Halloween Part 3 - Pumpkin Patch

We have tried to take the kids to a pumpkin patch each year. This year, we had to squeeze it in 2 days before Halloween. (It was a busy month). Here are a few pictures from this trip...

This is after the 1st time in the hay maze. They came out together this time. The 2nd time, K left her brother wandering and just told us he was lost at a dead end. We sent her back in to find him and finally they both came out. Needless to say he was not a happy camper. We weren't allowed to go in and help because the rules say, no adults allowed... I think we'll wait until they are a bit older to try this again.

Of course, we found the tractor that he could climb on.

They both love puppy dogs!

Here they are on the hay ride! Can you say instant asthma attack! Oh well, that's part of it.

Now, it's time to take a quick trip through the bounce house maze and down the slide.

Time for a quick picture with some of our new favorite characters!

"How much do you think I could get the tractor cut out for? I haven't seen one of these in the stores. I can get a pumpkin at Wal-mart..."

"I'll take this one, If I can just get it off the ground!"

"Maybe this one is more my size!"

"So many to look at. How will I ever choose? Oh, Dad got one for me. It's time to go!"

We didn't want to get in trouble for putting B in the big bucket of pumpkins this year, so I just took a picture of the bucket to compare to the previous few years.

Here's one from 2007

And here is 2006

Last, here is K in 2005 - 2 weeks before she became a big sister.

Halloween Part 2 - Monster Mile

This is the 5th year we have taken the kids to the Monster Mile in Lantana. We always meet at Nana and Daddy D's, change into costumes and then make our way to see all of the characters and get some candy. At the end of this post I included a few pictures from the previous years to show how much the kids have changed.

On the doorstep of Nana and Daddy D's house - ready to go. (K - almost 5, and B - almost 3)

Over the past 5 years it has gotten much more crowded. The first year was when K was not even one - they were dumping candy in her bag and she wasn't even old enough to eat it. Hmmm, I wonder who ate it all? This year, there was a constant line of people to see each character. The kids didn't mind though. B was actually very excited to go up and hug or high-5 each one. K only cared to say hi to the princesses.

"If I give hugs, they give me candy. What a great concept. I wonder if this will work with Mom and Dad when we get home? Hmmm, probably not. I'll just have to figure out where they hide it all and get some then."

"He looks kind of like me, only his head is bigger and he's green. Hmmm... He's got candy, though. Yea!"

"Candy is yummy! I better eat this all up before Mom takes me to the dentist next month."

Finally, a princess for K to go and see. She didn't talk to anyone else, but she did make sure to get a few pieces of candy from the characters' helpers.

Now, here's a few from the past few years...

Princess Belle, a Monkey and Spiderman!

On the porch ready to go. Notice the passifier is still part of the costume. We got rid of that this year!

Making the trip to the "mile."

Taking a little break for a photo op.

Princess Belle (Almost 4)

Monster Mile 2006 - Buzz Lightyear, Cinderella, and a Lion that was not even walking yet!

Cinderella - Almost 3

ROOOOAAAARRR!!! (B - almost 1)

This is where we stop - I forgot my camera in 2005, and didn't have digital pics of 2004. Maybe I will be able to scan them in someday.

Halloween Part 1

I must admit that Halloween is not my favorite of all holidays. I really don't like all of the scary decorations and definitely don't like the pretend cemeteries that people have started creating in their front yards. However, I do love the month of October because the weather usually starts to become more bearable and we can do more outside. There are tons of things to do in the month of October - trips to the pumpkin patch, Monster Mile, Light up the Night (Halloween night), and this year we even added a few extras. Matt was off for 3 weeks this October, so we got to play golf a few times, celebrate B's birthday early, and celebrate Matt's birthday as well. Here are the first pictures from Halloween this year.


Our "princess Snow White" and "Red Power Ranger." It is funny that B picked the power ranger costume - he's never seen Power Rangers on TV, but he thinks that they look like "motorcycle guys," so that is why he picked it I guess. K on the other hand is running out of princesses to dress up like, so she picked one that she has not been in the past. I think we are down to Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty. (Once she gets to be those two she will probably be too old to want to dress up anymore. Sniff, sniff...)

Sitting nice and pretty.

They love to have their picture taken - we'll see how it changes over the course of this month, though...

The princess wanted to "dance" but she didn't have a prince. I guess a power ranger will have to do for now.

This is where it all started - Nana wanted to take all 5 cousins to pick out their costumes as a special surprise. Here they are waiting outside the costume shop for their other cousin. Note, this is the only time that all of them were contained within a few feet - once we entered the store they scattered in 5 different directions! It was fun and very tiring at the same time.

It's sometimes easier to take the girls' picture and the boys' picture separately. It is hard to get them all 5 to look the same direction at the same time. See below... In the first few, the younger cousins were waiting for the oldest cousin to get dressed in her costume.

They are looking at the sand box that is behind us - wanting really bad to go jump in.

Now that we're all together, how about a change of scenery???

Yeah, standing up is probably not the best idea - they are already in position to run off. How about another place we can sit???

"Boys, look over here!"

"Everyone look over here!"

"Girls? Can we see your eyes?"

Well, I guess there are just too many distractions to get 5 sets of eyes looking in the same direction and 5 mouths to smile while 5 pairs of hands are kept to themselves and 5 sets of feet stay still. Oh well, it was fun though.