Halloween

Sometime last week was Halloween, did you notice?  If you have any kids, then you probably noticed.  We had the Halloween carnival the week before, and once I get Nate's pictures from his class Halloween thing together, I'll try to post those.  The kids had a great time at the school carnival, it was the first time we have gone where it was pretty nice weather.  Not raining, and not cold, so it seemed much calmer.  

We had friends come over again for the Halloween  trick-or-treating.  It was good weather for that also.  Not super cold, not raining, we were very lucky!  The kids had a great time, much less whiny than last year.  Rachel, didn't seem to care, have I mentioned how heavy she is lately?  Lord, is she heavy, no wonder I sling her all the time!  

The kids got a lot of candy, they have really enjoyed eating it, since they didn't have school the next day, we let them stay up a little late and I told them they could eat as much candy as they wanted to, I don't think Eric was on board with that, since he kept saying, um, I don't think you want to eat that...everyone survived!  

Here are the pictures:

Halloween 2012 - Slideshow

Halloween bike ride

My husband sometimes gets hair brained ideas. Usually he was instigated by his friend and they would do these things together. But his friend lives too far away now, so he has to work on these things by himself. And it is not these things that are so hair-brained, it is that he finds things at the last minute and doesn't have time to train. He decided to do a 100 mile bike ride. Sure he rides 4 miles everyday, but he didn't train. My Mom was visiting so letting him spend the day doing what he wanted seemed fine. The race started at 8:30 in the morning and he woke me up to take him to the race. He called periodically and gave us updates, sadly that day started out terrible. It was rainy and kind of cold, but Eric persevered. He sadly was unable to keep up the pace to do the 100 miles, and so ended up doing 62, which I'd said wasn't bad for the day. We all went down to pick him up, but Nate fell asleep in the car, so Mom sat with him. I snapped this picture of Eric just before the finish line.

I am happy to report that Eric didn't finish last and got a beer and some pizza. We are very proud of him and enjoyed teasing him the next day when he walked like he had been riding a horse.

Halloween

My Momma came for a visit, she appears to enjoy spending time with the kids for Halloween, might be the childlike wonder, or the free candy after walking around the neighborhood in the "COLD", or it could just be because she likes to visit and this is as good of a time as any! We don't question, we enjoy, you should too, because without her being here, we might not have any pictures, so when you look at the slideshow, thank my Momma! This year was a big year for us, we had Halloween Carnival at Gwen's school, the kids always love that, we had a party at Eric's boss's house, we had a neighborhood party and then we the actual event. Let's just say the kids got plenty of use out of their costumes. Gwen actually wore her costume again today. So, Friday we had the Halloween Carnival, Grandmom had wanted to do something special for the kids for Halloween so she pre-purchased the tickets for them. (Thanks Grandmom!) The kids really love this event. The school is completely transformed and each class is in charge of different activities. Gwen's class was in charge of the ticket booth, which meant I was in charge of the ticket booth, which truly wasn't that hard, but probably would have been easier if Gwen had a bigger class and everyone came! But, whatever it all worked out. We didn't actually bring our camera for that so we have no pictures, which is too bad because Nate and Gwen got on the twirly bird by themselves, this year it was a single seater and the went with 2 bigger girls and had a great time, Nate was just a smiling and a laughing. He kept trying to twirl the thing around. But he really had the most fun on the bouncy maze while Gwen and Eric did the climbing wall. Nate seriously went 15 times in a row. The next night was Eric's boss's Halloween party, costumes mandatory. Mom was kind enough to help plan the costumes and make me a poodle skirt, sadly no one knew what we were...We had a good time, but it was another late night for the kids. Dinner, was served, I have no idea what it was, but it was good! Sunday afternoon our neighborhood had a party, we went to that also. They had a bouncy house, free pony rides, cotton candy, all free, all good fun for the kids. We chose to walk and on the way home Nate fell asleep and didn't wake up until the next day! I tried valiantly to wake him up for dinner, but he just wasn't having it, so we let him sleep. Then Monday was of course Halloween! 48 and rainy, my Mom was thrilled! We invited some friends over since there neighborhood is "lame", the kids wimped out before we hit the whole neighborhood, but we were treating for an hour, and they got plenty of candy, so it is all good! All and all a good weekend for them, now I just have to get more activities in line for Christmas, since Halloween seems packed with activities! So, without further ado, the slideshow!

Halloween2011 - free slideshow

ok, ok

So I know I had said I had done the last of the Halloween posts, but when trying to find a picture to send to the MIL so she could see the kids costumes, she isn't connected to the internet, you see.
So, I pulled out the kids costumes to get some better pictures.

And tried to take some pictures, that I could send to her. Nate hammed it up for me, as you can see.

He likes to sweep, some might say he likes to sweep up candy!

Grandma was on the computer with us and Nate decided to put on his sunglasses and ham it up for her. He kept asking for candy and to go trick or treating.

I think I probably confused the poor kids, but apparently not as much as I did when I put away/hid their Halloween candy. Gwen has told everyone that the Halloween candy swiper took it. I haven't told her it was me. The new rule at our house is that if there is candy left by Daddy's birthday, the candy will disappear. Makes sense to me, and I am pretty sure that is all that matters.

Possibly my last Halloween post:the School Carnival!

