Halloween Day

So Halloween finally came and we pretty much celebrated all day...the kids just love to wear the costumes (minus Nathan of course!).  First we had a party at our branch...some games to play and Kyle's friend Ethan also came for a bit.  They had lots of fun playing soccer outside after the party.  It was a great warm day.

When we got home, we put Marie and Nathan down for their naps and Kyle began the sorting.  He had a great time sorting his candy into all the piles of different kinds of candy.  We decided that we were going to send a bunch of their candy off to Steven, who is on a  mission in California, and so Kyle was also picking out which pieces to give away.

And while he did that I did...what else? .... vinyl!

Then we were off to our THIRD church party...this time up at my parent's ward in Harrisonburg.  It was a fabulous party...very well planned...and once again Kyle and Marie had a great time with all the games and then trunk or treating again.  Oh, and they had dinner which was extra nice. :)

Nathan took his place doing his job of handing out candy with my mom.

We got home around 6:30, just in time for the real trick or treating.  I took Kyle and Marie around my parent's block while Nathan stayed out front with my mom and Dan...he loved playing in these leaves that my mom was trying to rake up!

putting candy in the bags...

how great that Halloween night was so warm...didn't even need a coat.

Phew, it's over for another year.  Now we just still need to get rid of the remaining candy.  Nathan goes crazy over candy and if it's anywhere in sight, he cries and cries for it.  So that was the difficult part of Halloween...he doesn't understand the concept of "just one" or "after you eat you can pick one".  But it was fun to see K and M have so much fun and to just enjoy being a kid and trying to get a lot of candy. :)  (And they are excellent about asking and not taking and only having 1 or 2 pieces a day.)

Halloween Week: Friday

On Friday, the day before Halloween, Kyle's class celebrated with a Costume Parade.  I went to help the kids get their costumes on and then Kyle was called to the office.  We went to see why, and we saw Dan walking towards us.  Kyle had left his backpack in Dan's car, and he was bringing it to him (loupes and all).  At least Dan got to see Kyle in costume.

Here's Kyle in his classroom with his good friend Daniel.

As part of the parade, each kindergarten class took a turn on the stage to pose and get pictures.  Kyle's waving to Nathan here.

He sure loved that Buzz Lightyear costume...which is great since he had to wear it for 2 years!

My mom brought Marie and Nathan to watch too (and then she watched them while I helped with the class party).

Whoa, so much to see!

Kyle's whole class.  They really are a great bunch of kids.  I've been going in to his classroom every Tuesday while my mom watches Marie and Nathan, and I've really enjoyed doing a center with the kids (you probably know about centers...3-4 kids do an activity for a little while and then rotate to the next center).  With them we've made Popcorn P's, pilgrim girls, and Native American drums so far.  Other centers include writing, reading, listening, housekeeping, blocks/building, etc.  Kyle definitely spends the majority of his time either at the writing center making "books" or on the rug playing with the Lincoln Logs.

So after school we went to the Frontier Culture Museum which I already posted about and then we went to the local mall for their trick-or-treating.  The mall was packed (which is so unusual to me since usually when I go in the middle of the day to let the kids play there is hardly anyone there) and once again the kids loaded up on candy.

Another fun day of Halloween festivities down.

Halloween Week: Wednesday

{OK.  I really need to get our Halloween pictures up, especially since Kyle's birthday is right around the corner on Monday.  So, the excuse is still the same:  in addition to the regular busyness of kids and life, I have been doing so much vinyl lately during my "free time", so no time for blogging.  But as this is my family scrapbook, I'd better squeeze a little time in for it.  Here's the first of a few Halloween posts.)

Marie got to dress up in her costume for preschool on Wednesday, Oct. 28.  The night before I realized that we didn't really have her costume together.  I had bought this little fairy costume at Target for a couple dollars, but thought it was so simple that it wasn't even worth the $7.  But when I offered (over the phone) to buy Marie another costume (such as a Aeriel or some other princess costume), Marie said no, that she wanted to be a PURPLE FAIRY.   And to my delight, she LOVED her costume every time she wore it and she did look darling.  So I guess the $7 was worth it.  (Although one day I really do want to make her a beautiful, handmade fairy costume...don't know if that will ever really happen)

Here's her preschool class coming out for their little parade.  (Her preschool is held in the basement of a church.)

