Halloween Festivities

We were all so excited for Halloween this year. The week before Halloween we used our Halloween dishes and for lunch we cut our sandwiches into pumpkins, ghosts, bats, and moons. We decorated caramel apples, listened to fun Halloween music, carved our pumpkins, and wore our costumes almost everyday in preparation for our fun filled Halloween weekend. On the one sunny day during the week we headed over to the park to take some fun costume pictures. After coming home we sat on the front porch to take our traditional porch picture. Abby was really interested in the pumpkins and loved playing with her tiny pumpkin.

This year for Halloween the boys wanted to be a knight and crusader and Emma wanted to be a pink princess. We dressed up Abby in the smallest princess dress we had and so she got to be Snow White. Emma was insistent on wearing a crown this year. We looked at a few stores and ended up buying two pretty inexpensive tiaras. Of course both of them broke before Halloween and so we ended up buying one more cheap tiara which she was not allowed to wear until Halloween (or in the pictures because I thought she looked better without it--she agreed to take pictures without it on--thank goodness). The boys wanted new swords and shields and after looking everywhere and not having much luck with knight swords and shields we opted to settle for the shields we already owned. It is not surprising that both of them wanted the same shield. With a little convincing we were able to work it out.

Our church Halloween party was a blast. The boys braved the Haunted House and since I was taking Emma around to the different booths while Mike was manning one of the booths I hardly saw the boys all night. Thankfully I knew that they were not far and surrounded by people I trust. Halloween night was just as much fun. Mike was sick so I got to take the older three out to go trick or treating. We were fortunate enough to leave the house the same time as some of our good neighbors. The kids enjoyed trick or treating with some of their neighbor friends and I loved being able to catch up with the adults. The boys were so excited and rather quick which made it hard to keep up with them. Emma and I ended up skipping a few houses and I carried her part of the way just to keep up with the boys. I love our neighborhood and our neighbors. We live on such a great street with so many wonderful people. Oh how we will miss trick or treating here next year!

My Better Half

I really am quite the lucky one in my relationship with Mike. He is always doing such nice things for me and fun things for the kids. The kids love it when they hear the garage door open at night because that means they get to play with their dad. Abby has become quite the daddy's girl and I love to see her excitement when Mike comes home from work. There is something to be said about balance in a relationship. I often find that when I am lacking patience Mike seems to balance it out with his calm and fun demeanor. Today after coming home from visiting some ladies in our church I found the kids being pulled in Mike's make shift party train. They all had on party hats and even had a train station where they took turns getting out. It looked like so much fun and I was even tempted to hop into one of the baskets. Mike is always coming up with fun activites for the kids. I feel so blessed to be married to such a great man who loves his family and makes the time to be creative and fun. I couldn't ask for a better man--he truly is my better half!

Maris Farm

It is our tradition every year to go to the Pumpkin Patch with the kids to pick out our pumpkins. This year we decided to try a new pumpkin patch highly recommended by some of our friends. It was a bit of a drive but it was well worth it. Not only was it a goregous day but the drive through the country with all of the different colors of fall was something to behold. After the boys soccer games we met at Maris Farm to begin our pumpkin patch adventure. This was way more than a simple pumpkin patch--it was an incredible farm with lots of fun things for the kids to do. Some of our favorite activites were the corn room, the cow train, the kid size orange tractor, the spinning room, the pony ride, the animals, the pig races, the giant pillow, the amazing corn maze, and the long mine slide. We probably spent a good deal of time in the corn room and letting the kids jump on the giant "pillow." We even made time to each some rather yummy funnel cake. Emma had so much fun riding the pony all by herself while the boys headed back to the spinning room. It is this dark room with a 20 ft platform that you walk across as the round glow in the dark walls spin around you. It was so trippy to walk across it and I kept falling toward one of the railings. I couldn't keep my mind from being tricked and I felt like I was actually spinning. We all met up afterwards to watch the pig races. That was just plain hilarious.

After playing for a good portion of the day we decided to end with the corn maze followed by picking out our pumpkins. I was really impressed by the corn maze. It was organized into two sections and you had "passports" with questions to help get you through the maze. There were many different categories of passports to choose from. After coming to each question you answered it and then your answer told you which direction to take. The first half of the questions were on one side of the corn maze which led you back to the beginning. For those that were daring enough to keep going they could just continue on the second section. As for me and Abby, we ventured over to the pumpkins while the others did the second section. They all had a lot of fun and since they had clues to help them there wasn't too much trouble getting through the maze.

After grabbing a wheelbarrow we headed up and down the rows to find those perfect pumpkins. The pumpkins were all neatly organized into long rows. All of our kids found great pumpkins and Abby enjoyed riding in the wheelbarrow. We bought a small pumpkin for her which she happily held all the way to the car. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day together. It was just the way we wanted to spend this beautiful fall day!