Halloween

I am not always excited to be living in CT, but this fall was one of the times that made me very happy to be here.  The weather was amazing! One weekend before Halloween we took the kids to Lyman's Orchard to pick out their pumpkins.  We made a day of it and picked apples while we were there. 

After pumpkins and apples we headed to the farm store for lunch and some apple cider donuts. Lyman's had a super big corn maze that we decided to try out.  We may or may not have gotten a little frustrated while we were in there and Mark and I might've cheated a little getting out of there but we made it out (at the half way point--there was no way we could've survive the whole thing, maybe next year).  We distracted our children from noticing by telling them we could get some kettle corn and sit by the lake to enjoy it.

Another weekend Mark took the train to Sleepy Hallow where we picked him up to walk the Pumpkin Blaze.  It was amazing! So many pumpkins carved and put together is some amazing designs.  There was a good combination of flowers and goblins to make the night a little spooky.

The weekend before Halloween we carved our big pumpkin.  This year there we let the kids each draw and a face on one part of the pumpkin and Mark carved it for them--we ended up with a 3 faced pumpkin that everyone was happy with.

The weekend before Halloween the school also had their annual Halloween Hop.  My kids love this party.  All of their friends come and it is safe enough that they can run around with their friends and not have to stay with Mark and I all night.  One of the favorite activities is the cake walk.  Katie tried all last year to win a cake to no avail.  But this year...she won one and picked the biggest one to take home. Yea, lucky us!

Marcus went with Army Man again, why change a good thing?  I made Addy a My Little Pony Rainbow Dash costume, I was so excited with how well it turned out.  (Addy liked it too.)  Katie was Hermine, I made her robe and she asked Grammy to knit her scarf (Thanks Grammy!).  And Jaxon did a fantastic job of recycling Marcus' old dragon costume. 

One day after school, I took the kids to their favorite grocery store, Stew Leonard's, to ride their haunted hay ride.  It took us into the park garage where they had different scenes set up.  Marcus was pretty scared by it all until I pointed out that most the scenes depicted friendly faces like Spider Man or Ninja Turtles--he still buried his head in my side every time he saw a ghost or a witch.

All three of the kids had classroom Halloween parties.  Jax and I were invited to Addy's and Katie's.  (Let me take a minute here and talk about what it is like to walk into the kid's school with Jaxon.  EVERYONE knows him, he is a mini-celebrity.  I can not walk down the hall with less then 5 people trying to get a hug out of him.  Half the time, someone will take him from me to go visit their class and then bring him back to his sibling's classroom.  I have 5th graders, who I do not know, saying 'hi' to him.)

Finally, Halloween night.  We went to Katie's friend, Jasmin's house for a preparty

 

And then back to our neighborhood when Mark got home for some trick-or-treating.  Somehow we took no pictures during the actual trick-or-treating.  Maybe it had something to do with chasing a 2 yr old around in the street.

Least you think the fun ended Halloween night, it did not.  The church had their Halloween party the day after.  The weather was bad so the truck or treat was held inside.

I only have pictures of Addy here because she was the only one who liked me enough to hang out with me.

Another very successful Halloween season with some of the cutest kids around.