what a weekend!!

...Matilda had her fifth birthday party the last weekend of October...Rapunzel theme, of course.

...she worked long and hard on the decorations...

(Rapunzel and Eugene with flowers and the chameleon, Pascal)

...as well as playing pin the tail on Pascal...

...painting with friends...

...eating lots of treats...

...and getting some very thoughtful gifts from friends and family!

We also had our first snow storm of the year. Luckily David had me buy winter gear for everyone the day before.  We would have had some sad kids!!

oh, except for Charlie, who had to wear some hand-me-down snow pants!  I'm sure he will love this picture someday!!  

Storm Alfred was pretty ferocious and left us without power for about 4 days.  It also left us this sweet parting gift right next to our house.

tree branches the size of actual trees...awesome!

we are actually feeling very blessed that nothing else happened.  we had no real damage to our home or property, just a long sleepless night and cleanup that is still ongoing.  not too bad.

nana and papa were actually in town for this awesome weekend of wonder.  i think my dad really liked camping out "home-style"!!  luckily we had a roaring fire for most of the time.  and we procured our new best friend, a generator, by some miracle!  we actually have a hook-up in our house for a generator so that it will run our heater and water pump.  YEA!!  so that made all the difference.  we could actually shower and warm up the house.  what a blessing!!  and what an interesting and fun weekend!!