I said I was going to work at getting caught up on my blog, but I decided to do a more current post in the meantime. (I think I'm a little overwhelmed at the thought of blogging about Disneyland. It was awesome, but there is so much awesomeness to document!)
Anyway, we had some fun this October. I have loved the big, blue sky and the crisp fall temperatures. Most days it was in the 50s and pretty chilly or even freezing at night. But the sun! Oh, the glorious sun!
I heard about this little pumpkin patch called the Red Barn on Facebook and we decided to check it out. It was perfect! Lots of pumpkins to choose from, a few activities to give the kiddos the "pumpkin patch experience" without exhausting me, and only a few minutes from home. Hooray!
They had a little hay maze that, because it had low walls, was super easy to navigate. The kids didn't seem to mind this and loved running through it multiple times. I was a little annoyed that they boys kept leaving Emma in their dust. We are really working on getting them to be helpful big brothers, but sometimes they forget! Chloe took Emma through a few times though!
There was a little train ride that drove through the patch. The youngest 3 Brownies were excited to ride it, although I think Emma was a little nervous too. She had kind of a death grip on Kyle's leg.
Sarah and I taking selfies. :) Everyone is always saying how much we look alike and I've never really seen it until this year. Now I'm starting to be convinced. I think she's definitely the new and improved version though!
I'm not sure how, but I didn't get any pictures of Brad. He was there patching it up with us though! Afterwards we picked up some Panda Express and headed for home. It was just the right amount of afternoon fun.
A week or so later, I saw another Facebook post about some fun hay bales in the area. We had to go and check them out for ourselves. Minions!
And that brings us to Halloween! Sarah was Violet from The Incredibles. She was very excited to get this costume that was her Aunt Shelley's. I'm certain she froze while trick or treating tonight (she's not home yet to confirm), but she was bound and determined that this was her costume. She did put some light layers on underneath though.
Kyle was Jedi Master Obi Wan Kanobi. We recycled parts of his Obi Wan costume from when he was 4, but he needed longer pants and a tunic. I also made him a robe and Sarah loaned him her boots. He loved his costume so much he put it on after school and played and hung out in it several days in a row. I told him it didn't have to go back in the Halloween bucket and could stay in with their regular dress up. He was thrilled!
A more serious expression...
Chloe recycled the Woody costume and looked pretty cute doing it. She wore her own boots though rather than the clunky men's ones I found at Goodwill. She even wrote ANDY on the bottom of one.
Emma was our little U of U cheerleader. Both Sarah and Chloe wore this when they were 2 and I think it's fun that we hung onto it so that Emma could as well. She has recently decided that dress-up is the thing to do and so this will also be staying in with her regular toys.
She would not pose with her pompoms, but we still got a little sass out of her.
Aaron was originally thinking he would wear a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume, but changed his mind today. In fact, he almost didn't wear a costume to school. I think he was worried that no one else would be dressed up and he'd feel weird. I had to convince him that everyone would be dressed up and that if he didn't, he'd be the only one in the parade that wouldn't have on a costume. He can be so stubborn sometimes and I wasn't going to force him into a costume, but was worried he'd come home sad if he didn't wear one. I'm glad he changed his mind.
He picked this Clone Trooper costume that we got from his cousin Braden a year or so ago. It's still a little big, but he loved it and was happy to pose with the Boba Fett blaster gun that we have.
And I tried to get a good one of the whole Brownie Bunch, but Chloe kept making weird faces!
And then when she didn't make a weird face, the camera ended up blurry. Oh well!
Last, but not least, is our pumpkins all carved up. From left to right they are mine, Aaron's and Emma's. I kept mine simple. Aaron was originally going to do a Frankenstein face, since his pumpkin was mostly green, but changed his mind and wanted a bat instead. He was very happy with Brad's assistance. Emma wanted a grumpy face with a circle nose. She was very adamant about the circle nose.
The top two are (l-r) Kyle's and Chloe's. Kyle's is Evil Emperor Zurg and Chloe's says "Don't Blink", a Doctor Who reference. The bottom two are (l-r) Sarah's and Brad's. Sarah's is also an homage to Doctor Who with a picture of a Tardis. It's pretty detailed and she worked really hard on it. Brad decided to go with a simple happy face this year instead of flames, dragons or a scary face.
Happy October!
