Halloween

We had a party to go to for Halloween this year.  I'm not one to spend a lot of money on a costume from the store or online.  I'd much rather think of something that I can throw together at my house or that I can DIY super quickly and for not much money.

After much deliberation, we came  up with this costume.  We were a "To Do List".

It took us the afternoon of the party to make it and cost $20.  My mom graciously sewed the silver and pink fabric to my shirt to make it look like an authentic pencil.  We used a party hat for the top of the pencil and covered it with brown paper and painted the tip of it.  Stephen's costume was just some cardboard for the backing and posterboard.  He drew lines on it to make it look like notebook paper and embellished it with a pipe cleaner for the spiral bound look.  We secured the whole thing with ribbon and velcro so he could wear it.  It was quite the hit at the party!

My mom borrowed the pencil costume for work, too.

My office also dressed up for Halloween and it was my idea that we all dress as Mall Walkers.  It actually kinda ironic because our agency is inside an old mall and there really are mall walkers at the mall who walk it at all times of the day and during lunch. We took the costume contest a step further and decorated our unit like a Mall.

I painted the big signs at my house.  The four corners of our unit were labled Sears, Dillards, Macy's and JCP.  We were having a luncheon that day as well so we had to label that area the Food Court.  My coworker Glenda made all the shop signs on the computer and we reinforced them with dowel rods so they could be seen above our cubes.  It was a huge it with people that walked by, but we didn't win the contest.  Another unit dressed up as the 101 Dalamations, complete with Cruella and her two sidekicks.  It was adorable.

More Soccer games and famly time

After the USA soccer game, everyone headed to the Reddings to stay the night.  It's a good thing they have a big house because there were 7 kids and 9 adults staying the night.

The next morning we spent at the local soccer fields watching Mary Ann and Rose in their soccer games.  Both teams were quite good.

This is Mary Ann's team.

In between games we all had hot chocolate

 All the kids wrestled with Stephen.  Shortly after I took this picture I went and saved him.

  Brian and Molly had a good time chasing eachother and passing the soccer ball.  I caught this candid photo of them and I absolutly love it.

After the games, we had some time to clean up at the house and watch some baseball on tv.  Then we went to church and afterwards we all ate at Oklahoma Joes, a bbq place.  It was pretty good.  And no, there is no Oklahoma Joes in the state of Oklahoma.  Ironic.

Brian, Stephen and I hung out for a while with family after dinner and then we headed to Kansas City to check into our hotel.  Once to our room I immediatly could smell that we had been given a smoking room even though my online reservation clearly said non-smoking.  We all went back downstairs and asked if we could be moved.  Unfortunely, because of the home NFL game that same weekend, the hotel was completely booked.  So we had to just deal with it for the night.  I don't know about Brian, but Stephen and I both woke up with headaches and feeling nauseous and despite keeping out luggage closed, it all smelled of smoke.  On the bright side though, we did get moved to a non-smoking room later that day and we had the night comped for us and we got extra tickets for managers special (drinks and snacks every night from 5:30-7, one of the best perks to Embassey Suites!!)

After taking Brian to the airport that morning, Stephen and I spent the afternoon having lunch and walking around shopping in the Country Club Plaza.  It's a pretty cool place, but a lot of it was way too nice and places I'd never buy anything in.  I did get a nice shirt at H&M and Stephen bought himself some shaving stuff, like the oil, foam and the brush.  It's pretty manly.  We also bought some Christmas gifts so I can't talk about that.

 I did step foot in this store and immediatly felt out of place becuase no one acknowledged me, nothing had a price tag and I wasn't wearing high heals, black, or fur, nor did I have long, fake blond hair or work done.  Anyway, I can at least say I've been to one of his stores, lol.

On Monday, we definitely took of advantage of being on vacation and not having anything planned for that day.  It was cold and rainy too, so it was perfect to sleep in and watch a tv movie.  We did leave the hotel and venture to the power and light district, but it's lame on a Monday afternoon, and it was a federal holiday.  I think the place is probably pretty happening on the weekends though.  They had some great little outdoor venues.   

However, we did find a bowling alley and it was $3 for a game!!!  So we played a few games and ate a bit of food.  Of course, we made it back in time for Managers Special at the hotel becuase that can't be missed.  We ate some dinner at a nice Italian place in the Plaza and walked around the corner and saw Gravity at the plaza theater.

 Our weekend vacation was pretty great.  I know about a year ago we had wanted to go someone tropical, but KC was pretty fun for the weekend and some time away from home.

USA vs Jamaica

The day after Stephen finished school we headed off to Kansas City to watch the US Men's national team play Jamaica.  It was a World Cup qualifier, except that we had already qualifed for the World Cup.

Buying tickets for this game as an event all on its own! We were coordinating on the phone between three different states!  It was crazy, but we ended up with really good seats and we had 8 all together, so it worked out.

Here is all the boys showing their USA pride.  Of course mine has to look the goofest.

 We all had little American flags to wave around, but across most of the stadium much larger American flags were randomly placed about.  It was really cool to see them all waving.

                                      

 Here is Sporting Park. 

This is the team doing their victory lap.

My favorite part of the whole game was when we chanted "I believe that we will win!" And we did, the score was 2-0.