Trick or Treating

It has been a long week filled with all things Halloween,

but we were not done yet!

No, my sweet tired lady bug, we still have the finale!

We gave this baby girl a few minutes of rest before we hit the most popular trick or treating location in the Four Seasons...Palmer Drive!
By the time we got there, Grace had found her second wind, and we were off...

Both kids made it around to all of the houses, neither of them wanted to be carried.

They were totally into it!

I actually missed the picture I wanted to take because I was laughing SOOO hard! You can see the doorbell is a good foot above Alex's hand, so he did the only thing he could to get to it...

climbed right on top of that pumpkin...

both feet...

and rang the bell!

This Halloween season for me has been such a pleasure...

Last year both kids were so sick, and Alex ended up having to go to the hospital.

It was nice to finally be able to really celebrate this holiday, and did we ever!

Can't wait until next year!!!

Four Seasons Trunk n' Treat

On Saturday the 30th, we participated in the Four Seasons Truck n' Treat!

It was so much fun!
I had to post this picture because just look at those chunky legs!
Not only is Grace so cute, but it's October 30th people!!! And we're in tank tops!
Geez!
This helpful Hippie and Cleopatra decorated the van for us, and helped hand out candy.

And take a look at this Princess!

Sometimes, in order to fit in more candy, a reorganization of sorts is necessary.

Grandma Pam and Lady Bug with sucker.

Daddy and Lady Bug with sucker.

Mommy and Lady Bug with sucker.

Grace couldn't keep her hands or eyes off of my face when I was wearing this mask. She couldn't understand how it was all working out. We tried and tried to get a picture with her looking at the camera, but my getup was just way too fascinating for her!

After Alex had gone trunk or treating, he helped hand out candy too!

Because the weather was so nice, all of us went to the Duck to sit outside for a few moments after the trunk or treating. This is my new favorite restuarant and I've never even tried the food there, but it is right by our house and literally ON the water. It's gorgeous, and the owners are always there and are so nice and accomodating, especially of cute albeit loud children in costumes :)

The Wise Owl

The Wise Owl

The wise old owl

Sat in an oak.

The more he saw,

The less he spoke,

The less he spoke,

The more he heard,

Why can't we be like,

That wise old bird?

At the Ha Ha Haunt, Alex and Marcia worked together and made an awesome owl out of a pine cone (pictured above). He left with a bag of goodies which included some things he added to his 'I Spy' bottle, the poem above, and some fun owl facts like...

1. Owls are birds of prey (or raptors).

2. Most owls are nocturnal.

3. Owls' eyes are fixed in their sockets.

4. Owls have three sets of eyelids.

5. Many species of owls have special flight feathers adapted for silent flight.

6. Owls can open and close its ears.

7. A group of owls is called a parliament.

While Grandma Pam was in town, we had a little lesson about owls while sitting out on the back deck enjoying the 85 degree weather.

I added these pictures of Alex only because HE IS SO CUTE!

Ha Ha Haunt!

Friday night we went to the Ha Ha Haunt.

The trail was decorated with pumpkins and Halloween decorations, and there were activities at the castle ruins.

We invited Marcia to go with us!

Here are our little Fire Fighter and Lady Bug.
We called this the 'Daddy' Pumpkin :)

Hiking the trail with trick or treating pumpkins.

I would have insisted the kids leave them in the car, but they just look so cute carrying them!

OOooooh! Creepy cemetary outside the ruins.

The sun was just beginning to go down when we arrived.

Our method this year with all Halloween events was to get there early to avoid the rush and the bigger kids. It worked out great!

Marcia and Grace

I thought it strange that the people standing behind us wouldn't move and let me get a good picture of the castle behind them, but after taking the picture realized that a man had been waiting the whole time to take a picture of them! Talk about embarassing!!!

This is how you know it was a good party...there were s'mores!

The funny thing about THIS picture is that I was concentrating so hard on getting Marcia and Alex, that I didn't even realize at this point that the Koeppens were there yet.

It wasn't until I got home, uploaded the pics, and realized that the Koeppens were at the castle long before I saw them, saw them...you know what I mean.

This is when I first thought I saw the Koeppens.

A too too cute Alex!

I took this picture just to give any ghosts an opportunity to reveal themselves...

doesn't look like they jumped at the chance.

Pretty, though.

It was the perfect evening.

Not too hot, barely cool enough for long sleeves.

It was really gorgeous.

Then, on the way out, Alex and Grace sent themselves down into the dungeon!
They obviously don't have a basement at their house! :)

Cute? I think so!

Halloween Activities!

Grandma and Grandpa sent us some fun pumpkins to decorate with stickers.

The kids both worked on it, although Alex devoted a good portion of the morning with a serious determination to use up ALL of the stickers.

This top one is by Grace.

This bottom one is by Alex, and what you can't really tell by this picture, is that he created an amazingly awesome three dimensional abstract jack o lantern!!!

This year we were 'Booed'!

I just read about these cute things in someone else's blog recently.

At our last MOPS meeting I was presented with a gift bag filled with goodies from someone anonymous. We waited until Halloween morning and then we gathered together and opened it up! There were all kinds of goodies, sweet treats, stickers, cups, socks, and a note:

"The air is cool. the season fall.

Soon Halloween will come to all.

Ghosts and goblins, spooks, galore...

Tricky witches at your door.

The spooks, in fact, brought this 'BOO' to you!!!

The excitement comes when friends like you, copy

this note and make it two.

We'll all have smiles upon our faces.

No one will know who has 'BOO'ed

who's places!

Just two short days to work your spell.

Keep it secret, hide it well.

Please join the fun, the season's here.

So spread the "BOO's" and

Halloween cheer!

Stickers, cups, socks, treats, oh my!!!

We did not continue the Boo this year, but it is packed up in our Halloween gear and next year we will be the ones to start the BOO...maybe on YOU!!!


This 'I Spy' bottle I also found on another person's blog, but because it looked so easy, and I was committed to using things I already had in the house, it worked out really well.

You can do it for any season or occasion, I just looked for some Halloweeny things, and then put them in a bottle and filled it with beans.

I did end up buying the brown beans for less than a dollar, and some erasers for a dollar each.

Well worth the fun!

This is Alex's bottle, you can tell because his had a blue spider that you can kind of see on the far left. You can see the legs, but the body is covered by a lima bean that I colored eyes on to make look like ghosts. (For the record, Grace's spider was yellow!)

As we went to more Halloween events and obtained more things, we added those into the I Spy bottles too. Lots of fun and entertainment!


One night during the week before Halloween we had Movie Night and watched The Princess and The Frog, our kids' new favorite movie. I have to admit, it is pretty good and has great music!

As an intermission, we had fun pumpkin decorated sugar cookies...

I love the expression on her face here!

This Pumpkin Puzzle was given to us at the Parents As Teachers pumpkin hunt.

We did it a couple of days later. I colored on Alex's name and then cut it up. It was a little tricky for him to get it together the first time, but now he can do it lickity split!

On Wednesday night, Marcia came to babysit while Mom took Dad out to celebrate his BIRTHDAY!!!

I wish I had taken pictures of the kids' Halloween dinner...guess we'll just have to do it again next year!

So, all in all, LOTS of stuff goin' on at our house this Halloween week!