It was fun and kinda silly.  They all filed into this large room, stood still so a million moms could take pictures, and then walked back to their classroom.  But any reason to parade around in your costume is worth it, huh?  Cute kids.

Then that evening we went to our first Halloween party at the Waynesboro Ward, which is about 20 minutes away.  They invited our Staunton Branch and they had a huge turn-out.  It was pretty crowded, but the kids had lots of fun playing games and then trunk-or-treating.

Donut-eating game.  Notice Nathan also snagged a donut of his own.  He refused to wear a costume that night, and every night.  So sadly there are no cute pictures of him dressed in a cute frog or pumpkin costume...but he seriously screamed like crazy every time I came near him with a costume.  Oh well.

Yeah, Marie cheated.  Used her hands but enjoyed her donut.

This was so great...lots of trick-or-treating all within one parking lot.  It was dark and hard to see but some people went all-out and decorated their trunks with lights and such.  Halloween could've ended that night, we had so much candy after that one round (but it didn't...many more parties and candy to come!)

And Nathan's favorite job: sit with those who are handing out the candy and get a little for himself.

a fall afternoon at the Frontier Culture Museum

Last Friday evening we headed to the Frontier Museum, hoping to walk around before going to the mall for some trick-or-treating.  They were having an event, Creepy Tales, going on that night and I thought they'd be open through the evening.  But no, they closed at 5:00 and then reopened later that night.  So we ended up with only 20 minutes to run through the farms...well, we took a little longer and no one kicked us out.  But I made the kids stop for a minute for a minute and take a picture by this pretty pond.  Doesn't this area look like it could be a postcard?  As usual, Nathan refused to stay still and be part of the picture.  So here are the kids with Nathan crying about having to take a picture.  The little stinker.

Nathan laughed and laughed as Dan ran and pushed the stroller all crazy-like.  I think they like it when he pushes the stroller a lot more than me.

And as we left the museum we attempted once more to get a pic with the three of them.  Again, a failed attempt.  Nathan would not stand still...here they are  holding on to him.

Hopefully one day soon I'll get Halloween pictures posted!

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Apples!

On Saturday we got to do something really fun...one of Kyle's friends from school has a farm outside of Staunton and they have a apple party every fall.  They invite everyone to come (they are all the nicest people), and they make apple butter and cider and let everyone help out.  Kyle got to grind the apples for cider and then drink some.  It's so neat to see that process and to taste immediate results!

Nathan had fun playing in the water and apples!

Yum, drinking some fresh apple cider.

Then we all took turns stirring the apple butter.  The apples cook all day in these big pots over a fire.

Here's what it looks like:

We tasted some of the apple butter that was already done and it was DELICIOUS!

Then we also took some hay rides.  Here's Kyle with his friend Daniel...they're in the same kindergarten class and they had so much fun playing together.  We could only stay for 1.5 hours that day, but next year we'll plan for longer.  It was so nice to be out there, in such a gorgeous area and the kids could have played for a lot longer.  Pictures (at least my pictures) really don't do the landscape justice.  The colors have been so pretty.  I drove to Charlottesville twice over the weekend (once for shopping and once for stake conference), so two times over the mountains and I just couldn't believe how beautiful it was.

And a fun tire swing.

Thanks G. family for inviting us to your wonderful farm, home, and party!

Marie's pumpkin patch field trip

Marie had her first field trip with her preschool.  They went out to a pumpkin patch in Churchville, just outside of Staunton.  The preschool has the parents provide rides, so Nathan and I went along too.  Marie really wanted to ride with her teacher, Miss Sally, so her teacher even sat in the very back with Marie.  So Marie isn't too keen on farm animals (she seems to be pretty much scared of all animals) but we sort of got a few pictures with the animals in the background.

She wouldn't get any closer than this.

We took a pretty long hay ride out to the pumpkin patch.  I think this picture is great...Marie surrounded by all her preschool friends--and she's so happy.

She very quickly found her perfect pumpkin and was ready to leave!  I took much longer to find mine (well, Nathan's).  She really liked the nice long "handle".

