Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween started early because the younger three were able to wear their costumes to school. They rushed through their breakfast and chores in order to get dressed up ASAP. All three of the boys were skeletons this year, while Caroline was Ghoulia Yelps, one of the Monster High girls. She chose her costume because she thought it was very stylish (really, what says style like blue hair?), because it had lots of accessories included, and because when she was walking out of the fitting room, she ran into one of her best friends, Audrey, IN THE SAME COSTUME. (You can imagine their screams of delight, can't you?)

After I dropped Seth and Caroline off at school, I went with Evan to his preschool Halloween party, where the kids did crafts and games,



had yummy snacks,

sang spooky songs for their parents,


and modeled fabulous costumes.

In the afternoon, Evan, Dave and I went to see Caroline...

and Seth in their Halloween parade.

Then Dave took Evan home while I helped at Seth's party. Just look at all of these fabulous fourth graders!

We played the traditional "Wrap a Mummy" game.

Here's the finished result!

After school, we dressed the kids in layers upon layers, grabbed a snack, and then headed out to trick or treat with some of our best friends!

At one house we stopped at, the owners had rented a cotton candy machine!
Another house had an amazing Halloween display in their front yard, complete with a skeleton rigged up to transmit the owner's voice. The kids laughed and conversed with him for the longest time!

When we were done trick or treating, we came home for a pizza dinner and finished up homework. (It hardly seemed fair that there was school the next day!) Then Evan and I went over to Evan's buddy, Ryan's (oh, I mean Batman's!) house so that they could play and enjoy each other's costumes a little bit.

Then the kids humored me by posing for a group shot...aren't they a good looking group?! :)

I'll finish up this post with pictures of our pumpkin masterpieces...


Hope your Halloween was fun too!

The Championship Game

Our beloved White Knights played the Black Knights in the League Championship game today. They earned their spot in the championship by beating the Bengals last week. That's our Seth in a picture that one of our friends just sent today.



Our archrivals, the Black Knights, were undefeated, and were favored to win. Our White Knights had 2 losses, one in a heartbreaker to the Black Knights. The championship game was played on a beautiful, brand-new high school football field. It was fun to see the boys play on astro-turf, while we sat in real bleachers. :)

It was MISERABLE outside. MISERABLE. As in 45 degrees, rainy and windy. YUCK! This picture shows how we watched the game. I was wearing my "George Costanza"/Michelin Man jacket, and the kids stayed huddled under blankets. Blue Blob #1 was Caroline, Blue Blob #2 was a sleeping Evan, and Blue Blob #3 was Henry. :)

The Black Knights scored 6 points in the first quarter. It was neck and neck in the 2nd and most of the third. At the end of the third quarter, our team scored 6 points to tie it up. With 28 seconds left in the fourth quarter, one of our star running backs broke off a 40 yard run, bringing it to the 11 yard line. Two plays later, we punched it in for another touchdown with 10 seconds left in the game.

It was amazing! They fought through adversity and awful weather, and look at them now! We are SO proud of our LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!

Our very soggy, cold and super-excited Seth...When we got home he ate 10 chicken nuggets, drank hot chocolate, and took a long hot shower AFTER I took his picture. :)

Keepsakes from a fantastic football season...

a team picture...

a picture of our favorite football player...

and a beautiful 1st place trophy!

WAY TO GO, WHITE KNIGHTS!

Party at Seth's house!!

Yes, it was a month and four days after Seth's real birthday. However, last night we had a birthday honoring our favorite ten year old with all of his favorite friends. I had decided that we needed to wait until all of the fall sports were mostly done, so I told Seth that by the end of October we would have a party for him. We just made it! :)

When I picked Seth up from school, he could hardly contain his excitement. He helped me decorate and set up for his party, and even dusted and cleaned a little for me too. Unfortunately, as you can see, he missed a few cobwebs. ;)

When his friends arrived, they played a little basketball, and a little "tackle Mr. Nosek."

Then it was time for Seth's favorite food and drink...pizza and root beer, mmmm!

Seth loves his friends...Matthew...

Will...

Mason and Giancarlo...


as well as Jack and Patrick!



Seth requested a "cookie cake".

Here's the whole crew right before we sang "Happy Birthday" to Seth.

Then it was time to open presents. I love Seth and Will's laughing faces in this picture.

