Friday, November 5
Molly and I went to a nearby shopping center. (A reference for some of you: It's set up like Easton or Sandhills) We enjoyed an ice cream cone. Then we went shopping for new clothes. She loved picking out what she liked and trying them on. There were fun rides along the walk and of course we stopped to ride a couple. But her favorite was definitely the trolley ride. She had been begging to ride the trolley for months so it was the perfect time to take her on a ride. After a quick lunch at McDonalds we picked up the ice cream cake she had chosen. Later than night we were at the school for their movie night watching Toy Story 3, one of her current favorites.
Saturday, November 6The birthday fun continued when Daddy took her out for yet another ice cream cone : ) Meanwhile back at home Clarissa and I decorated the house. We waited for a friend we met from the school to come over and the neighbors also came over. We hid behind the couch and yelled surprise when she came home. She was very happy to have some playmates over and loved sharing her new toys with them. She is absolutely one of the very best gift receivers I have ever seen. I love watching and listening to her open presents!
Sunday, November 7The fun didn't stop here. (She had reminded me that Clarissa technically had two birthdays. One surprise party in Columbia and then another special day on the actual birthdate in Hawaii.) And so she also wanted to have two birthdays : ) I fixed up her hair in a tiara and she put on one of the new dresses she picked up from Friday's shopping trip. The primary sang happy birthday to her and she was able to pick out a special candy treat from the presidency. She loved the special attention!
She is such a sweet little demon...I mean girl! We love her so much and have enjoyed watching her grow and learn. Our family just wouldn't be the same without her. It was a great weekend!
There is a pumpkin patch that is close to where we live but it is only open to the public for two weekends. I decided on the first weekend because I knew we would busy during Halloween weekend. The original plan was to go to the temple open house and then to the Haunted Lagoon ride at the Polynesian Cultural Center. They are right next to each other. Only it was going to be way too expensive. So I thought, hey! Let's go to the pumpkin patch instead. It will be much cheaper and the kids can pick out what they want to carve this year. When I saw how long the line was just to get the car to the parking lot and realized that we wouldn't be able to make it time for the open house Todd and I decided to just come back the next day, Sunday. So after church, I have the kids change their clothes and we go to the patch. We took the hay ride and walked through pumpkins to pick out the most perfect one for carving. We were enjoying the open space, the fresh air, our time together, and we checked out. As we were walking back to the car, I couldn't find the keys. Yep! They fell out of my possession, most likely during the hayride. Our neighbor came to rescue us. We got Todd's spare key from the house and then drove back to get the van. That week I had to pay to replace the key, which meant they had to reprogram it. It was so expensive that I was left thinking we could have gone to the Polynesian Center to ride the haunted lagoon with the cost of this new key! When you know better than to do something, then just do the right thing. 
The week of Halloween we carved our pumpkins for Family Home Evening. It was a lot of fun. Especially for Molly who decided to just sit and eat a cupcake instead :) I put it out front being so proud of the work the kids had accomplished. Come Halloween night they were so rotten and shriveled that no one could really tell what the design was suppose to be. We'll know next year to either store it in the refrigerator or simply wait to carve on Halloween day.
