October Occurences

Well, October was a very busy month for our family (so much so that I'm just posting about it now). We made a trip down to Taber to celebrate Thanksgiving and our brother-in-law's birthday. Happy October birthday to Chris! We were very thankful that we were all healthy enough to celebrate together. A couple of weeks later we began celebrating Jaina's 4th birthday, a perhaps too-long series of celebrations that stretched out over a week (and made our little princess feel like she was, in fact, a real live princess. But I think we're over it now). Our little girl is now 4, and still changing and amazing us all the time. And as soon as the birthday excitement died down, it was Halloween! So we are looking forward now to a couple more quiet weeks before we begin with Matt and his dad's birthdays, and the beginnings of preparation for the Christmas season. I was planning on making the rest of this post short on words, and long on pictures, which tell of some of the excitement themselves. So, here goes:

The weekend before Jaina's birthday, we celebrated her birthday, and Papa Klemen's with a family dinner and birthday cake. Jaina insisted on wearing her Snow White costume, which we had bought for Halloween but told her she could wear for her (kid's) birthday party. But she just couldn't wait, so...

Celebrating the next day with Grandpa and Grandma Olfert (upon their return from visiting Jason, Michaelia and Oscar in NY):
Making "Monster Mash" cupcakes for birthday treats at preschool:

Jaina's actual birthday. New princess scooter! Birthday present from Mom and Dad:
Birthday cake at the "friend party" (note her brother's excitement in the background!)

Jaina and Matt carving pumpkins, and the results:

Halloween night, all ready to go trick-or-treating:Lewis, the man-eating monkey:It was an exhausting, but wonderful, month!