Mason, Seth and Gian

The whole crew again...I think this is my favorite picture from the whole night. I told Seth that we might frame it for his room. :)

We played a few of Aunt Debby's Minute to Win It Halloween games. Here's Mason doing a fine job at the Frankenstein walk.

Evan was suprisingly good at this game too!

Will was pretty quick at picking up the scary ingredients with his straw for the Witch's Stew game.

Seth really "shook his Boooo-ty" to get all of the ping-pong balls out of the kleenex box attached to his back.

Seth wanted to show his friends the Party Rock Anthem Halloween house on the computer. They loved it!

At the end of the night, the kids snuggled up in their sleeping bags to watch Captain America, which was just released on DVD. The kids were so excited to see it! Caroline and I made sure they were well supplied with popcorn, and then she and I went upstairs to the master bedroom to watch Cats and Dogs. Since I had been getting up at 5 every day this week, I was exhausted, so I fell asleep watching the movie even before Caroline did! Dave stayed up with the boys watching the movie, and then it was lights out by 12:30.
The kids slept in until 7:30-8:30, so they actually got a decent amount of sleep for a sleepover! For breakfast, the kids had donuts, bacon and eggs, and then played some more.

Seth said that it was his best birthday party ever, and although he says that every year, I always love to hear it! :)

Happy birthday, Seth!

Party Rock Anthem Halloween House

The kids and I just found this clip this morning...WOW! Love it! Wonder if Dave could do this for our house! ;)

Awww!

One of Caroline's sweet friends (Audra) was not able to come to her birthday party. So yesterday Audra and her mom had Caroline over for a playdate where they celebrated her birthday. It was so thoughtful...just look at their set up! They made Caroline feel so special. :)
Thank you, Audra and Lisa!

Playoffs and Pursuing the Perfect Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday night, while I was off having fun with my friends, Seth went to a sleepover birthday party for his friend, Will. And to celebrate the end of a successful quarter, we let Henry invite a couple of his friends over for the night. It was a weekend full of sleepovers. God bless my husband because although I was home for Friday night's sleepover, he handled Saturday's on his own. He deserves a guys' night out soon!

On Sunday morning, when we normally would have been going to church, we packed up the family to go cheer Seth on in his 1st round playoff for his football team. They WON! So now the championship game is between our beloved White Knights, and their rivals, the Black Knights. It's a classic case of good vs. evil. ;)

Here's a clip of our team at the end of their post-game huddle...


After the game, we went out to celebrate Seth's team's success at Portillo's, and then tried to find a place to buy our pumpkins. Sadly, the pumpkin patch that we have gone to for the past few years with my husband's extended family is no longer around.

The first farmstand we went to was very cute, but the price of their pumpkins did not fit our budget. So we thought that we'd stop at Aldi to pick up pumpkins. Despite being a very unromantic site for picking pumpkins, Aldi does have very good prices on big pumpkins. Unfortunately, Aldi's were out of stock. :(

So we thought we'd look for another, and hopefully cheaper, farmstand on the way home. We happened by a small farm that I imagine has just started into the Halloween business (kind of like Sunny Acres a few decades ago, family). They had one little shop where you could buy jams, jellies, fruits, veggies and Halloween decor. One little shop, that's it. They had a little play area, and although they charged to get into it, it was only a few bucks, not like twelve. The farmer took us on a hayride through their corn field to a hidden pumpkin patch, and it was huge, with TONS of pumpkins to choose from. The pumpkins were not $2.50 like they were at Aldi, but $6 was not bad for a huge pumpkin and a hayride! Needless to say, I think that this will be our new traditional spot to get our pumpkins every year.

On the hayride going to pick out the perfect pumpkins!

My favorite daughter and I (although when I say that, Caroline usually corrects me and says that's not fair to Moxie!)

The boys

She found her favorite!

Evan almost chose this bumpy pumpkin.

Henry with his choice

Seth, half skeleton, half football player, with his choice

Bringing the pumpkins back on the hayride! They were so proud of their pumpkins!

Caroline hugging her brother and her pumpkin!

On the way out, we stopped in the shop to pay for our pumpkins...the kids found these fancy fingernails and couldn't resist scaring their mother.

Finally, here's Seth posing with the pumpkin that he carved at his friend Will's party Saturday night.
What a fun fall weekend!