And then she wanted to take a picture of me with her pumpkin.

Nathan didn't want to walk around on his own...I think there was too much for him to trip on and so, like usual, he didn't want me to take a picture of him either.  But, here's proof that he was there!

Back on the wagon, ready to go home.

Finally, Nathan had some fun and enjoyed playing with the hay on the wagon.

He wouldn't look at me, but I love the smile you can still see on his face.

And here we are, me holding on to my little ones so they don't fall off!

It was a fun morning...perfect weather, even a little hot.

the pumpkin patch

{I thought I'd better get some of our recent fall pictures on here before all the Halloween ones start this week!   I'm sure there will be lots of those ones.}

Last Thursday we went to a pumpkin patch called Lohr's (north of Harrisonburg) and we had a great time...we had so many perfect fall-weather days last week that I thought we'd better go while we could.  These pedal cars were a favorite with Kyle and Dan...they got to ride through part of the corn maze on them.  And of course it was a race and of course Kyle won! :)  Oh, and for the record, later Dan and Kyle really did get lost in the corn maze and it took them a while to get out!  But they had a good time while Marie, Nathan, and I began to look for pumpkins.

They had a bunch of different things for the kids to play on.

Nathan loved all the wagons and tried very hard to pull Marie.

Marie liked the wheelbarrow even though she fell out once!

Kyle picked out this big pumpkin (well, big for us...we weren't going to pay for anything bigger!)

I tried to take pictures of each of the kids sitting in this pile of pumpkins but Nathan absolutely refused.  Really, what's so bad about a bunch of pumpkins?

This was so fun...a sandbox full of soy beans.  Of course I was worried that Kyle would choke on one or get one stuck in his nose, but he didn't.  He had a great time getting buried.

Yep, Marie being silly and filling up her goggles with soy beans (um, yeah, why does she have goggles with her? ... she found them in the car)

and a little family picture...it's supposed to be a spider

Marie took some pictures of us

And as we left through the Castle entrance, Marie insisted on a picture here... our little princess.

(By the way, the dress Marie is wearing is Marie's favorite dress and she wears it every time it's clean, which means she wears it at least once a week!)

Happy Fall!

Fall is definitely here.  Actually, maybe this week we're skipping straight to winter since it's going to be in the low 40s.  BRRRR!  Way too cold for October!  But on Monday Kyle had a day off school and it was fun to take him and Nathan to the park while Marie went to preschool.  Kyle was so excited to go to the park with me while Marie was at school since usually it's the other way around.  I let him ride his bike around the whole park (I know, he needs a helmet-we couldn't find it!) and that was great to do without Marie since she has a much harder time riding her bike long distances.  It was so pretty.

And Nathan got to hang out in the stroller...

Nathan loves to dig.  I think I've mentioned that before.  I love seeing him play out in front of our house...now if we just had a good back yard for him to play in!

Pretty fall colors.

And pretty little girl.  With a lot of attitude - she's kinda been a pill lately but she is sure is a cute one.

Nathan's big hair cut

Nathan's hair was getting long once again. So rather than take him somewhere to get it cut and have him scream, we decided to do it at home...which sadly meant he got buzzed. That's all we really know how to do. Oh boy, it was terrible. He was screaming so hard, he was shaking. It truly felt like we were torturing him. But it was the kind of thing where you had to finish what you started. Once we finished and he had a bath, he was happy enough again, so I don't think we permanently scarred him.

So now these two look even more alike!

Later Sunday night, Nathan was walking around in my shoes. He's so funny.

And just so you can see what we see so often....Nathan crying. I guess he didn't want me to take his picture. Yes, even at almost 18 months, Nathan still cries a lot. I keep waiting for him to grow out of this 17-month-long phase! Of course, we're also trying to help him learn words and talk more, so hopefully that will help lessen his frustrations. Really, I try to be as patient as I can! (But I think it is the hardest thing I've ever done...to have this little guy in my life...but I do love him like crazy.)

Oh, and in case you forgot what his hair looked like before, here's a pic.  Yeah, he looks totally different now.

This was at FHE last week; we made spiders out of marshmallows, pretzels, m&ms, icing...they loved it!  It was a great lesson on not getting caught in Satan's web, found here.