Halloween

 The kids have been looking forward to trick or treating for an entire month now! They have loved planning their costumes, taking part in classroom Halloween parties, Boo at the Zoo and my work Halloween party. It wasn't even Halloween yet and we are already overloaded with candy.

 This year Bryce had a hard time picking a costume. He used to be very into super heroes and that has kinda been phasing out lately, however he didn't really know what else to be. He finally decided that he wanted to be a Batman. He even had some Batman moves while I took his picture.

Caleb wanted to be a golfer this year. I think he had in his mind that he wanted to look like one of the golfers on TV. However, I was able to convince him to be a vintage looker golfer. I think his costume ended up being pretty cute! He wasn't so sure about having to wear his church shoes on a day that wasn't Sunday but he made it through. Thanks Mary for letting us borrow most of the costume.

 

 Abby has been working her way through the blond princesses. She has done Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and this year she was Rapunzel. She made a beautiful Rapunzel. We got her the long braided wig and it was really cute on her because it was the same color as her hair. Our little blondie.

This year there was no learning curve for trick or treating . We got the kids in costume and they were off! They were trick or treating half way down the street before we caught up to them. The boys would look for the lights and Abby would run as fast as she could after them. They would ring the bell, get the candy, yell thank you and off they were running again. I trick or treated our street with them and it was fun to see them so excited. After our street, Megan and Robb continued trick or treating and I went back to hand out candy the the neighborhood kids. It was a school night so when they got home they dumped the candy to look at their loot, ate a couple and had to head to bed. They had a great time!

Pumpkin Carving Time

 This year we told the kids we could carve pumpkins. The last couple years we have taken the easy route and just let them paint pumpkins, but this year they were determined we were going to carve them. So in came our 3 giant and very COLD pumpkins. I think the kids were having second thoughts on this project when we told them that they had to dig out all the guts from the pumpkins and the insides were half frozen from sitting outside. Abby went at it and did a great job. Bryce was pretty meticulous about his and it took him awhile and a little adult help but he got it done. Caleb on the other hand made faces like he was going to be sick every time he stuck his hand in there. Needless to say I got to dig all the guts out of Caleb's pumpkin unless I wanted a second mess to clean up.
Next they picked a face and with a little help drew it on. I carved Abby's and we just did a not scary and easy face. Bryce wanted a scary face but again I made him pick an easy one too. Robb was in charge of carving Caleb's and if you know Robb at all you know he is a perfectionist when it comes to projects like this. I was done carving Bryce and Abby's pumpkins and had picked up the table and Caleb and Robb were still trying to draw the face on his. I suddenly had flashbacks to when we were single and would carve extravagant pumpkins and Robb's would take multiple days. This time he did manage to get it done in under a day but it still took twice as long as mine. It was probably cooler than the ones that I did but oh well the kids thought they were cool.

Adult Halloween Party

 The theme for the annual Adult Halloween Party was superheros this year. It was the week before and we still hadn't decided what we were going to do. I headed out to Target to get a red t shirt and I was going to draw an R on it and be Robin. (Lame costume). While browsing the Halloween aisle I found and adult Batman costume for 8 dollars. For that price I couldn't pass it up even if I was going to look dumb in it. Its all about being silly right. So I wore the Dark Knight Batman costume and Robb dressed up like Joker. It wasn't one of our best, but I don't think we did too bad. Luckily Bryce was still at the age where it was cool that I had the same costume as him and not super embarrassing. All the neighbors has funny costumes as usual. The boys know know it is a contest and they were sad we didn't win. Thanks Megan for watching our kiddos so we could have a night out.

Rapunzel's Party

 Abby had her preschool Halloween party the week before Halloween. Abby was thrilled that I got to come to school with her. She has been having a hard time when I drop her off and her teacher says that throughout the morning she will randomly say "I just want my momma". My little mommy's girl.
It was adorable to see all the little kids in costumes. This year I don't feel like I know the kids or parents as well so it was good to meet Abby's classmates.
All the kids had to stand up with their teacher and say who they brought to the party and what they were dressed up as. I figured Abby would be too shy to go up there but she did great.
She had made really cute pumpkin and ghost cookies to pass out to her classmates. She did the sprinkles and was very proud of how they turned out.

