The Last of our October Fun: Lots of Halloween!

We finally got some pumpkins!  So, it was two days before Halloween, at least we bought them before Christmas!  October is always so full of fun and I can tell by my blog entries, 11 entries for one month!  Some months I am trying to find any small random thing to blog, in October there is too much fun to be had.  So this last weekend of Halloween was no different, a YMCA Halloween party and costume contest Friday night, Saturday a quick trip out to Horn Island, Saturday night a birthday party, hayride and trick or treating and then another Halloween party Sunday night.  Whew.  Oh and sweet, little Luke sang in the choir at church on Sunday morning.  Nothing is more precious than those little voices praising God.  

Addison playing dress up.  She loves being up on our bed and jumps and rolls and pretends she's asleep, she'll say, "Addi night night Mommy."  And then jump up and laugh and laugh.  

Pecan Park Fall De Rah.  Cutie pie Amelia.  I added some freckles with an eyeliner stick and Amelia looked at me panicked and said, "Mom, no one else will have freckles on."  We washed them off immediately.   And so it begins, this was the first  experience with Amelia worrying about what others thought.  Sigh.  I also got an eye roll and a "C'mon Mom..." today.  I am not looking forward to the tween years.

SUPERGIRL!!!

Is she cute or what?  Addison is 21 months old now and a spunky little thing.  She would say, "Soopur gurl" and it sounded so adorable.  She always wanted to wear the costume, even the boots.  She would walk around asking, "Mommy, Addi soopur gurl?"  Big change from Amelia at this age, I used to have to put on Blues Clues and bribe her with M&M's while trying to sneak on any sort of costume.  

My super kids.  Amelia as Hermione from Harry Potter, Addison as Super girl and Luke as Superman!  Yes, Luke's costume was a tad big.  Meaning it probably would have fit a 10 year old "husky" boy; a few safety pins and Mommy made it work.  This picture brings a lump to my throat because I can't believe these are my kids sometimes!  When I look at the three of them standing together all ready for Halloween, I can't believe how old they have all become.  I remember so clearly pictures just like this of me and my two sisters all dressed up and it seems like it has only been a blink and now I have three beauties standing here.  

A handsome blondie superman in a super sized suit.

Hermione!   Amelia for the first time in all of her seven years had a preference for a costume.  She was Minnie Mouse two years in a row so I was really hoping to not make it a third.  She wholeheartedly  wanted to be Hermione from Harry Potter since she has been reading the Harry Potter series as fast as we will let her.  We bought the cape but gathered up the rest from the house.  Amelia and I made a 'Transfiguration' and 'Potions' book since Hermione always has her nose in a book and Stephen whittled Amelia a wand and she borrowed the tie from Daddy too!  A little bit of crimped hair and she was set.  She really did look adorable and she won third prize in our YMCA costume contest!  She was so proud of herself and super excited to win a free movie ticket :)

How can you not love this boy?

Sweet friends Carter and Addison, oh and me and Katie too :)

Carter had his 2nd birthday party before we all went trick or treating together.  Ben drove the kids around on a mini hayride and they thought it was a blast!

Fly, supergirl, fly!

Andrea and Alexandrea, Katie and Carter, Me and Addison, who wanted more birthday cake.

I know this isn't a great picture but Addison was so stinkin' cute her first real trick or treating.  She would march right up the the door, sometimes go into the house, and say, "Twick or Tweat!"  Then they would give her candy and she would say, "Tank you" and put up her arms and do, "sooper gurl."  Then to top it off she would say, "Bye y'all."  Needless to say her little tricks won her a lot of candy; she probably came close to eating her body weight in chocolate that night.

Trick or Treat!

We even snuck in carving pumpkins on Sunday afternoon...just made it.  Good job kids and Daddy!  Mommy was watching the Packers beat the Jets, Go Pack!

At the Gordon's Halloween Party.  Stephen was Iceman from Top Gun and he looked GOOD!  Although he wouldn't look at me without shuddering since we all know how much he hates lipstick and black lipstick definitely gave him the heebie jeebies.

Pam and me being scary.

My tough guys.  We told Luke to do a serious face.  Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Farm, kind of.

This weekend we headed out to Seward Farms which we have heard a lot about since we moved here; but we had never been.  Well, I was all for hitting a good old fashioned pumpkin farm like the one we used to go to in Indiana.  We got there, we paid the gazillion dollars to get our whole family an all day unlimited pass and off we went.   Luke loved these slides made out of PVC, I just cringed the whole time he slid down hoping none of his "valuables" got squished in there.  

The corn cannon was also a big hit but look at Luke.  He would fire his and then drop it and quickly cover his ears.  We don't know how he did it but he would hit the target every time even with the ear cover maneuver.  The kids headed to the pig races next and thought that was so funny, especially Addison.  She would clap and laugh at the pigs racing by her.  Then we rode the cow train, you know the old metal barrels painted like cows and pulled by a tractor.  I convinced Stephen to ride with Addison and he was able to fold himself into the barrel and the big kids had their own barrel.  On a side note, it hadn't rained here on the coast in weeks and weeks so we are in a big drought so it was a tad, ahem, dusty.  So Stephen and the kids come flying around the corn field in a huge cloud of dust with all four of them ducked into their shirts so they could breathe.  Whoops.  

