Fall Festival (i.e., more pumpkins)

I took the kids to a Fall Festival at our country club while Will was in Boston for training.  It was a little hot for October, but a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  We had a lot of fun!

 

{Well, except for when David got stung by a small bee (in his ear) and screamed loud enough to break the sound barrier.}

 

First up, pumpkin decorating.

 

 

Claire's friend Maggie.

 

 

Luke even got in on the fun.  He liked all the glue and glitter.

 

Finished pumpkins.

 

Luke spent a lot of time crawling all over the haystack/pumpkin display.  He thought it was his own personal jungle gym.

 

There was plenty of candy for the kids to make up a goody bag.

 

Claire patiently waited a really long time to have her face painted.

 

Doesn't she look thrilled.  This is the face she makes when I fix her hair in the morning.  Ha!

 

Her reward?  A horse on her cheek and a spool of cotton candy.

 

I'm not sure why we decided to put the kids IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT to take a group photo.  Maggie and Sam belong to my friend Laura.

 

Time for the hayride.  The mommies enjoyed the "tour of homes" through the very nice gated neighborhood where the club is location.

 

Another wait in a very long line produced balloon art.

 

 

There's me with the kids.  David was clearly ready to head home.  Note to self: take the group photos first before everyone is tired, moody and dirty.

My 3 little pumpkins.

Halloween at the Hill House

Although I already posted a photo of my 3 little spooks, I wanted to post some more pictures from our evening of Halloween fun.

 

We have trick-or-treated with the same 3 families for the last several years. It initially started because there our no trick-or-treaters in our small neighborhood. Our friends Carey & Heather lived in a huge neighborhood with tons of houses and tons of kids (and our kids got tons of Halloween candy). So, we met at thier house for pizza and the dads took the kids out for candy and they moms stayed at the house and handed out candy. This year, Carey & Heather live in a new neighborhood is a beautiful new house. The kids got the perfect amount of candy (not too much, but enough to make them happy) and we continued our fun tradition.

 

Here are a few more photos of the kids in their costumes.

 

 

Luke was intrigued by the pumpkins all lit up!  (I had to use some scented candles because that is all I could find that would stand up in the pumpkins.  In case you were wondering, cucumber and charred pumpkin are not a great scent combination!

 

 

Our best family shot of the night. 

 

All the kids about to head out for candy.

 

Cute Strawberry Shortcake.  This girl is a mess!

 

Our neighbors ... cutest Dorothy and Scarecrow on the block.

 

 

My sweet cowboy!

 

Claire and Kate.

 

Will and Luke.

 

My sweet friends ... Beth, Krystie and Heather.  (Love the little photo bomber blue ninja in the background!)

Fall Fun ... pumpkin carving

We have not managed to get our pumpkins carved by Halloween for the past 2 years!  This year, the kids' persistence paid off.  And Will and I learned it wasn't bad as we remembered it being!  We had these 2 pumpkins carved lickety-split!

 

 

Getting all the yuck out!

 

Will hard at work carving Claire's pumpkin.

 

A rare picture of me hard at work on David's pumpkin.

 

All done!

 

 

Sweet kids with their pumpkins.  (Luke's pumpkin was too small to carve so we did this little activity after he went to bed.  He didn't seem to mind.)

 

Here they are all lit up on Halloween night.

 

Spooky!

Happy Halloween!

From my 3 little pumpkins ...

 

 

[Luke would not cooperate for a picture of all 3 kids together this year, so I made my own thanks to Photoshop!  As you can see, I had to bring the rocking horse outside to get Luke to sit still for an individual photo.] 

 

More fun fall photos coming soon ...

The morning after ...

Happy Halloween!! I didn't get the kids in their costumes until 4pm yesterday and we left at 5 to head to our friends' house for dinner and trick-or-treating so there was no way I was getting costume pics up on the blog last night.

Here is Fireman Dave. I really hope he doesn't have to put out any fires because he could not lift that fire extinguisher. It is not a prop. It is the real deal and it is heavy. I just ran it out for the picture.


For some reason, David felt the need to hold his hat on (with both hands) all night long.


Claire specifically requested to be Rapunzel. After studying my options online for several weeks, I finally decided to order directly from the Disney Store because (1) their costume was by far the prettiest, (2) I liked the braided wig versus big, crazy loose hair wig that is not braided (Hello, have you seen the movie? Rapunzel had braided hair.), and (3) I had a 15% off coupon code that made the Disney costume the same price as any of my other options.



Claire got to wear silver sparkle shoes and makeup. She was in heaven!


Scooby Luke was not a fan of his headpiece. This was my one attempt at a photo before Will got home and before Luke scampered off. (This costume was a hand-me-down from big brother.)


Ah, there we go. He finally wore the hat for a few minutes. (Notice older siblings holding his hands.)


Claire and her BFF Kate (posing as Sleeping Beauty ... Claire's favorite princess until Rapunzel came along).


All the kiddos at our little trick-or-treat gathering. Claire is the oldest and Luke is the youngest and one more is on the way (he is not ours).


Our hosts. This is the third year we have trick-or-treated in their ginormous neighborhood.


Much to Will's dismay, we dressed up this year. I already had the Daphne costume and I borrowed the Fred costume from a friend. I knew it would be our last chance to go as a Scooby gang since Luke was wearing the costume this year. I'm thinking neon orange hair is not my best color!


The whole gang.

And now, I'm off to eat some Halloween candy!