Halloween Festivities!

Halloween this year was jam packed with fun stuff going on!!!  Although I will say that we almost missed carving pumpkins because I was just so focused on my own grief over missing my sister all month long.  I snapped out of it (sort of) a few days before Halloween, and went to buy the boys their pumpkins.  Yes, we totally went to the pumpkin patch yet didn't buy their carving pumpkins there.  I got them at Giant for a fraction of the cost of what they charge for them at the pumpkin patch!

Anyway, one evening a few days before Halloween, we set out to carve their pumpkins and John even helped us out this year.  Usually I just do it with them, but now there are two and they're not quite strong enough to physically carve it themselves, so they need a little help from us.  I usually do the cleaning out of the "guts".  That's my favorite job!!  Lol

After they were cleaned out, the boys picked their patterns (coincidentally, I'm pretty sure they chose the same two they chose last year - I have reusable stencils - I'm pretty sure the same boy chose the same pattern, even, lol)  And, no ... we did not cut a 4 and 6 year old loose with giant butcher knives like the picture above shows.  That was staged. :)

And, here are their finished products.  I think we did a pretty good job on these two ... we work well as a team!!

The day of Halloween Jacob's school had an Imagination Parade in the morning.  All the kids and teachers were invited to dress up as a storybook character or something they wanted to be when they grew up.  It was so fun to see all the cool costumes!! Some kids were able to wear their actual Halloween costumes.  While others, like Jacob, couldn't because it couldn't be something with a mask.  What did our little guy go as?? A soccer player, of course. Lol  He wore his uniform from the Fall soccer season.  I'm not sure how he didn't freeze to death that morning because it was soooo cold out!

And, check out his teacher, Mrs. Geyer!  She was Chester the raccoon. :)

That afternoon John's parents and nephew arrived for the weekend!!  It was soooo much fun to go trick-or-treating with the three of them. Check out our trick-or-treaters.

Jacob was the headless horseman.  See why he wasn't able to wear his costume to school? Lol

Henry couldn't decide on a costume, so instead of buying him something this year we let him choose from our bin of costumes/dress-up clothes.  He went with Batman!

Our nephew, Josh, was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!

Look how cute they were all trick-or-treating together.  I'm so glad they had that opportunity because I'm not sure when they will again.

Happy Halloween (late) everyone!

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

October is always such a crummy month in our family now that my sister passed away that month, but it's also Henry's birth month.  So, we try to make it as fun and memorable as we can.  I don't always succeed, but I sure try.

That said, Henry's birthday is 6 days before my sister's angel-versary, so the weekend before his birthday, we took the boys to the Pumpkin Patch.  We took them to Pumpkinville in Leesburg.  The last time we went there, it was the week before she died.  Last year we went to Great Country Farms to try something different.  It was fun, but really far away!

So, this year we took them to one that was much closer.  It was a long day for Jacob and myself.  We went to church in the morning, the pumpkin patch all day and then Awana that night.

When we got there immediately we went to all the fun stuff and figured we'd save the animal park for last.  Jacob wanted to go down the big hay slide right away, so we were happy to oblige.  I wish Henry would have gone, as well, but he's a lot more timid than his brother, and I'm not about to push him.

We met up with some friends there who have a son that's the same age as Jacob.  They actually go to the same school and were in the same class for a few weeks last year.

While my parents were hanging out with Henry, Jacob and I talked to and hung out with our friends.

We checked out a fish pond that I had never seen before on my other visits.  Some kids were there feeding them, so it was a frenzy!

After we were only there about 20 minutes or so, our friends left.  They had been there all morning and we're tired, so they excused themselves  and we went on to enjoy the rest of our day.

We took the hayride next!!  It wasn't busy, which was nice, so we were able to get right on with no wait.

We rode this around the entire park, and then when we got back, the boys wanted to check out the maze (made of hay).

After they were done in here, they checked out a few of the moon bounces, and then when started working our way back to the front of the park.  On our way back up the hill, Jacob saw the zip line and decided he wanted to give it a whirl.  I know he likes to try new things and he's super athletic, but I really didn't expect him to go through with it.

But, he did!

That was pretty much the highlight of my day!

After that there wasn't much left to see, so we headed out to the Animal Park.  I LOVED seeing all the animals, as did the kids!!  There is one area where you can go in and pet/get up close and personal with the animals.  That's where I fell in love with this beautiful little goat!

There were also soooommme ... not so beautiful animals.

Most of them were friendly enough, though.

This next one just made chuckle ... 

Then we just cruise through checking out the rest, and then we pretty much left.  Henry stayed with my parents the rest of the day, but Jacob and I headed straight to Awana.

The Pumpkin Patch is one of our favorite things to do, especially as a family, so we'll continue to do the same thing year after year.  We may just change up the location from time time.  Ironically enough .. we took the kids to the *pumpkin* patch, but didn't actually buy a pumpkin there. Lol