Halloween Part 2

Halloween is difficult when it's on a school night...especially when you're doing your trick-or-treating 1/2 an hour away from home. The kids and I got an early start and got to my mom's house at around 4. The plan was to hang out for a while, get ready, have dinner, and trick-or-treat. Unfortunately, dinner was pork roast and it was taking forever to reach temperature. We didn't get to head out until after 6 or 6:30.

We went out to my sister's neighborhood this year. She lives on a new street with lots of new houses and it's about 2 minutes from my parents house. Mom and I took them. I felt bad that we couldn't drive around Warrenton visiting friends and family like we usually do, but there just wasn't enough time. With smaller children, it is imperative to get them to bed at a decent hour. We ended our trick-or-treat run on my parent's road and ended up seeing a coyote race right passed us!

Synnove wanted to be a witch this year. We improvised her costume with some cute witch-like pajama's with fun striped legging pants, a little velvet shawl-type sweater (not in the pics), a big feathery hat, and fun hair-pieces. The makeup part was the most fun. She was a pretty witch...not an ugly one :)

I was happy that Soren decided it was ok to wear his hat to complete the astronaut costume. His light-up shoes were the perfect addition to his attire.

While waiting for dinner to be done, some friends and family showed up. Little Avyrie was a welcome treat.

Brielle and Tay (the Little Mermaid)

Halloween Part 1

The kids had the opportunity to carve pumpkins twice this year. Grandma and Grandpa just couldn't resist buying a few pumpkins. They really got into it and enjoyed being able to use the carving knives by themselves.

Synnove's pumpkin patch pumpkin from school

I helped Soren carve two of his 3 or 4 pumpkins. He liked making crooked mouths on purpose :)

Halloween just wouldn't be complete without a preschool field trip! The kids got to go to the Jasper's farm this year. They fed the cows, chickens, and goats before heading to the patch to pick out their pumpkins. After snack we headed back to the school to do the annual pumpkin bowling and "bobbing" for doughnuts.

Soren and Kaden were both astronauts, although I couldn't get Soren to wear his hat. I think it's funny that they are both wearing crocs too :)

Many of the kids waited to put on their costumes until after the pumpkin patch. Of course, they all looked so cute!
Top: Kaden (land astronaut), Noah (a samurai of sorts?), Soren (space astronaut), Alondra (ladybug), (crouched is Annalise...Alondra's sister), Kendall (supergirl), JR (Bumblebee from Transformers),
Bottom: Rowan (dressed in orange and black), Jake (Woody), Hannah (Sleeping Beauty), Lily (Butterfly), Taylor (Rapunzel)

Happy Belated Halloween!

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is less than a week away...and here I am, finally posting about our Halloween.

This year, Halloween threatened to be wet. It seemed to pour the entire week prior, but we had a nice break to go to the pumpkin patch with the preschool. Miss Kara told the kids to bring their costumes instead of wear them since she thought it would be mucky, but it didn't rain and the muck wasn't too bad. Like last year, we went to the Weaver Dairy.

Once back at school, all the kids dressed up in their costumes for a party. Soren was Spiderman this year, but he wouldn't wear his mask in public...unfortunate, because it really completes the costume. Oh well. I caught a shot of the kids praying before their snack. Like a good boy, Soren was one of the only ones (if not THE only one) closing his eyes...

Synnove also went to the pumpkin patch. I couldn't chaperone because I had Soren, so Synnove came home from school one day with tears in her eyes. She thought that because I couldn't go, she couldn't go. She didn't understand that field trips at school were different than field trips at preschool. Once she understood, she piped up a couple of days later and said, "Mom, I'm gonna have to give you a hug before I leave to go to school on Friday." I said, "how come??" She said, "Because I'm gonna go on the bus to go to the pumpkin patch!" How sweet that she thought that because she was leaving during school that she was going to need to give me a little extra love.

The kids stayed the night at my parent's house on Friday night so that Adam and I could leave very early in the morning to go look at a car to buy in Salem. That night the kids carved their pumpkins with Auntie Weesie. This year was actually the first year that they ever carved pumpkins. They've always painted them instead.

• On Saturday, we brought home our "new" car...an '04 Honda Pilot. LOVE it!!

The next day was Halloween. That night, we took the kids to my parent's house to get ready for trick-or-treating. We then went to all the grandma's and friend's houses and finished off in the old neighborhood. We did that last year...it's a good route for us :) Along the way, we ran into Tay, Brielle, and Faith...here's a picture of them all (including Auntie)...

Halloween

For Halloween we had planned to go trick-or-treating with Auntie Alice and Fi Fi. Auntie was feelin' pretty sore from Nutcracker practice, so just Fi Fi came. We decided to head to Warrenton and pop in on a few people we knew. We even went to my old neighborhood and visited my old house from when I was a kid (moved out when I was 14). We actually started there, and then walked from house to house all the way to my parents' house. Yes, my parents only moved a few blocks away from their old house. On the way, we stopped at our friend's new place (Matt and Carrie Smith) to say "hi." They actually just moved into the place where my great grandma used to live! Anyway, we ran into them outside their place and walked with them up to Anchor Street to visit all the neighbors we knew (Both Carrie and I have a long family history on Anchor Street)and eventually ended up at my Mom and Dad's. We all visited for a while, then headed home.

At Don and Alice's

The kids and the Smiths at my parent's house

The best part...

Preschool Pumpkin Patch

So, the kids went to a little pumpkin patch on Friday at a little farm out in Brownsmead. They all got to dress up (including little brother's and sisters) for the day. It was so fun seeing how excited they all were. Most of the parents went as well and then we all came back to school to play games and read stories.

Soren, Synnove, and Synnove's friend Grace.

Feeding the baby cows

Choosing their pumpkins

Left to right...Soren, Synnove, Joshua, Kevin, Miss Kara, Carson (Carlie's little bro), Cody, Grace, Carlie, Katie, Colby, Landen, Skyler, Daisy

Instead of bobbing for apples, the kids had to bite doughnuts from a string without using their hands...it's harder than it looks. There were a few left over, so the kids made Miss Kara do it, AND Landen's dad (on the left).