Allen's Spooktacular 2014

As the girls get older and start to enjoy the spookier side of Halloween, we get to celebrate and see a whole new side of Halloween.  Halloween has always been Nick's favorite holiday.  The spooky decorations, the scary movies and the macabre tales.  I on the other hand, I like Christmas.  The pretty twinkle lights, festive songs serenaded to all by Bing! I guess opposites do attract!  

This year, we did the normal pumpkin carving and decorating as we have each year with our girls.

The girls love to pull out the pumpkin guts and explore. 

This year, we decided to incorporate a new little holiday tradition.  Nick and his Mom painted ceramics during his childhood, they painted some for a variety of holidays and she's kept them over the years.  She displays them and cherishes and I've always admired her thoughtfulness and simple ways she captured a moment and everyone is able to admire it each year.  So, this year I wanted to create the same with my girls; I picked up some fun pieces, paint and brushes and made a fun craft night for the the family.  We each painted our own ceramic pieces. 

The girls loved seeing their artwork displayed.  I can't wait for our Christmas ceramics party and enjoying seeing their faces as we break out our paint and brushes again. 

Another fun Halloween treat we took the girls to was the Hot Air Balloon Trick or Treat party! This was such an amazing experience and one that I will always remember. The event was held at the Talking Sticks Resort in Scottsdale and showcased about 30 hot air balloons.  Each owner of the balloon handed out candy to all the trick-or-treaters along with other games and goodies.  The kids were amazed just as much as we were. 

My little pirates! 

The day of Halloween I was able to help out in Sofie's first grade classroom with the classroom Halloween party.  It's these moments that I adore; seeing Sofie in her element and how well she does in class makes me so happy and proud of her.  

Here is Sofie's first grade class- 

The actual Halloween festivities were fairly low key compared to all the other events.  The girls loved walking the neighborhood and asking for candy in their best pirate voices! "arr matey" 

They even found a house with a mock Jolly Roger! 

I was playing the part of some sort of 1920's flapper girl and Nick was my dapper gentleman. 

All in all, this year was a fantastic Halloween Allen Spooktakular! 

Flash Forward 2014

I’ve decided to revive the Allen family blog!!

When I initially started writing this blog it was meant to capture all the new and exciting moments of our lives and all the exciting adventures we were about to embark on by becoming a first-time parents.  It soon evolved into a place to capture all the memorable moments Nick and I began to share with our little treasure; all the feelings we felt and shared with all the family and friends.The story has continued to evolve and transform, but the blog was at some point left behind and left off of our fun little ride.  
Enter social media!  Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram…Vine! They’ve all played a part in capturing our little quirky moments and fun memories. When it comes to looking back and remembering those times, a Facebook timeline or Instagram feed tends to leave out some of the tidbits.  I've never been one for scrapbooking or maintaining chronological albums, but clicking pictures and posting fun lines, well...it's what I've always done.  So, the idea of focusing my efforts back to this trusty web address seemed right! Most of you reading this are probably on one of my friends or family lists and follow right along in our story.   However, in a moment of nostalgic remembrance, I recently looked back at all the past posts I’ve shared on this blog and to be honest, I laughed, cried and experienced all those moments all over again.  It made me realize the streams of social media timelines, photo feeds and tweets only capture a glimpse, a segment, a partial story.  I want to look back at these crazy years and remember the entire story not just a slice. 

The blog has always been a way to preserve some of the experiences in a way that could somewhat encapsulate those precious moments in time.  It’s a time machine of sorts; it rushes me back to that moment I found out I was pregnant, or the moment Nick came up with the name of our first baby girl.  The moments I am able to read the post, see the pictures and watch the videos are special to both Nick and I and will soon be to our girls.  

I want to redirect my efforts and focus my efforts on sharing them here.  I want this blog to serve as a place that my girls will be able to visit, share and enjoy years from now.  I want them to read all about the moments that were perhaps trying, funny, frustrating and memorable and see the pictures that accompany those moments in our lives.

This blog is not meant to be a platform for any specific purpose; might not have a plethora of devout readers or even make anyone’s weekly “reading list”.  I do hope that those that are not as close as we’d hope to be will visit the page often and keep up with us.  

So, stay tuned! 

With love, 

The Allen's