 The little girl in the bumble bee costume is Penny. I think Abby became friends with her mainly because her name was the same as our dogs. Now they are quite the little pair.

Pumpkin Patch

 I love fall and all the activities that it brings. One of our favorites is going to the pumpkin patch. We have always kept it simple and just went to Roca Scary Farms in Roca, NE. I have heard that there are other bigger and better places around but this one just seems to fit us. Robb is not a huge fan of the pumpkin patch, so usually the kids and I just go some afternoon and spend the day there.
Bryce and Caleb had fall break the second week of October so they had a Monday and Tuesday off. It was nice having them home! I miss being able to do fun activities during the week with all of them. We picked a perfect day. The weather was warm and sunny. Roca had added a lot of things this year so the kids were thrilled. I think every ones favorite were still the wiggle bikes though. Abby was old enough this year to figure it out, finally. Bryce loved racing his all over the place being careful not to run into anyone in the process. Caleb tried stunt riding his bike and at one time just had one foot on it and one sticking out to the side. The next thing I knew him and his bike were flying off the cement pad and he landed face first in the rocks. Our poor little dare devil.
We did the slides, jumping pillows, petted all the animals, played pumpkin bowling, did the duck races and the boys even went through one of the more mild haunted houses. Bryce really wanted to go though the haunted house, so I convinced Caleb to come with us and I told Abby I would just carry her and she could close her eyes. Well that didn't work our for me. She freaked out. Luckily some nice lady saw the predicament I was in and offered up her 12 year old to chaperon the boys through. Bryce and Caleb also saw their kindergarten teacher and her family there. It was funny to see them be shy around her. The almost didn't know how to act around her since they weren't in the classroom.
 We ended our day by taking the hay rack ride to get pumpkins. They give out bags to the kids to get a volleyball sized pumpkin. This year I told the boys that they could get one that was a little bit bigger because we planned to carve them this year. I didn't know what I had gotten myself into. Abby found a huge white pumpkin that she had to have so I hauled it back to the hay rack ride. In the mean time Bryce had walked halfway across the field and picked one that was even bigger than Abby's. After hauling his back I told Caleb to pick his quickly before we got left behind. Caleb had a hard time picking his but settled on a big one too. I'm sure we were an interesting site watching me trying to get 3 kids and 3 35 lb pumpkins back to the farm.
 Fall has offically started now that we have made our journey to the pumpkin patch.

Fishing with Grandpa and Grandma

We got a chance to go fishing with Grandma and Grandpa a couple weekends ago. The kids think fishing is pretty cool and we don't have the equipment for fishing. Mainly because if we are going to be by water Robb is going to be wake boarding not sitting around waiting for fish to bite. I was kind of impressed with myself that I still remembered enough about fishing to help hook 2 out of the 3 fish we caught. Bryce caught the first fish. He was thrilled! The bad thing was that Bryce caught the one and only fish last year so Abby and Caleb were upset that he caught the first fish again. A couple minutes after Bryce caught his, Caleb got his fish. He also was very excited. He really wanted to take his home to eat it which maybe we should have let him do but it was so tiny we hold him it wouldn't even make a fish stick. Abby didn't seem too interested in fishing, until both the boys had caught fish and she hadn't. So she came down by the water, determined to catch a fish too. Grandpa Steve threw her line out and she reeled it right back in. Again he threw it out and we tried to tell her to leave it out in the water a little but she wasn't going to do it our way. Low and behold she was the only one that managed to hook her own fish and I'm pretty sure her hook was so close to land that she caught her tiny fish in the mud. Whew we managed to get everyone a fish. It was a hugely successful fishing trip! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for taking us fishing.
One more thing... I was responsible for picking up night crawlers at the gas station for our fishing trip. The kids thought it was the craziest thing ever that you can buy worms from a gas station. They had to open the dish up in the car just to see it for themselves. Oh my little city kids.