Costumes

For me, the costumes are the funnest part of Halloween! Sorry its taken so long to get them in a post though... I know my mom is itching to see these! So here you go Grandma!

My school had a Monster Mash Bash the week before Halloween. We dress up as teams during the school day to get the students excited about the festival that night. We really do it up!

My team, Harry Potter characters...

My character is Professor Trelawney. She is a bit eccentric and "out there"!

Kinder: Little Bo Beep and her sheep...

Fourth Grade: baseball players

First Grade: Prom King and Queens...
Specials: Pirates
Third Grade: Ballerinas
Fifth Grade: Star Wars Second Grade: A Bad Case of Stripes This is a GREAT children's book and if you are unfamiliar with you, just know that these teachers DID IT RIGHT!

Office Staff: Graduates

The Whole Gang!

The boys day care had a Halloween party the Friday before Halloween. They are allowed to wear their costumes, but we are too anal to send our kids in their costumes and worry that they will get ruined before trick or treating. So, I bought these cute shirts... it'd be cuter, but trying to get Hamilton to sit still these days is impossible!

Then Halloween night of course...

Captain America!

PandaSkeleton (when you're 1, you get several costumes!)

We had a party for our neighbors and friends.

Lily the ballerina Izzy, the pirate

Jack as Robin

Thomas as the scream guy

Jesse and Colty, Mario and Luigi

Julie and David (Mom and Dad of Mario and Luigi)

Mommy with the boys. I wasn't really anything, just wore my crazy wig! For the party we had a grilled cheese bar. Sandwiches made to order. Thanks honey!

And of course, lots of snacks!!! Witches hands for party favors!

Hamilton loved these witches fingers!
Ooooeeyyyy, goooeeeey, FUN!
Richard and Eva had some fun with the caramel apples!
We ended the night with some good ole' trick or treating! They even got to go into a Haunted Garage... some people really do it up!

Halloween really is just F-U-N!

Why is this boy so sad?

These are real tears.
This is one sad boy. Why is he so sad you ask?

Well, he didn't started out that way.
He was very happy as you can see.
He has waited over a week to build a haunted house with his Daddy.
All the pieces are ready...
HERE WE GO!

Step one was to assemble the house. Daddy is holding the roof in place while Hollister decorates.

How 'bout some "spooky" icing on top! The finished product and one pleased 4 year old.
(Daddy is still pouring icing on top.
That's the "string" in the picture.)
He was pretty pleased afterward.
We are having a Halloween party tomorrow evening.
He was pretty stoked to show it off.
We cleaned up and moved it to the stove top.
He wanted to eat some of it,
but we were able to convince him against that
until he showed his friends.

Here comes the sad part....

And this is what happened next.... If you were 4, you'd be sad too....

Before the Halloween posts begin....

In the next few days, I will have tons of Halloween photos to share. I actually already have several, but I am waiting.....

But these are too cute to pass up. Last week at the pumpkin patch, click here if you missed that post, Hollister created a game. It was a "chase me Daddy" game... It was hysterical... The pictures say it all. Hamilton enjoyed it just as much.

ENJOY!


And I was able to get a photo with my boys. Hollister was done with photos by then and getting the boys to looks and smile at the same time these days is near is possible. I am actually happy with what I got!

No soccer, so we crammed it all in this weekend...

WARNING... This post turned into a novel. Get a snack, and a drink and take your time.....


This weekend was busy. We didn't have soccer, but we had a birthday party, a town festival and a trip to the pumpkin patch. I need to go back to work to relax!

First, on Saturday morning, we attended a birthday party for twins on our soccer team. They have 5 acres of land that is absolutely the prefect setting. Trevor and I both were green with envy. The house and land are actually for sale, but that is not an option for us, so we just enjoyed being there and dreaming a little.

Hollister riding a horse, posing for me with Snoopy, grabbing for candy after the pinata, and swinging with Hamilton. Now I wish I had taken more pictures of the land....

After the party we headed to the local Hogeye Festival. This is our third year. Read about the first and second festivals we attended. This year ended up being shortened due to the rain. But we did get our fill of some fried food! This year we also went with Kristy, Tony and Jack, our neighbors. They were first timers!


This is why our festival time was short. It was nice when we got there, overcast, windy, but nice. Then the rain came... it only lasted about 10 minutes, but it was strong. Then, the sun came back out and holy moly, it was HOT! While it rained, we ate our fried potato chips. No turkey leg this year. For those of you that don't know that story, click here.


Before the rain, Hollister and Jack rode these motorized dogs. They loved them! How cute are they?

And of course, the famous Hogeye pig. One of these days I'll get us all in a pic with that pig. If I do, it'll be our Christmas photo for sure!

Today, we visited the local pumpkin patch. I had originally wanted to go to a larger one about 2 hours from here, but so glad we didn't do that. We have two pumpkin patches in Elgin. One is 5 miles from our house, the other is maybe 10. Why not stay local?
They had pumpkins (duh!), scarecrow building, face painting, train ride, fire truck rides, a pumpkin hunt, a pumpkin slide game, fishing, play areas, concessions, etc... It was HOT! There was a good crowd and we had a lot of fun. The best part was, when we got tired, we left and were home in just a few minutes. That doesn't happen much when you live in a small town. As I was downloading pictures, I realized we took a ton. Trevor has gotten a new camera recently and he took a bunch too. I have something like 85 pictures... So, are you ready? Just start scrolling....

Just kidding.. here's a few from the fun we had!

How cute are these pumpkins! (Oh and those orange things are cool too!)



The bean bag toss

The pumpkin hunt: the farm is actually a Christmas tree farm... they hide pumpkins out where the trees are and let the kids find them. The ride on the big tractor and trailer out there is just as much fun as finding the pumpkins.

He found some!


Next was the pumpkin slide. Hollister was really into this. He had to work the pump to get the pumpkin down the slide and into the bucket. He could actually do it on his own. I was very proud of him, it was hard work.







And.. it's in!

Another fun thing they did was a pumpkin launch. The name says it all. You put a baby pumpkin in a launcher and try to get it in a box.

Check out the top left corner of this picture.
That is their pumpkin flying through the air!


Here are the boxes they were trying to hit. The last one hit the brown box (you can barely see it in this pic, but its there), but didn't go in. It was fun though.



Here's just more of my cuties!

There was also a petting farm and fishing, but its late and if you have made it this far, you are as exhausted as I am. I should have done several posts for this weekend.... Thanks for hanging in and reading this far though, or just checking out the pictures, that's the fun part anyway!

The more I think about it, the happier I am that we stayed local for the pumpkin patch!

Mobility Update

Well, the inevitable is happening.... Hamilton is becoming very mobile. He has recently figured out how to climb the staircase.

Hollister making sure he doesn't fall. What a good big brother he is.

Taking a break, its a tall staircase.

Finally at the top!

He recently got his first pair of shoes.

He stood on his own today for the first time. It has also been said that he took a few steps, but since Mommy wasn't there, it doesn't count. He is really moving though. If you hold his hand, he will walk pretty quickly. He holds on to anything he can to move. Honestly, I am not ready for this. It is super cute though!

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