Halloween Happenings

A few days before Halloween, we had the great idea to take the kids to the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm in Celina - we've been there plenty of times in the past (most memorable - the time I went after leaving the hospital that morning with contractions and signs of labor with Cooper, ... turns out he wasn't ready )

Anyway, we drove from Allen for what seemed like FOREVER with construction and back roads.  Then when we got there, we saw the cars.  Oh, the cars.  They opened an entirely new parking area.   And there was school buses lined up.  We caught sight of the tractor and hayride overflowing with people, and we turned back around and headed to our house.  

Passed the place where I take the kids for haircuts, stopped, and got Jackson and Charlie's cut.

 We then looked for a church with a pumpkin patch so we could at least support a good cause.  We found one right before we got home, stopped, and quickly realized it would cost us about $60 to get four pumpkins.  They only had tiny ones and big ones.   Jackson picked one out that was $40.   HA!

So, snapped a few pictures and then drove across the street to Kroger and got 4 pumpkins - each $3.88.  

Sorry, good cause. 

Headed home and started carving. 

 Charlie's.   I think that he did multiple eyes last year too.   Not sure what that is about.

But I love the sideways quirky smile.

 

 She was SOOOO excited to be in possession of the sharpie.

 

 Cooper, Jackson, Charlie, and Maggie (we lost steam and didn't carve hers).

Love love love how they turned out. 

 A couple of days late Cooper and Charlie had their Halloween parties at school.   I wasn't able to take any pictures during the party because there were only two of us (with Charlie's class) and we were busy entertaining the three year olds.   But I did get a shot of each of them when they saw me.   Neither knew I would be there.  

He smiled at the camera not knowing it was me.  Right after this he was pointing to me, than his teacher, speechless.   So cute. 

Halloween night...

No one naps. 

 Have to run to the drycleaners with the kids because we needed our clothes clean by the next day - so we would have them ready for the next day for family pictures.

Charlie falls asleep and stays asleep in the van, in the garage ... for about 45 minutes.  I left all the doors open and kept checking on him.

Colin said he would be home at 4:30.

Called at 4:20 and said there was traffic.

Had invited neighbors over for pizza and salad.

Got all the salad fixings out, and lo and behold, 

no lettuce.  

I could have sworn we had some.

But this is the story of my life.

We must wake Charlie.

That was a mistake.

He loses it.  

And continues to lose it. 

Earlier that day, I decide Maggie can be Cat girl to fit in with the superhero theme. 

Friend gives me a black headband.

So I use some scotch tape and make some ears. 

Take one of colin's black socks and tuck it into her pants for a tail.

Scribble a face on her with eye liner.

Neighbors show up. 

Then  neighbors parents came over too. 

Everyone is concerned about Charlie and tries to talk to him.

But he is far gone and still very mad about being woken up (I guess).

Jackson and Cooper get ready.

We ate some pizza, drank some beer, and I offered them croutons as a side.

HA.

Colin finally shows up.  I can't even look at him I am so mad that he left late and got caught in the traffic.  

Charlie is considering coming back to reality and calming down.  

Decides to wear the octopus costume instead of his Captain america costume.

So, we dub him "Octopus Man."

He's happy.

Jackson makes a sign for the candy, and we head out.

Maggie with our neighbor, Aaron.

 

 

Maggie was hilarious.

She caught on after one house, and was hooked.

She loved the attention.

And managed to open candy after candy.

I'm pretty sure she ate most of a box of nerds with the nerds themselves.  

 Just kept getting more and more candy.

 Boys' Jack-O-Lanterns at night.

We forgot to blow them out and went to bed.  

Lucky for us, we didn't catch the house on fire.  

eek.

Fun Halloween. 

Best  part was about halfway through -

Colin and I were on the sidewalk ...

Maggie and Charlie in the wagon.

Jackson is up at a house and I hear someone ask,

"And who are you?" (as in, who are you dressed up as)

(he has the mask on)

And he answers, "Jackson."

And then I hear, 

"Jackson Delaney?" 

It was his teacher! 

Ha! 

Had no idea she lived in our neighborhood.

Coudn't quite make sense of why she was there.

I asked her why she was, and she said, "well, this is our house, we live here."

haha.

Anyway, it was great to see her and it made Jackson's day.