The Friday before Halloween was Gwen's school Halloween Carnival. I was able to sneak out ALONE and help set up. Technically I could have taken the kids, but Grandma was there, so I got to go and be kid free, fortunately Nate took a nap! Which seems to be his MO, the Friday nap. But anyway, they really push the carnival. Before I left to help Gwen got really upset and asked if I was going to play any games, I assured her I wasn't and then she ignored me, I took it she was ok with me going. Fortunately she didn't find out her friend was there while her Mom volunteered.
Now Gwen was so excited to go to the Carnival, they had the whole school darkened, only black lights, they had indoor games, food and outdoor stuff. At the indoor games you received prizes (candy), so we did those twice. But what was funny is Gwen was looking for her friends. And was kind of upset we didn't see any. Then, she found her classmate and started squealing, she was so excited! My Mom might remember that forever. We did finally see her favorite friend, last thing of the night, Grandma took pictures of the silly girls together and they were so excited and pretended they were pirates, I don't know why!
We had a good time, between the carnival, mall trick or treating and neighborhood trick or treating, Nate still ocassionally asked to go trick or treating. They got some good use out of their costumes and the candy is almost all gone, thanks to Daddy. Here are the picture from the carnival.

Mall Halloween trick or treat

It appears my Halloween posts are going to last for a week. We are thorough around here when it comes to Halloween. Nate particularly seemed to LOVE it, he just wants to walk around with his candy bag all the time. We took the kids to a local Mall for trick or treating, it was a busy day on Saturday, but we fit it in.

We gave the kids a little break and let them eat some candy.

As we were leaving the store, the kids noticed the Christmas decorations. I thought it was funny to take pictures of them in their Halloween costumes in the Christmas stuff. A little ridiculous, to have Christmas stuff out already, but I guess they need to get people to buy those tacky decorations.

Pre-Halloween

I had a lot to say, but now I can't remember, so I'll start with the first thing my Mom would like to know...Gwen is sleeping in her new bed! Now I just have to wait for Nate to transition to Gwen's old bed and I can get out that extra mattress! YAY!
Gwen made this at school, we saw it when we went if for conferences, I think it is really cute, so I am posting it here. I like how she made the sun look angry.
For Halloween we took Gwen and Nate to the library for there Halloween party. They read stories, danced/sang, made a craft and got a snack. Then they went home with a free book, our crafts and other stuff.
I tried to get a picture of them together with their crafts, Gwen cooperated, that is Nate's craft and Nate, well he was rather distracted by Gwen's craft...

Nate, trying on his mask...he loved his costume.

Here he is in his costume. He was a little confused about this Halloween thing, he wanted to go out Monday for candy also and wore his costume all day Tuesday.

Nate liked Gwen's hat also, there are several of these pictures, because I couldn't pick just one to post, they are all so cute.

I have decided maybe he would rock the beret, or the chef's hat...maybe we should give him this style of hat for winter.

This might be the best picture I have taken of the 2 of them, the most cooperative, anyway.

Of course now that I re-look at it I remember when I was taking the picture I was trying to make Nate smile and was making faces and he mimicked me. Pretty funny. I should mention, if I haven't already, Gwen's costume was made by Grandma.

pre-Halloween treat

We have had a busy day today, busy, busy busy! But I think the kids have had fun, we ended their day going to a local mall and "trick-or-treating" at the different shops. The kids had a great time. I think we might do that again, it was fun! We were warm, the walk wasn't that far and several of the workers dressed up.
This is the scene on the way home! Someone made up their own song...

HYPED UP! from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

In case you needed an interpretation "Can I eat from my bag? nah, nah, nah Can I see?" We obviously gave them some candy, but apparently some little kids didn't think it was enough! He wanted to get more candy from his bag! He also wanted to look at himself on the camera, I did let him do that.

Halloween 2009

So today, I really got into the mood of the Halloween. It has taken me a couple years, but I wanted to do up the house and have the kids really enjoy themselves, the heck with eating well today! We started the day with pumpkin chocolate pancakes. Everyone approved. Then we had baked apples and mummies for dinner...
I started to get a little lazy, we already had had some trick or treaters, the picture I saw used string mozzarella, I think if I make these next year, I will do the same, the mozzarella stays together better.

Then, we started getting a bunch of trick or treaters while we were getting the kids dressed. So we rushed through that and I didn't really get any pictures of them dressed together, like I wanted to, the natives were breaking out...

They broke out and went to our neighbor's, Nate helped himself.

Nate was really cute, I could not get him to put the candy in his bag, he would hold it and then when we got close to the next house, he would drop it on the floor. He would also say "thank you" and "bye".

Look at my sweet trick or treaters.

Nate just sat himself down to eat some candy, we'd only been to like 3 houses...but it was 80 degrees!

Walking home.

Gwen passed out some of the candy, and its a good thing she did, otherwise we would have had ALOT more candy left.

I in vain tried to get a picture of the 2 of them together, this is the best we could do. By this point Gwen was hyped up on the sugar and wouldn't look at the camera!

Can't believe it, but we miss our old neighborhood! We didn't have nearly the trick or treaters we used to have, plus we would all sit out together and chat, the only time of year we ever spoke to them other than in passing. Fortunately the kids are young, so only going to 10-15 houses was great fun. Next year we are going to have to find a better neighborhood or somewhere else to go to in conjunction. Hope ya'all had a Happy Halloween!