Air Shipment! Its Like Christmas!

Our air shipment arrived yesterday and I have never been more excited for winter clothes in my life! It is getting cold now and we already outfitted the kids with brand new winter coats, snowsuits, boots, lots or hats and gloves, thermals... pretty much everything you need to survive winter before we left. So I was holding out as long as I could before I couldn't wait any longer and buy winter clothes here. 

Poor Mike thought all his toys were in this delivery. We had to use all the available space in the air box for clothes and bedding (they are happy their sheets and blankets are here). Toys should be arriving with in a month or so. But there are stores here that we can buy toys at. He is just specifically asking for his pirate ships and tracks. Ash wants her My Little Ponies :-)

Chili Cook-off and Bonfire

Last weekend Olympia had the annual chili cook off and bonfire. It as a petty good time. Food was great and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. The night before we went trick or treating and the kids were exhausted for most of the day. Plus they had an awesome play date with their new friend Micah. 

We headed over around 6pm and had some yummy chili and sides :-) There was a table for kids food and filled with chicken strips, fries, and pizza... Ummm can I eat at that table please? 

Kids made it until 7:15 when they asked... Yes, that's right, they ASKED to go to bed! What, my kids.... So as much as I would have liked them to stay up for the fire I was not going to stand in their way :-) Like I said they had a busy day and really were exhausted. They were out within minutes of hitting the pillow. It was funny because the night before they were falling asleep in the tub before bed. Maybe they should have not given up that nap! Haha!

I went back over to the fire and had some much needed adult time with some of the women that I have met. Wish Will could have been here. He would have enjoyed it and probably would have brought him back to his A&M days and the Aggie Bonfire. 

In hindsight, it is probably best that the kids decided it was bed time because it would have not been easy to wrangle three kids by myself with this monster fire! It was raining and the wind was making the embers fly everywhere as well. 

Halloween Sakhalin Style

Olympia celebrated Halloween this past Friday and it was a hit! When we were back in Houston packing, I didn't even think about Halloween stuff because I was not sure our shipments would be here (which they are not) and I truthfully didn't think that here would be trick or treating. Ash of course has her princess dresses so that was easy but I was at a loss for the boys. Many of the friends I have met told me about this toy store called Bubble Gum and I found some Pirate attire for Mike (he was happy). I was also given another pirate outfit to borrow for the night so both boys were set!

These are the "before" pics - Cathryn invited the kiddos over and they ate with their friends. Chicken and mac & cheese. Best kind of dinner!

Ash, Mike and Halle

Ben, Juno, Micah, & CJ

Ash & Ben enjoying some Ice Age

Now the fun begins. It was a great time and I really think the kids enjoyed it. Even though we only lasted an hour before they started to fall apart. I enjoyed all the costumes too. Very creative :-)

Some of the Olympia clan

The little boy on the far right in my opinion had the best costume. This is Weston and his mommy, Nikole did such an amazing job! He's a scuba diver. She cut felt in the shape of fins and placed them over his shoes, made a tank out of a water bottle and used a pacifier as the mouth piece. I loved it and he stole the show!

My kids and their friend Halle. She and Mike are a week apart

My lovely's 

My son has the "really MOM!" face down... I may be in trouble later :-)

My boys

On a mission for candy

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum caught a ride with Halle's dad

Pirate Booty

Halloween Selfie's

This was the final stop - our house :-) It was a great night but so sad Will had to miss it

Ashlynn's First Social Event!

One of the little girls in our neighborhood, Skye, turns 5 this week so she had her birthday party yesterday. When Ash starts school she will be in Skye's class. Ash  does not really know a lot of the kids her age because they live in the Zima (Shell) compound, Skye's mom invited us so both of us could meet some people and let Ash socialize with other little girls. I was informed that it was a "Princess" party.... Well, if anyone knows my daughter you'd be well aware of the fact that she lives in princess dresses! Her Cici and Papa bought her an Ariel and Elsa dress before we left and luckily they were packed in the suitcase. Her others are in the shipments. 

I thought for sure that she would go for Elsa, but no, she wanted Ariel. She's so cute and was so excited about this party!

She happened to walk into the laundry room (Elsa was worn the day before and needed washing) and found Elsa. Of course she changed her mind. She say's "I just NEED to wear Elsa". So we changed :-)

I asked her if she was sure about this dress and then we left. The party was right across the street in the library. The boys were napping and I was going to come back every 10 to 15 minutes to make sure they were still sleeping. It is not even a minute walk to the library. 

LOTS of little girls decided to dress like Elsa! The birthday girl also dressed in Elsa :-) While waiting for everyone to arrive the girls just danced around to the Frozen soundtrack :-) This is Ash, Skye, and a "Cinderella" is from Skye's class (I am bad with names and I met about 20 people yesterday!)

Skye's Dad joined in on the Princess dancing :-)

More dancing princesses!

Over here we do not have the luxury of Amazon.com, Party City, Etsy, or any other party planning stores available. You just have a the slightest bit of creativity and go with it. Skye's mom, Cherie, is an art teacher in The Woodlands, Texas (where we lived), so her creativity is at an all time high! She did such an amazing job with this party. There were a games and activities, food, cake and presents.  

One of the games was "Toss a Carrot to Sven". She painted Sven on a cardboard box and cut a hole for the mouth. The girls had to toss carrots into the mouth from behind a designated line. 

Ash came real close but missed. I don't think any of the girls made it.

In the mean time, It was time to check on the boys... As expected CJ was passed out and Mike not so much. He got dressed and came back with me. He was overwhelmed but all the screaming, giggling princesses! Then embraced the party. 

The next game was "Pin the Nose on Olaf". The little girl in pink is Mica. Cherie, had some older girls come and be little helpers at the party. They assisted the princesses with all the games. 

This bottom photo is Ashlynn's second attempt. 

Mike got in on some of the games too. Skye's dad was aiding at the carrot toss game and Mike wanted in on it.

After the kids were done eating some snacks, Cherie came up with a game in which the girls had to pick partners and make snowmen out of them. She gave each team a roll of toilet paper to run around their partner with until they were covered. It was pretty cool and fun! I believe Ashynn's partner was named Skylar and she transformed Ash into the most amazing snowman :-)

Afterward, the girls had a "snowball" fight with the toilet paper. Like I said, You have to get creative here. I loved it!

Then it was clean up and time for cake! Best party of the party.. Even mike got a cupcake :-)

After the cake it was time for the main event...... The OLAF Pinata!

This whole thing was actually pretty funny. All the girls had to get in line and the boys had to get in the back. Well, Ash decided she needed to go to the bathroom. In the time it took her to go to the bathroom she had already lost her spot in line and when we cam back in it was Mike's turn. Ash lost all kinds of her mind. She was so sad and thought she lost her turn completely! She got to have a turn when Mike was done, before the big kids went. 

They are such goobers! I love them!