute, have a 30 second break 'in their corners' and then spar for one more minute in their match...it is awesome!!

the litle girl with tyler in this photo is a classmate of his from lessons, and she was an amazing little personal encouraging cheerleader for tyler ALL day yesterday...what a great kid!! she just took him under her wing and i was pleasantly surprised to see such great attitude and sportsmanship in her!!

...the announcement of tyler's first win in his very first sparring match!!

woo hoo!! soooo exciting!!!

...he then went on to spar with a new opponent and even though it was a great little match, the other little boy won!

( tyler is on the left )

BUT....he won another silver medal for his sparring competition!!

so amazing...so happy for him!!!

...a pose outside after it was all over...

..and then went home for a bbq steak dinner from mike, a couple drinks and birthday cake, and a visit from my mom!

i was hoping to get out for some adult playtime, but everyone was soooo tired after a loooong day of events, that we just stayed home and chilled.

...and miss courtney had a pretty good day at her competition too! she won 3 thirds and 2 fourths and i am very very proud of her!

she had some major drama with dance shoe problems between dances and still rushed out to dance, emotionally upset, but did her best!

i cannot thank my mom and mike enough for taking on the stress of a Highland Dance competition without me there...fending for themselves ( hahaha ) and pulling through

a long long day!! Thank you for all your support and helping making my decision on the days events as comforting as possible!!!

well....i'm bummed out right now...

i have been trying to upload some video of tyler sparring from yesterday, but Blogger

can't seem to upload it...i've been trying for 2 HOURS!

hmmmm...maybe i have to open a you tube account for this?????

'nite all!

:O)