Catching Up:Halloween Pictures

Phew! October was a busy month! I have barely had any time to post anything on my poor neglected blog. Between the zillion Halloween parties and being out of town, I feel like the month just flew by.

On Halloween, our evening was spent with a house full of friends eating chili and passing out candy. Payton went trick or treating on his own this year with a group of his friends (yikes - this mama was nervous!) and then met back up with us in our circle for a few more houses.

Both boys had a blast as usual, but I was secretly glad to see the holiday pass. It seemed that there were a LOT of activities during the month of October, so I was ready to move on to a slower-paced November and enjoy catching up on a few things (like my blog).

But before I say my official "goodbye" to October, I thought I'd post a few pictures for posterity sake...

Parker & his pal Riley at a Halloween carnival. Gender roles anyone??

My cuties at our local pumpkin patch

Making our annual Halloween gingerbread house. I love this tradition!

Payton and I ran our first 5K together. He did great and beat his goal time. Way to go Payton!

Halloween Night

Brian dressed up as a 90's Gator Fan for Halloween. Jean shorts, mullet, Blueblocker glasses and all.

Our good friends got in on the wig fun!

Had to serve our annual chili buffet for Halloween night.

Getting ready to head out for trick-or-treating. Parker in his panda costume and Payton was a "cereal killer."

Close-up of my cute panda (wondering if this will be his last year of cute costumes?)

Sorting and trading candy the next morning. One of my favorite things as a kid!

Okay, now that I've got Halloween recorded in the books, I can move on to another fun topic... our cruise! I will post all the pictures and details on our recent cruise next time on my blog. Stay tuned!

Halloween Photo Dump

Hello out there!

Sorry I've been MIA lately.

With all we had going on with Halloween (Cub Scouts party, school parties, school parade, trick-or-treating) and the fact that our primary car died, we've been consumed with so much "stuff" lately, the blog has definitely taken a back seat.

BUT...for my own purposes, I would like to document this Halloween season, as I have ever year since I started this blog.

So, prepare for a complete photo dump! :)

We started out the Halloween festivities with the annual Cub Scout party, which is held at Payton's school. Everyone gets dressed up and each den makes their own game for the kids to play and then hands out candy for prizes. The kids absolutely love it.

I made Mummy Dogs for dinner that night, knowing the kids would want to load up on candy once we got there.

I snapped this photo right before we left, which I'm glad I did because we didn't get any family photos on Halloween. As you can see, the boys are Jedi Knights/Luke Skywalker and I am R2D2 (well, I'm wearing an R2D2 tank top, which totally qualifies as dressing up in my book).

The boys loved all the games at the Cub Scout party:

Our den does "Angry Birds" every year and it continues to be one of the most popular games of the night!

 

A couple days before Halloween we carved our pumpkins. Parker really got into it this year. He loved pulling out "all the guts" (no surprise there).

Payton wanted to carve his own pumpkin this year. So I cut the top off and he did the rest!

I think he did an awesome job!!

On Halloween night, I made my annual chili bar, complete with about 5 different toppings. We brought it to our neighbors house and enjoyed a yummy dinner with them before heading out to trick-or-treat.

My Star Wars cuties.

And of course we roasted the most delicious pumpkin seeds. I think I may grow pumpkins next year just for the seeds!

Halloween night was a huge success. We walked the neighborhood circle and chatted with all of our sweet neighbors. The kids got a ton of candy, and then we headed back and handed out candy the rest of the evening. It was great fun.

Aside from celebrating Halloween this month, we also welcomed my brother and his family back to the state of Florida! We're so excited that they now live on a little over an hour away from us! The cousins are so happy, they want to see each other every chance they get.

We drove over one afternoon and spent the day swimming, grilling and enjoying a beautiful, crisp fall afternoon together.

These two are like two peas in a pod!