Giant jumpy pillow thing.  Don't know why it was at the pumpkin farm but it was awesome.  

Addison on the big jumpy pillow thing.

Family shot on the hayride.  So we made the whole hay ride wait while the guy took our picture, so?  It's cute right?

Stephen getting creative with the camera.  The kids in "high cotton."  We couldn't believe how soft the cotton was, it was pretty neat.  And by the way, a bale of cotton can make 215 pairs of jeans.  Just in case you were wondering.

I love this one of Mimi, good job honey.

So, that's it.  Our day at the pumpkin farm.  Where are the adorable pumpkin patch pictures you ask?  Good question.  So we did everything except the humongous corn maze which just seems torturous to me with three small kids and no fun at all so I am looking all over for the pumpkin patch on this gigantic farm.  I go up to a worker and ask him where the pumpkin patch is.  "Ma'am?" he asks.  "Um, the pumpkin patch you know where my kids can pick their own pumpkin and I can get all my millions of cute pictures.  The WHOLE reason we came out here to your pumpkin patch" I say.  "Ma'am, this is Seward FARM, it's not a pumpkin patch.  They can pick out a pumpkin over there though."  I look behind me and there is a wood shelf with 10 sad little pumpkins on it.  Sigh.  I miss Indiana.  I guess we will just pick out our pumpkins at Walmart and take our pictures in the grocery cart.

We love pink!

October is also breast cancer awareness month and time for the Breast Cancer Walk.  This is the fourth year our family has participated and it has always been a great event.  It is a great way to teach the kids about helping others and realizing what great blessings we have in our family.  This was also Addison's first year joining the walk!  At least she had plenty of pink :)

Our friend Jay is so amazing, he gets everyone he can to support the cause and the more money he raises, the more he turns pink. This year he even made his own dress, pretty talented guy.  Real Men Wear Pink.

Our whole team (except Steve and Addi who went on a pre-walk before the walk).  We had more team members than ever before.  Our team raised $8500 for the American Cancer Society!  Go Dulcinea's Angels!

We met for a jewelry making party the night before the walk and the kids made earrings and bracelets to sell to raise more money for the American Cancer Society.  Here are Luke and Amelia making a sale to this beautiful survivor.  Luke would just hold up his bracelets to people and smile really big, he was too shy to talk but it didn't matter;  he is so stinkin' cute that people couldn't resist.

Walking the walk.  Look at Addison riding in style, watching Elmo the whole time on my Iphone.  So typical of that little girl.  This is at the end of the 3 miles, Amelia and Luke were looking a little weary.  So proud of my little pink walkers.

Luke's Fall Festival

Luke's Fall Festival at The Children's House.  Daddy having a snack with the kiddos.

Good old fashioned fun, painting pumpkins, peanut toss, bobbing for apples and wheelbarrow rides.  It is always a really sweet little festival.

Luke making a bird feeder out of peanut butter and a pinecone.

Our big five year old guy; I wish he could stay at The Children's House forever.  

I just loved this expression.  

Caramel Apple Party

October means time for the Boskovich Caramel Apple Party, actually I think last year it was in November but close enough.  It's turned into quite a big event (we even have a friend who made personalized caramel apple shirts for her girls, so cute!) and I have been told now by many that they count on this as an annual tradition so we better keep it up.  So this year, we had learned a few new tricks for improving the party and let the apple dipping begin!  

The girls playing together before digging in for some apples.

Surprise, surprise, Luke headed right for the good stuff.  

We cut up the apples and dished out the hot caramel but the kids did their own toppings.  We had sprinkles, peanuts and chocolate chips.  Yummy.

We had about 65-70 guests and went through about 75 apples.  After a while the kids realized the adults were busy chatting and enjoying the pretty day, so they proceeded to fill bowls with just sprinkles and chocolate chips and have at it.  Who needs the healthy apple?  

Trying to get a picture of all the kids...  I think I probably got about 75% of the kids but by this point they all had consumed a lot of sugar and trying to get them to sit still in one spot, all together, was nearly impossible.  Thankfully we were at the park so everyone could run around and get out all that sugar energy.

Birthday Dinner!

Kristen and I both have October birthdays so each year we have a combined birthday party to celebrate another year of awesomeness.  This year we all met at Leo's a yummy restaurant downtown.  

Me and Cynthia, thanks for planning it my friend, love you!

The whole gang.  Thanks girls, what a fun night.  Can't wait till next year!

Vickie returns for a visit:)

Our dear friends the Countrymans came back to Ocean Springs this weekend for a visit.  David had to fly back to Charleston but Vickie got to stay later so we took a boat ride and grabbed an early dinner.  The kids adore Ms. Vickie and were so excited to have her hang out with us.

Stephen calls Vickie my Yoda.  My wise one, I am just the apprentice, still learning to juggle it all.  Vickie's kids are all grown (all four of them) so I seek lots of advice and we pray together and laugh together, sometimes all at once.

Probably one of our favorite places to be, on our boat.  Addison always says, "My boat, my boat."

Addison all relaxed after a yummy dinner, mommy enjoying the sunset.

Amelia learning to drive the boat.

The new apple outfits...look how cute Lukey looks.  He finally let me get a picture and look how sweet he is. 

Cutie pie Addison Kate.