I wasn't that mad at Colin by the time we got home and got the kids in bed.
It worked out fine. : )

Broken Bow or Bust

A few weeks ago, we took a little road trip!   We left Maggie with my mom (hooray!) and brought the three boys to Broken Bow, OK.  We rented an awesome cabin with two other couples, the Speckmans and the Blanchers.   Six "grown ups" and six kids.

It was only a 3 hour drive, and we were the first to arrive.

We got dinner going, and Charlie helped clean the spatula with icing on it.

The cabin was called "Oz" and three floors high.   Four bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, plus a loft with pull out "log" murphy beds for the 5 big boys.

No wifi, and no cell service.  It was kinda amazing.

The rest of the troops arrived soon, and we had a great time catching up.

Enjoyed "What's the fox say?" a few dozen times.

The next morning we went to the state park for a train ride. 

It was a little colder than we expected : )

 

Sweet Evan!

He kept us laughing the entire trip.

And super Cooper

Loading up on the train.

It seemed to take them a while to get things going.

We all enjoyed some AMAZING hot chocolate while we waited.  

Thomas - ready to go!

Here was the crew in the front row.  We thought they would be the coldest, but come to find out the engine heat kept them the warmest!

After the train ride, the plan was to ride horses.  I wore my boots and hat - was a little over excited.
But, after it took so long for the train to get ready, we were afraid the wait for the horses to be saddled would take forever ... so we went up the road to the visitors center.

We checked out the gift shop and then took a little nature hike.   It was great!  Except that even the brochure said, "do not wear slick-soled cowboy boots."    Turns out its almost impossible to navigate down a hill of rocks with boots.   I was sliding all over the place and grabbing onto whoever was close enough to take down with me save me.

Adam found the biggest walking stick.

So very fun to have all these boys together.  

They played really well.

Checking out the creek

We ate snacks, sang a little more of "What's the fox say?", and had a grand ol' time. 

Me and a very tired Charlie.  

Fell asleep on Colin : )

We let him skip naps every day we were there, but he still needs one so badly. 

Don't know what I did, but all of these pictures are over-exposed.

Anyway, here are the biggest boys in this really cool tree trunk.

brothers : )

Cooper got a free ride with Tyler

Went home and roasted hotdogs over the fire. 

Was hoping I could get a foot rub, but no luck. 

  Adam made us some "hot dog cookers" out of sticks.

All the boys (old and young) loved building and maintaining the fire.   

We kept it going for the rest of the day - until late that night.

 Lots of dancing.   

Lots of playing with sticks, and just hanging out.

 Playing with a random dog, Smith.   

Hot tub time!

 More dancing!

 

And smores!

 

 We bought giant marshmallows : )

 Kristen showed us some yoga positions...

 We all took turns with dinners, lunches, and breakfasts.  So yum.  We ate, and ate, and ate.

And I drank like I was in college again.  

Turns out I'm not that young anymore  : )

We went canoeing down the river.  So fun!! It was cold and drizzly, and we made it back just before it poured.   A huge success  -  no one fell in the water. 

We just hung out on the back porch and also watching movies inside for the rest of the day.

Oh, and eating.  We kept eating.

That evening we did a little scavenger hunt for the kids. 

 They found a box full of silly string, stickers, and glow sticks.  

 

 

 Oh silly string ... so much fun! I should have bought enough for the grown-ups too. 

After the silly string, we had a major dance party, aka rave.

 Oh, so fun.

I will forever associate the "running man" with this trip.

After the kids went to bed, we stayed up and played games. 

So fun.

 Awwww... couple shot.

Speckmans

 

 Blanchers, with baby #3 on the way!

 Cooper just told me this morning he wishes we could have stayed at the cabin forever.  Jackson agreed.

They were curled up on the couch under a blanket before school.

Went to take a group shot at a "scenic overlook"

Turns out it wasn't  very scenic.

We tried a second spot, which was beautiful ...

we just had to hold the kids against the rail because it was on the side of a road.

 Checked out the barbed wire?!?!

Went to this cool little place for pizza before we all headed home.

Kids had fun playing in the mud while we waited.

We had such a great time.   And I have to say, life is easier with three kids than four : ) No diapers, no naps ... it was so wonderful.   I'm so appreciative of my mom and brother for keeping Maggie.  It's not that she is "hard" but it was so great to do all the things with the boys.   Where we would have to had split up for naps, etc ...
I really missed her, though. : )

Had a great trip, and looking forward to another one sometime in the future!