Dia de Los Muertas & Halloween

 We started the festive fall season with a haunted Gingerbread house by Lily.

Gemma had a friend over to make cookies and watch a movie. So Lily made her haunted mansion. 

We also bought tickets to to a really fun festival at the Hollywood Cemetery. It celebrates Dia De Los Muertas. Day of the Dead.

We did our makeup for the event and had special outfits. 

The decorations were out of this world. SO many people dressed up too.

They had a parade to start the day off. 

Some of the costumes are really elaborate. They have a contest and the winner wins several thousand dollars.

They have face painting stations too but our home job was just as good!

Lily was not interested in face makeup.

We finally bought a pumpkin (at the grocery store) and carved it on Halloween weekend.

After much much heated debate Gemma decided to dress up as a fairy. Her friends from school dressed up as fairies as well. 

Lily made her own costume. It was a big project and it turned out fantastic! She even made custom earrings to go with it. 

The fairies fly in the night. 

Brooklynn, Liv, Mia, Winter, Gemma and Hayley. 

Of course you have to sort through the loot and trade with your friends. 

The school gives them the day off after Halloween. The teachers do not want to deal with the tired bratty kids. 

Middle School Fun

Gemma has been involved in a choir program at school and she finally had her first concert. It was called Fall Y'all led by her choir teacher OG. 

She has many friends in her choir program including her friend who is in seventh grade Ravelle. They sang one song altogether called "We are Family". It was so festive and exciting seeing all that she had been learning in class in her first 2 months.

During Red Ribbon week, Gemma's school had fun and exciting dress up days each day of the week. On the second day it was twin day so Gemma and two of her friends twinned wearing hoodies and leggings.They even made it on to the school instagram site.

On the third day it was tacky tourist day we had to dress up and a tourist. Gemma went with a Disney tourist with a couple of her friends.

Lily's band had a fun festival called Jazz festival as a fundraiser, they have one every year. They have tons of games and food. There was even a henna  tattoo stand so Gemma ended up getting many.

Gemma's school had an exciting competition only for 6th graders. They were spilt up into teams to compete for points. The highest point team would win.

There were tons of games like tug of war and relay races.

Gemma's team "green" ended up winning the whole competition taking the trophy for the year. They even get a banner in the gym with everyones names on it.

 

Homecoming

Lily attended her first Homecoming dance! We did a fancy hair-do.

She decided to go with some friends, new and old.

Finding the right dress was the hardest part. After about 10 try-ons at the mall and several orders by mail she found one she loved.  We did a couple home alterations to get the right fit.

The back detail was the best part.

Ellie, Lily and Natalie. They reported the dance was fun.