What a Gorgeous Fall Day Looks Like

Last weekends bitter cold snap had me believing we were in for only cold days; that winter was here. Then I saw on a friend's blog that we were in for some warm days! Hallelujah!!!

We finished up our school work, some of which we did outside (!), then we played :)

 I  love the angle of the sun in the fall and winter. Hate the cold that's a result of that angle, but I'm focusing on the positive ;)

 They wanted to rake leaves. Finally, most of the leaves are off the trees and it wasn't freezing!

 Megan watched, waiting for her brothers' labor to create a lovely pile of leaves ;)

 They worked quite a while.

 Finally, it was big enough!

 and they jumped...

 and they played...

 and they smiled sweetly in their completely fall bliss...

 Brandon came in after a while, but Nick and Megan stayed out there all afternoon.

 They laid in the leaf pile talking a playing. I love all the leaves in Megan's hair in this photo. That's a sign of childhood :)

 Then they saw me...

More sweet smile! Thank you, God, for the blessing yesterday was to me!

Trick or Treat!

We've been up to so much in the last five days that I'm blogging fast and furiously to keep up so it doesn't all get shoved aside and eventually forgotten! Because that's just how I roll ;) I shove it aside then a few months later I see it again with a wistful thought that it should have been blogged.

I'm skipping ahead to tonight. Because it was trick or treat! Our kids have thoroughly enjoyed Halloween this year especially with all the extra little things we've done. Tonight was the icing on the cake (and tons of candy in the bag...UGH!) so tomorrow it's back to business as usual around here ;)

 Megan switched hears and decided she wanted to be Simba at the last minute. That's a girl for ya ;)

 We decided to put our spider web from Trunk-or-Treat up to add some spooky to our front porch. It was a great idea! Kristen and Jon took the job of candy passer-outers :)

 Off they go! I let them troll the cul-de-sac alone then I take them out into the rest of the neighborhood. We saw some really cool, spooky stuff tonight!

 Cute candy passer-outers ;)

It was a really fun night! Actually, it's been a really fun weekend! So many fun things! Hope eveyone else enjoyed their Halloween!

Trunk or Treat!

This afternoon, we participated in our first-ever Trunk-or-Treat! I'm not sure what kept us away last year. Before that, we went to a different church and they didn't have a Trunk-or-Treat so we just hadn't ever gotten around to one.

But we did tonight! And we loved it! Because we had signed up last minute (always...ugh) we didn't really have a plan as to how to decorate our trunk so I hopped on Pinterest (!) and looked up a few simple ideas. All I had to do after that was give Todd a brief description of one I thought we be fun and he took it from there!

 A spooky spider web! Our Mad Scientist was caught in the web so he did what any Mad Scientist would do...pass out candy!!

 I took this one just as it started getting a bit busy:

 Todd took Megan around while I stayed with Brandon. Nicholas took off to do his own Trunk-or-Treating ;)

 It stayed like this behind our van for the better part of an hour:

 Nick had a turn behind the web after he made the candy rounds and then ate enough of it to kill something ;)

 I also snapped a few of my favorite trunks:

 Pac Man! Love it!

A cute ice fishing pond. The kids got a home-made fishing pole and cast it over then a treat miraculously appeared on the other end ;) Fun!

It was chilly outside this evening but we had so much fun! We'll definitely be repeating this next year. And I already have a pins on Pinterest for fresh ideas!

Halloween Party

I need to get a quick post up here because we're right in the middle of a crazy, busy weekend that started on Thursday! So many fun things going on it's making my head spin! It's going to be a challenge to get to everything but we're going to give it our best shot :)

After co-op on Thursday, we picked up my mom for the little Halloween party in Pickerington. She's a member of the Lion's Club in there so she usually has to work at the party but this year, she just wanted to see the sights. And boy did we see some sights! It started with a live pumpkin!

 Then we saw the mad scientist who had animated her!!

 "My creation!"

 We had to BEG Nicholas to put his costume on for one quick picture. Immediately after, he removed it and put it back in the car ;)

 Our kids never just smile for the camera ;) My mom's surrounded by crazy people! (and loving it!)

The first thing we did was so on a "Ghost Tour". I didn't take any pictures of that but they led us around town to stations where a "ghost" told us their story. We ended at the cemetery! It was good and spooky but not too bad at all. The kids loved it!

Some businesses passed out candy and some had a little haunted house to walk through:

 Everyone's favorite was the haunted house done up at the historical society:

 They had station of "monster parts". You could stick your hand in there and check them out...if you dare!

 Of course, our kids had to check out the gross stuff ;)

 There was a fortune teller too. Truth be told, I hesitated letting them participate. We do not have anything to do with occult-type stuff. I don't believe it should even be messed around with. But I let them in the end because I knew she was only pretending and not "really" telling their futures. She was really sweet to them telling them she could "see" that they like school and reading and that they should try really hard to do well.

  It was a fun haunted house!

Then we had to snap a quick picture at the prime photo-op in town ;)

Nicholas was thrilled ;) We had a great time!

At Least Someone Around Here is Motivated!

I'm very much NOT ready for Halloween. We don't have pumpkins. We don't have costumes. We're participating in our church's Trunk-or-Treat night this Sunday and I have no idea how to decorate our trunk. Obviously, I'm not the motivated one!

It's Kristen! Over the weekend, she and Jon headed out to a pumpkin patch to pick up their pumpkins. They got there a bit on the late side so there weren't any wagon rides out to the field, but there were several already picked pumpkins to choose from and so they did. Last night was carving night for them.

 Awwww aren't they cute? :)

 Jon is a very common sight in our home. I love that he's here often. They do homework together, or watch a movie, or just sit and talk. I feel it's so important to know the people in our children's lives. Especially people that are important to them ;)

 The finished product:

I love that they hang out here often. So does everyone else!

Fun!

This weekend was food for my soul! Of course that means our house now looks like a war zone! I'm sure I'll get to rectify that situation at some point ;)

Friday was a teen night with our co-op friends for Brandon hosted at a fantastic nursery where they took a hayride, played in a corn maze, and had a bonfire. He had a great time! Meanwhile the rest of us had our usual pizza and icecream and settled in to watch "Hocus Pocus" for a little Halloween fun.

Saturday morning was football! I just love watching our guys play. I like football in general, but I really love watching our guys out there! Saturday afternoon there was a very cute dress-up birthday party for Megan to attend:

 Can you tell she was excited! She had a great time!

Saturday evening we decided to have a little bonfire ourselves! One of my favorite fall things to do! It was the perfect evening for it too, not too cold, gorgeous sky. We lingered out there for a very long time :)

 Nick was cracking us up all evening!

 Mmmm hotdogs ;) Brandon's tongue sticking out in this picture is proof!

 It really was just a perfect evening:

 Megan's mouth was full of the biggest marshmallow ever!

 Nick's was too!

 Then they did skits they learned at their scout camps :)

 They had a ball!

 We had so much fun out there that we did it again on Sunday :)