Halloween!

Everyone was excited for Halloween.  Even me.  I like Halloween.  Jason said that it's his favorite day of the year.  He was all ready for school long before the time he needed to get ready.

 We took a picture with Ghostbuster Finn.

I helped in Nate's classroom, so I got to see him at his party.

 I ran the mummy center.  They came to me and raced to make each other into Mummies.

I was supposed to help Allie's class too, but Nate's party went long, so I was only there for a second.

Allie was an 80's fitness instructor.  She put a ponytail in Charlie's hair and he was her puppy assistant.

 Jake didn't dress up this year, but I still made him go to the Neighborhood parade.

We had a big crowd even though most of our little neighborhood has grown up. 

 There are people who stand outside their houses to watch the parade...

Allie and her friends were on the run.

So was Jason.  They were just so excited to Trick or treat after.

 The littles kept wanting to go, so we went way beyond our neighborhood.

 They made out like bandits.

Allie went to several different neighborhoods and came home with a haul too.

Jake only went to one house and he still had a haul!  We have a really nice neighbor across the street :)

Even Charlie found a sucker and ran off to a place where it was hard for me to reach him so he could enjoy it.

There was candy everywhere.  The kids all had a great day and there weren't any sad faces in the end.  Jake had a few friends over and they had a few hours of "hang out" time.  It's odd to have him growing up.  There were a few girls that he knew that were trick or treating and I invited them in to come party.  They were out for the candy though and kept trick or treating.
Allie stayed at a friend's house until it was pretty late and then I went to get her.  They're just getting beyond the phases that we were in for so long.  One of these days, I won't have any excuse to go door to door asking for candy.  Sad day. For sure.  Until then, things were great tonight!

Spooky Dinner

We had our annual spooky dinner.  I didn't make anything too fancy, but it was still fun.  I think as long as I've always got dry ice then there will be no complaints from the kiddos.

We had fun with it this year.

We made witch broomsticks, pumpkin puke (salsa), mummy dogs, the Jello brain, and lots of veggies...who knows what they were.

It was a fun night!

Pumpkin Pictures

So, when my babies were little, I took pictures of each one of them in a pumpkin.  Those pictures are some of my favorites for sure.

 Cute little Jake was almost 11 months old and it was quite an effort to find a pumpkin big enough for him and then make him stay in it.

Allie was just little and she was oh so cold.  But isn't she cute?!

Nate was cold too, but our challenge with him was keeping him from eating the pumpkin long enough for a picture.

Jason was only weeks old and we did his indoors.  Oh, man.  So cute.

So, then we have Charlie.  I wanted to get a cute picture of Charlie in a pumpkin.  He would not cooperate.  The kids were in school, so I had no one to hold him in there and as soon as I'd shove him in, he'd hop right back out.

I put some treats in there to entice him, but he just ate the treats and got out of there as fast as he could.

I'll have to settle for these pictures.  Since he's not really going to get much bigger, maybe we can try again another year when he is a little better at sitting still.  :)

A Beautiful Sunday

I was enjoying my Sunday after church.  In a rare event, the kids had left me to myself and I was catching up on the blog and my journal.  I knew there was fun to be had outside on the common area where the kids were chasing Charlie and playing catch with Mike, but I was loving the quiet house and time to myself.  Then, Nate rushed in and announced that we were going for a ride.  I was so tempted to tell him to go along without me, but I knew it was one of the last beautiful fall days we would have before the real cold sets in, so I walked away from the computer and went to enjoy life with my family.  I am so glad I did.
We drove up the canyon and parked to play around for a little while.  We were by a fire pit, so the boys instantly begged to build a fire.  Mike told them to go gather the stuff they needed.

Allie, Jake, and I chased Charlie around and checked out our surroundings.

It wasn't long before the boys had some smoke going.  The catalog burned up fast and then it was all over.

So, the boys jumped in the river.  Their shoes are far past the new stage, now that we've been in school for over 2 months, so they don't hold back when walking into rivers and mud.

Charlie just had a grand time sniffing every little thing he could sniff.  We had fun watching him navigate a log that was a few feet off the ground.  Allie was terrified that he would fall off, but he walked on it like it was a wide sidewalk.

I was seeing beauty in everything and loving these kids of mine and my favorite boy Mike.
It was a good afternoon.

When we went back to the truck after a little jaunt, the boys discovered that their smoky excuse for a fire had erupted into full flames.  They played with it for a little while and then had fun going back and forth from the river to douse the flames for real.

Charlie was looking super cute in the evening sun.

The wet and muddy kids rode in the back on the way home and we all came home happy.  I love our canyon and I'm glad I decided to leave my solitude and go with them.  There will be times of peace and quiet.  Way too many days of that in the future.  For now, I'll take the chaos and the kids that are constantly in my space.  They grow up so fast.  I'm grateful for days like today.