Halloween fun!

For Halloween this year we just had a small trick-or-treating party! Several of our friends joined us and we made the circuit of our neighboorhood together. It was great fun, and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Katie went as a 50's girl.

Reese went as a green & blue spotted monster.

Both of my girls seemed to have a great time getting ready to leave to go trick-or-treating with all of their friends.

Serena brought Avery and Aiden over to play with us that night. Avery made a beautiful Snow White...

and Aiden was a FABULOUS little dwarf!

Miss Emma Bear was a great pirate, too!

Katie, Maddie and Brooke all posed for a picture in front of some of our neighbors' yard decorations.

Reese loved trick or treating this year!

The kids couldn't get to the doors of the houses fast enough!

Brook and Maddie were acting crazy!

Reese found a new way to carry her bucket.

Maddie had a ball pretending to be "in the chalk lines".

The rest of the kids got a picture with the neighbors' setup.

This is a picture of all our munchkins gathered in my living room.

We had such a good time hanging out with everyone! Halloween is always more fun when you can share it with good friends!

What a smart girl!

The Cooan family was very proud of Katie this week! She made honor roll (all A's and B's) for the first quarter! She is doing great with her 3rd grade teacher. We love her and Katie thinks she's AWESOME!

Katie's Rock~n~Roll birthday party

For Katie's 9th birthday we decided to have a Rock Star party. It started out as a small idea and blossomed (or should I say EXPLODED!) into a big idea! My friend, Ellie, and I went all out to make it a great party.

The first thing our guests saw when they arrived was our blacked out front porch with the "Katie & the Rock Stars" logo on the outside. We had red velvet "ropes", which were really pool noodles wrapped in red shiny fabric, along with a star studded walkway and strobe lights to mimic photographers flash bulbs. The front of the house, like most of the other things about the party, looked SOOO much better in real life! The photographs don't do it justice!


Inside the blacked out front porch everything glowed! We had it lined with black lights just like the entrance to a cool nightclub. The front door had a sign marked "STAGE DOOR" that glowed bright white under the black lights. There were also stars that glowed all over the inside of the porch.


After coming in the front door the guests immediately saw the stage and the sign above it. It was at the end of our living room in front of the fireplace. We used my oak buffet, my coffee table and my two end tables to create a solid place for them to stand above the crowd and sing their songs.




We set up a corner in the living room for make-up and hair-dos. The girls loved getting rock star tattoos and having their hair sprayed green or pink. We also had a basket full of dress up clothes including tutus, dresses, scarves and hats. There was a full length mirror so they could see themselves and some feather boas to complete their transformations.






One of Katie's coaches from Gym Stars, Coach T, came by and partied with us. She and Ellie did hair wraps for the girls and made them look even more beautiful!



We played Guitar Hero, Pin the String on the Guitar and karaoke all night. Katie's two cousins, Caleb (age 10) and Nathan (age 9) were the only two "big boys" there. Aiden was there, but he's less than a year old. Caleb was a big hit with the ladies, and he got to show off his Guitar Hero skill to everyone. Nathan just wanted to play with Reese. Everyone had a turn singing on stage. It was tons of fun!






The last thing we did was open gifts and eat cake. Katie got TONS of awesome stuff, and the girls all loved the cake. All in all, it was a wonderful night, and I hope it's something Katie will remember for a long time!