Pumpkin Carvin' and Halloweenin'

Still trying to catch up! So here we are on a beautiful sunny day at the end of October, carving our pumpkins outside! It was a long beautiful fall that we got to enjoy this year.



Here are the finished masterpieces:

Before we go trick or treating, I like to make a ghoulish dinner for the kids. This year we had 3 other families join in the festivities: the Lamberts, the Bennetts, and the Zundels. It was so fun! Here's the cookie salad dessert Rose made into a little graveyard:I made monster bones and dracula teeth soup (tortilla soup: tortillas for the bones and corn for the teeth), mummy dogs, and brain jello. No pics though, sorry. Here's Aidan and Ethan eating our yummy dinner:

Here are the kids after trick or treating; Batman, Princess, Mario, and Batgirl:

Jack in the Box (Mike) and Wendy (Me):
Princess Mia:

Batman Jacob:

Luigi (Baey) and Mario (Ethan):
A fun time had by all! Ethan wanted to get as much candy as he could so he could sell it to the dentist. He actually got over 5 pounds of candy so he got 12 whole dollars (2 bucks a pound)! I think that was a good idea! He's going to do that every year I think!

And since we went trick or treating on Saturday and Halloween was on a Sunday this year, we did our dinner in a pumpkin on the actual Halloween night (Sunday). Here she is. Aint she beautiful!

Pumpkin Pickin' and Corn Mazin'

This is the first year that we were able to go and "pick" our pumpkins for carving. We bought some gift certificates for half off to this u-pick pumpkin place just south of town. I thought we were going to actually pick our pumpkins off the actual vine, but we get there and there are just pumpkins laid out in random piles all over. Kind of disappointing, but the kids still had fun picking their perfect pumpkin.


We brought along our little neighbor boy, Talon, if you were wondering who the new addition was in these pictures!

Jacob tackling the top of the kiddie straw maze:

Mia finding a quick way out of the maze:

Ethan getting the straw out of his shoes:

Mia just riding a tractor just her size:

Asia having fun in the maze:

That night we decided to go with some friends and go to the corn maze just outside of Shelley. Mike won these tickets from the radio station. We went out to dinner to Mrs. Powells and then it was off to the dust bowl. There was a thin layer of dust everywhere so the kids basically had a bath in dust the whole time. We started with the second hardest maze which was about 2 miles. The kids liked finding the different check points throughout the maze. Then we decided to do another shorter maze which turned into a longer maze because we got lost! Ha! The kids were pretty done after that one! I think their favorite thing was this little train ride:

Jacob could've rode this thing the whole time and been content:

Asia and Mia after their fun train ride:
Mia and Ethan after the train ride:

It was a pretty fun day with perfect weather! This is not usually the case the end of October in Idaho. But we enjoyed it while it lasted...

Randoms

I just wanted to post some cute pics that I've taken over the last couple of months.

So, have you ever wanted the kids to do something creative without the mess? Well, how about painting with water? The kids LOVE to do this! They find things all around the yard to paint; stairs, play cars, rocks, banisters, etc. If they spill their water, no biggie. Just fill it up again. No mess, no fuss! Luv it!

One night, as I was checking on the kids before I went to bed, this is how we found Jacob. Comfy:
Just a cute pic of Jacob, hangin' out, watchin' some t.v.:We have some new neighbors that moved in across the street and they have a daughter named Mia. Crazy! They also have a son named Jake. It's quite the coincidence. Anyway, Mia is 13 and she loves to decorate cakes. So, one day she was decorating a cake for her friend's birthday and she asked Asia to come over and decorate a cake. This is her creation, fondant and everything:
And here's Asia playing soccer for her second time. She is a very fast runner when she wants to be, and can kick the ball pretty hard if she wants to, but it all has to be her idea! So if you tell her to do all of these things, she won't do it! HA! Needless to say, this will probably be her last year of playing soccer. She just didn't have that much fun playing. We still have to find a sport that she likes. Maybe basketball...Here are the kids trying out the vampire teeth while decorating for Halloween:
And Mia trying on the ninja costume:I think that's it for this post. Now on to the Halloween pics finally! (hopefully)