We also enjoyed several days of cool weather for this first time all year. It made for perfect al fresco dining, and bonfire nights. And Payton had his first experience lighting and cooking on the grill. If this kid can master cedar plank salmon, he's going to have one happy wife one day. :)

And last but not least, we had to say goodbye to my beloved Lexus RX350. I have loved that car for the past 7 years, but it had a blown head gasket, needed breaks, and tires, and would cost about $6,000 to make the repairs. After lengthy discussions with lots of people at Lexus and trusted family members, we decided to trade it in for a new car.

The boys could not be happier about having a 3rd row in our new GMC Acadia. It's a gorgeous car and I am so nervous to drive it or park it. But I'm sure after it gets it's first scratch or spilled snack, I'll relax a bit. As for now, I'm inhaling every bit of new-car-smell out of it, and enjoying all the new bells and whistles that come on new cars these days (Yay for Bluetooth and navigation systems!).

Okay, that's it for now. I've got some great new recipes to share this month along with some cute Thanksgiving ideas. Stay tuned!

Phew...Halloween Re-Cap

This past week just about did me in.

We've been going non-stop around here with Fall Festivals, Halloween parties, class parties, birthday parties, a school parade and a partridge and a pear tree. No, wait... wrong holiday.

I've done my best to savor every moment of the holiday craziness, knowing that next year, the boys will be a year older, and things will continue to become more "baby-ish" or "un-cool" to them. I couldn't get Payton to do any Halloween crafts this year. He just didn't seem to have any interest. And while I always knew there would come a day when he would grow out of wanting to do crafts with his mom, I just don't think I realized it would be quite this soon. Kinda one of those "wish I would have seen it coming" moments.

And despite the fact that we couldn't even see Payton trick-or-treating most of the night last night because he was far, FAR in front of us with all his friends, I did still feel the child-like magic that comes from dressing up in costumes, looking at spooky decorations and enjoying way to much candy...even from my very cool 8-year old.

And while I'm looking forward to a much slower month in November, I know we'll ramp things back up in December for a month-long Christmas spectacular celebration. But in the meantime, here is a major photo dump from the past week of Halloween festivities...

We did finally visit our favorite pumpkin patch and take some photos of the boys. The ones below were taken with my friend's DSLR camera that she is letting me borrow. I can't believe the difference a good camera makes!

This is the first year Payton has carved his own pumpkin. It made this mama very nervous to see him stabbing and sawing away, but he did great and the pumpkin turned out just perfect!

 

Parker is so photogenic sometimes.

Instead of having the kids dress up in their Halloween costumes, Payton's school has a book/vocabulary parade every year. Depending on their grade, the student chooses either a book or a vocabulary word and then dresses up as that character/word. This year, Payton teamed up with one of his good friends to be the word, "Jack-O-Lantern."

Parker anxiously awaiting Payton in the school parade.

Immediately after the parade, the class had their Fall Centers. They made adorable crafts and yummy treats. It was really fun.

Then I raced from Payton's school, over to Parker's school for his Fall Party. The kids made foam sticker crafts, listened to fall books and then had a fun snack.

How cute are these little munchkins?

Particularly, this little munchkin. :)

And then of course as the sun went down, the spooks and gouls (and Superheroes) appeared for a night of trick-or-treating.

Yes, that's Payton behind that scary costume.

Parker doing his "Spiderman Shooters." (Don't mind the mismatched shoes, it's his signature look)

Sorry for the blurry pic. That's what you get when you ask an 8-yr old to take the photo.

 Personally, I think they're much cuter withOUT their masks on.

 

  Basically this was our view for most of the trick-or-treating... all of the kids' backs. (Someone definitely thought he was one of the big kids.)

 Parker really got into trick-or-treating this year. I think 2 is the best age for holidays. He is awe-struck by just about everything. Each bowl of candy was a new adventure for him.

But alas, even superheroes get tired sometimes. Good think Coach Ditka was around to help out.

We ended the night with a gorgeous sky and a wonderful time with all of our neighbors.

Until next year...

Happy Halloween!