Frisco Square and Pumpkin Carving

Well, of course I'm weeks behind in blogging. :)  But since it's Halloween, I thought I'd try to at least catch up with holiday related posts before moving on.

Our church had a pretty casual "you can wear your costumes to church" thing and everyone got a small treat bag... So this was on our way to church.  

We went round and round about what they would be.  Eventually Logan chose Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so Olivia decided to match him and be Izzy.  And then I was talking to a MOPS friend and she said she had a costume we could borrow, so we didn't even have to buy Logan's!

After a small lunch break at home, we headed to Frisco Square for their Halloween activities.  We've gone each year (that we've lived in town.)

Look at his face!  He was thrilled he could just pick out whatever he wanted. :)

One thing we learned was to show up when it starts!  It gets crazy busy.  We showed up about 10 minutes before it was suppose to start and got half of it conquered before the crowds got crazy.

Candy!

I don't know if we were in the right place at the right time, or if they had just gotten out there, but we stumbled on the princesses and there weren't any lines!  Olivia walked right up and told them she had been drawing them earlier in the day, and just started carrying on a conversation with them.  Look at Logan's face!  Ha ha!

We walked past this and Olivia asked for a picture. :/

We were there about an hour.  It was hot, and it had been a busy morning.  We were all ready for a break.  We got gas station icees to cool off, came home, and relaxed while watching a movie.

Then it was dinner time!  Since trick or treat is on a work night, I felt it might get rushed.  So I made our special dinner for us on Sunday.  We had mummy dogs, a ghost banana, pumpkin oranges, and some pumpkin peeps. :)

Her thrill and excitement always make it worth it!

After dinner, we carved our pumpkin.

Logan was not thrilled with the pumpkin guts.  It took some convincing, but he did finally try to dig some out.

Olivia did much better.

Another after season clearance find from last year-- we got these packs of luminaries for pennies!  So while Michael worked on carving, the kids put stickers on their luminaries.

The kids chose a cat out of the choices that we had.  

A cat pumpkin, skeletons, and luminaries...

It was a busy, but good day.  I love creating these fun memories with my little family.

We have princess trick or treating tonight, and then that wraps up our month of all things "spooooky".

Other Halloween Traditions

Well, we've been to the pumpkin patch and we've painted our pumpkins.  

Our house has been decorated for weeks.  Truthfully, I've never been all that into Halloween, so my decorations are minimal.  So one Sunday afternoon, Olivia and I had a date to Target where we bought some fun Halloween decor from the dollar spot.  She loves it (and Michael has always liked Halloween), so I like it for her.  Obviously we stick to bats and spiders and pumpkins, and stay away from the gross or overly scary.

While I was out of town the kids got a Halloween themed Cheryl's Cookie tin from their grandma.  This is two years in a row, so that makes it a tradition, right? :)

Michael's sister sent them a Halloween gift box--just like last year, so another tradition! :)  Halloween is her favorite holiday, and Olivia says it's hers too.  So Jenny hooks them up with all sorts of Halloween fun.  They got coloring books, light up rings, light up cups, stickers, treats, these pumpkin men they are painting, and the magnets on the fridge behind them.  The kids just love it!

We've been eating on Halloween plates (not pictured) and drinking out of pumpkin cups, and the BELOVED pumpkin/ghost peeps have been purchased and eaten.  Olivia remembers them from last year, and is overly excited every time she gets one for lunch.  She even made Michael take this picture of her eating her pumpkin. Ha ha!

Olivia's BOO shirt from last year *just* fits.  Even still, we hooked her up with a new Halloween shirt!  We're working on getting Logan one.  The boy selection is just never as good!  And I want a short sleeve one, because it's still warm here.  Hopefully we'll get him one this weekend!

One of their absolute favorite things is their glow in the dark skeleton pajamas!  They were running around like maniacs the first time we put them on.  They wear them every chance they get.  It's just so fun!

We still need to finalize their costumes.  Then we'll do trick or treating and we'll carve a pumpkin closer to Halloween as well.

Let the holiday fun begin!

Painted Pumpkins

We got the two small pumpkins from the patch, but then we headed to Aldi to get our other pumpkins for cheap!  We bought 4 giant pumpkins for $2.99 each!!

Then later that night we painted our pumpkins.

Last year we got some after Halloween pumpkin kits on super clearance (like 85 cents instead of the listed $10!).  So we painted with those in mind.  Logan and Michael worked together.

Then Olivia and I each did our own.  I thought for sure she would do exactly as the box said to, but she shocked me and decided she wanted to paint it on her own.

This picture cracked me up.  Michael had bent down to paint the bottom, and then suddenly Logan was doing acrobatics to get the paint at the bottom. :)

We also had a caramel apple, which is becoming a tradition as well.

Our finished products!  These plastic pumpkin sets were different and a fun twist for us.  However, I am glad that I bought them for super cheap.  I would never pay more than a dollar or two.  The kits did come with paint, but we just used paint we had on hand.  I've read some reviews that the paint that came with it didn't cover the pumpkin, so I'm glad we just went with our own.

And just for fun...

2013

2014

2015

Pumpkin Patch 2016

I'm not sure what happened, but I feel like October just snuck up on me... and now we're a third of the way through!  Before the month got away from me, I figured we better head to the pumpkin patch!

We thought about trying a new place, but in the end we went to the same one we've been to in the past.

Love these two!

I always feel like Logan is just the same size and has hardly grown... but then I looked back at last year's picture.  Wow!  Suddenly my kids only have one pair of shoes that fit, and a pair of jeans that I thought would be huge on Logan could barely snap.  Apparently we are growing around here!

We fed the animals first.  They tried feeding the Longhorn, but he was not hungry.

We moved on to the cows.  This is about as close as she would get.  The cows had MAJOR slobber, and the kids were not having it.  But they thought it was great that Michael would feed them.  I was trying to hold back the gags.  I don't do animal slobber well.

In awe of her brave Boppa!

They had no problem feeding the goats and sheep!

They just laughed and laughed because it tickled.

He wasn't afraid at all this year.  Which was a huge difference from last year!

<3

We attempted the hay maze, but had to abort that mission.  It had rained the day before and it was just one crazy, sticky mud pit.

So we hopped on the hay ride instead!

Logan wouldn't look at me because of the sun, but then he didn't understand what Michael was doing trying to block the sun. :)

Taking it all in

Olivia was over pictures... hence the goofy smile.

Love my people!

We let them each pick a small pumpkin, and we called it a day!

Pumpkin Patch: Check!