Cowboy Porter

I bought Porter a pair of cowboy boots for his Halloween costume (stay tuned for more on this) and found that he looks like a natural in them!! Saturday he was going shopping with me and Derrick and had to wear them. The shirt he picked was a plaid shirt and he just looked too stinkin' cute. I went to take a picture of him with the Halloween decorations on the front porch, he got upset about something and this is how the pictures turned out.

Favorite Things Party

I stole a couple more ideas from other people's blogs. One was to have a Favorite Things Party and the other was to make this Happy Halloween Banner for my party. The banner didn't turn out exactly like I'd wanted but it was good enough for me!

I invited five women over and on the invitation asked them to bring five of their favorite things that didn't cost more than $5 each (let me tell you, it was hard to stick with the $5 budget!). Everyone also brought their favorite appetizer which we had for lunch and I served my favorite pumpkin bread and pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies for dessert. We had fun just visiting and sharing why these things were our favorites. Everyone went home with five new favorite things.

I stuck with the Halloween theme and had tiny black chinese take-out boxes tied with polka dot black & orange ribbon with two of my favorite See's Candies. I also gave everyone a loaf of my pumpkin bread. I wish I had the time, energy, and money to do one of these parties for each holiday. It was so fun to be on the lookout for inexpensive but cute Halloween decorations and to get the house all decorated.

I'm Feelin' Crafty

I saw the most adorable Halloween decoration on one of the many blogs that I stalk and just had to make it!!!

I bought this frame at Ross (my new favorite store!) for only $7.99, borrowed Mom's Cricut machine and got some newspaper from her house and away I went. An hour later this is what I'd come up with. It's too stinkin' cute & soooo easy!

San Francisco

We left the Boardwalk around 9:30 and our family drove to San Francisco and stayed over night in a hotel. Everyone but Parker fell asleep before we were even out of Santa Cruz!! The drive would have been a beautiful one driving along the ocean had we been able to see it!!!

We were all exhausted and slept in until 8:00. That's late for our family!

It was fun to go to San Francisco and see the sites. We saw:

• Ghiradelli Square (they have the cutest dog store!!)


• Fisherman's Wharf (we had lunch at Boudin Sourdough- YUM!)


• Sea Lion's at Pier 39


• Lombard Street (twice)


• Chinatown


• The Golden Gate Bridge

I hadn't been to SF for years to see the sites so really enjoyed being there! We had a great little family vacation. We did so much in two days that it felt like we'd been gone for so much longer. Now back to work, laundry, cleaning, shopping, etc!!!

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

After spending the day on the beach we all ventured over to the Boardwalk for more fun. We divided into groups and went on rides together. It was fun to see everyone having so much fun! I was surprised at how busy the Boardwalk still was at 9:00 p.m.!!