Happy Halloween

We love Halloween and look forward to it every year. This year Mackenzie and Brooklyn are at Halloween parties tonight so Steve and I are home all alone! For the first time in 16 years! Steve is usually out with our girls on Halloween night taking them trick or treating while I stay home to answer the door for all the trick or treaters that come! We are kind of sad that that chapter in our lives is over! But Steve is enjoying answering the door tonight and I am enjoying not having to get up every 30 seconds when the door bell rings!
This year Mackenzie is a Bumble Bee.

And Brooklyn is a clown. Kind of a silly clown but that fits her personality! In between the door bell ringing Steve and I are playing cards. Happy Halloween!

Jospeh and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Last night we went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the 5th Avenue in Seattle. That is one funny, silly, loud musical and we loved it. Joseph's 11 brothers stole the show and were hilarious.
Outside the theatre before going in to see the show.

Before the show we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

Brooklyn and Steve at dinner.

Traditions!

Because Halloween just wouldn't be Halloween without these!
Pumpkin and ghost decorators.

The finished project. Now it feels like Halloween!

Family Home Evening Activity - Pumpkin Carving

Tonight for Family Home Evening we carved our pumpkins.
Mackenzie and Brooklyn drawing the face on their pumpkins!

As is tradition in our home we use the jig saw to carve our pumpkins! Our girls draw the faces on their pumpkins and then Steve uses the jig saw to cut them out. It's way easier, faster and much safer then using a sharp kitchen knife!

And here are the pumpkins all carved

Happy Halloween!

Puget Sound Festival of Bands & Eisenhower Middle School Performance

Yesterday Mackenzie's marching band hosted the Puget Sound Festival of Bands competition at the Everett Memorial Stadium. It was an all day and evening event with 27 High School bands from all over Washington and Oregon competing. Cascade Sound had two performances but they only performed as exhibition. They couldn't compete because they were hosting the event. It was fun to watch Mackenzie perform again. Steve and I volunteered for 4 hours in the morning as security. We basically walked around the stadium with our badges and walkie talkie's on and made sure no one got out of hand! Fortunately for us no one caused any trouble!
That evening before the 12 bands competed in the finals competition Brooklyn's middle schools 7th & 8th grade band performed the National Anthem. It was so fun to see Brooklyn march onto the football field and perform. They did a great job.

Here they are warming up!

Performing!

Mackenzie's band performing. There are 145 students in the band and here they are all grouped together as part of their show. The sound coming from that little cluster is amazing!

It was a gorgeous fall day yesterday and Steve and I enjoyed this view all day long! Nice job Mackenzie and Brooklyn. You both were amazing!

Our 2009 Family Scarecrow is....

NEWS FLASH!

The LeBaron family scarecrow is up! Who is it you ask? A drum roll please...it is...
...the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz!!!

Close up picture of his cute painted pumpkin face!

Side view!

Here are a few pictures of Steve, Mackenzie and Brooklyn bringing the Tin Man to life!

We've lived in Washington for 12 years and this is our 12th scarecrow! Each year we start brainstorming for ideas early in the year so that we are ready to build him in the fall.

Happy Halloween & Happy Fall!

Homemade Apple Crisp

We have an apple tree in our backyard with 4 different kinds of apples growing on it. Every Fall we pick the apples and make apple crisp and apple pies.
Today after school I sent Brooklyn out to the backyard to pick some apples so I could make apple crisp for our dessert tonight. She picked a huge bowl full of juicy, crisp apples.

Apple crisp in the making!

Steve and Mackenzie enjoying a plate of homemade apple crisp with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top! Yum Yum Yum! We love Fall!

Band Competition in Eastern Washington

Fall has officially begun not only with the leaves changing colors and the cool crisp weather returning but it's also marching band season again. Last weekend we drove over to Silverdale, Washington to watch Mackenzie and the Cascade Marching Band perform for the first time this year. It was fun to watch their show and to see all the hard work they have done in their practicing so far pay off when they took 1st place in the preliminaries and finals competition in their division.
This past weekend the band traveled to Eastern Washington for another competition. Steve, Brooklyn and I decided to make a fun weekend trip out of it so we left Friday after Brooklyn got out of school and took the 4 hour drive East from us to Kennewick, WA. When we arrived in Kennewick we went out to dinner and then checked into our hotel and enjoyed a relaxing evening watching a movie on TV.
The next morning after breakfast in our hotel room we went to the mall to do a little shopping and then we took a drive through the city. We found a church building that had a nice covered pavilion where we had our picnic lunch and let our dog Kia out of the car for some play time.

Brooklyn found a cool tree to climb on and we decided it was a great backdrop for a photo shoot!

Here is a picture of the band performing.

Here is a close up picture of Mackenzie marching and playing her mellophone. She is the one to the right of the flag in the middle. Cascade took 3rd place within their division in preliminaries competition in the afternoon and then they had to cancel the finals competition because it started raining really bad. They were disappointed that they couldn't perform in the finals and try and beat their score. But it was fun to go and watch them perform and have a little weekend away. Congratulations Mackenzie and the Cascade Band!