SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!

The first real snow of this winter was a doozy: a big, soft, fluffy fall that stuck to the trees and bushes, delighted the kids and inspired the creation of a tiny snow fort and some teensy snow people to go with it.



Kate waves to her cousins in Texas, wishing she could share the day with them ...



... and Max says, "Hi, Bella! Come play!"



The tiny snow guy, with a tiny carrot nose dug out of our dormant garden!




Max makes a snowball.



What would a day playing in the snow be without some hot chocolate to finish it off?

Grace greenly turns 9

Rather than a sleepover, Lainey had a "late-over" for her 9th birthday, with friends coming in jammies for a dinner of noodles ...



... then snuggling down in the basement for "Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure" ...



... while Emma and her friend, Abby, painted toes and fingernails (super-nice sweatpants on Melissa there, by the way) ...




... finishing up with presents and some beautiful butterfly cupcakes. We love you, Grace!

Boo-Rah! An 'NCIS' Halloween!

For the ward trunk-or-treat and for trick-or-treating later, the Kratzes dressed up as the cast of "NCIS." Stac, obviously, was lab genius Abby (check out my Caf-Pow); Emma was Dr. Mallard (Ducky); smartypants Gracie was McGee; and Kate (in a neat bit of typecasting) was trained assassin Ziva David. Max, in his skeleton costume with a military tattoo on back, was the "dead Marine" that graces many an episode of "NCIS," and Daddy? Gibbs, of course. Let the head-slapping begin!



A week later, we thought it was Halloween again ... except with masks made of bologna. Eeeeuuw.

The day before the day before All Hallow's Eve ...

Gracie looked bac-a-licious in her costume for school on Thursday, when they had all their Halloween festivities because school is out Friday. She was determined to go as bacon, so we got creative and made her costume out of foam sheets that we (read: Stacey) colored. Then I gave her makeup that matched the bacony goodness. She was pretty pleased with it!


Kate, inexplicably, wanted to be a banshee. Where she heard of banshees we have not yet determined, but her she is in all her ghoulish splendor, though I don't know that traditional banshees are this cheerful.


I went as Abby from "NCIS." It was really fun putting on that persona for the day! There's no pic of Greg because he went as ... Greg. He claims he goes every year as a disgruntled middle manager, but I think that doesn't count.


Emma waits for the Halloween parade to go by. She went as a zombie and we had a great time shredding old clothes, painting them with "mud" of unsweetened cocoa and water and getting them (and her) all bloodied up. It's been fun the past couple of years doing her costumes as she's moved past wanting to be cute or beautiful every year and into stuff that's more imaginative.


The zombie shuffles through the parade as parents look on in the school gym.


Gracie's classmates flat-out didn't believe her when she said she was coming as bacon. But they do now!


Em and her friend, Kai, at their class Halloween party. Kai didn't start the day with that surgical glove on his head — we gave them out as part of the "CSI" theme of their party, which also featured fingerprint identification, "body-part" (read: peeled grapes and cold spaghetti) palpation, dissecting bloody eyeballs (that tasted like chocolate cupcakes) and processing evidence (caramel apples) to be bagged and tagged in real biohazard bags. Yes, it's all about the grossness in sixth grade — and about the cool playlist I made to run during the party!

'Cause this is THRILL-AH, Thriller night!

The whole sixth grade at Em's school learned the dance from "Thriller" this past month, which heavily influenced her decision to go to school as a zombie that day — following the Halloween parade, they performed it in the gym. Here she is in her "dead moldering corpse" pose as the song started.


As parents and a few classes watch, the corpses rise from the dead and prepare to get down and boogie.


The corpses party like it's 1899 (sorry to mix '80s music references) ...


Anyone who's seen the video will remember THIS sequence, though I don't remember pink satin Super Girl being part of it ... or a clown.


The best part of this dance was how much fun they all seemed to be having. Em, shockingly to all of you who know her, really got into it and vows to teach the whole family.

So let me hold you tight and share a chiller, killer, thriller here tonight!

Em and Max are wack-a-doos; 'nuff said

... in a jester hat from the dress-up drawer ...

... and acting bizarro in her new skull-patterned footed PJs. Do they glow in the dark? Oh, my, yes. Did we get them from the boy's department because apparently marketers don't think girls like anything but Hannah Montana and High School Musical in their nightwear? Oh, mas oui, she said somewhat disgustedly.

A belated surprise for Junie

We finally got around to giving Kate her "friend" birthday party, only three months AFTER her actual birthday! To make it more special for her, we did it as a surprise "Pink Piggy Princess" party. She was really excited.


We didn't invite a ton of kids, just Kate's four best friends, three of whom are in the photo above: Angie, Rachel, (then Kate) and Izzy — and, of course, Max had to be there, too!


Each person made her own pink princess crown, personalized with glitter and Sharpies and stick-on jewels (Max personalized a green visor, otherwise I would have been strangled by his father).


Then we played, "Pin the Pink Pearls on Miss Piggy" (aiming for her ears; she was already pretty well accessorized otherwise).


Then we took some time and did a service project making puppets to go with story books for kids at the Primary Children's Hospital.


Kate and her friend, Mary, working on the service project.


And, to eat, of course we had pink fizzy punch and SOUP, Kate's favorite food.


Blowing out the candles ...


... and sitting on the pink princess throne to open presents!


Finally, we did a game where the girls took 1 minute to make a princess outfit out of various scarves, fake jewels, a crown and a pink plastic tablecloth. Their results were very cute!


We love you, Katie June! You are our pink piggy princess forever!