Grant's little school has Noah's Ark Day instead of 'Halloween'. I ordered a mask and shirt a month ago. I'm so glad it came in. It was supposed to arrive the day we needed it, but ended up arriving two days earlier! I was so excited I didn't have to throw something together at the last minute.

My niece was a kitty cat. Usually all smiles, she was weary of us leaving her at the school.

This is the first year we've actually been home Halloween weekend in a while. So we made some plans with our church's Trunk or Treat event. On Friday, I came down with a nasty stomach virus. I was for sure I'd miss all the festivities on Saturday. I did my best and pressed through and felt fine by Saturday afternoon. So I got out of my funk and put the finishing touches on our costumes (ways to make them warmer) and trunk decorations. The first stop was my sister's church for their event.

My little pirate played some games, and won some prizes.

My big pirate helped chase a beautiful butterfly, my niece.

It was a wonderful day, weather wise, for the events. Even a little too sunny!

Next stop was our church event.
Vivian and my sister decided to come with us. You can see her wings really well here.

Grant scarfed down the cotton candy, and pretty much became the usual giant sticky mess.

I didn't get a picture of our trunk, but it was basically a giant 'friendly' skull my Mom and I made. I had a plan of kids reaching into the skull's mouth and drawing coins. The color of the coin told me how much candy to give them. Well, I left the trunk up with the bowl of plastic coins in the skull mouth and when I came back from eating, all but 1 coin was gone. I guess some kids went early and thought thats what I was handing out. So, yea, Greg, I have to buy you some coins to replace the ones I borrowed...sorry. Arrgghhh.
The kids that DID do what they were supposed to got some great candy and Play-Doh. Vivian came by to get some as well. Grant didn't care much for the trunk or treating as he did the playground and bounce house.

Happy Halloween, mateys!

We then had an outfit change to match Miss Vivian.

Friday rolled around and Daniel's grandmother came in, GiGi, so we decided to break open the pumpkin I've had for a while now. Who knew that stabbing a vegetable with a knife could be such a great stress reliever!

Last year, Grant gagged when we carved a pumpkin. This year I told him, "If you feel like you're going to be sick, run into the other room." I started pulling out the pulp and he said, "I think I have to go somewhere!". However, he stayed and did just fine. Here is GiGi and Grant checking out the pulp.
GiGi pulled out seeds so we could roast them. They didn't turn out so well, or did they?? I never had them so I don't know what they are supposed to taste like!
Not too bad!



Game day came and more in-laws came to join the fun! Daniel, his sister Erica, his father James and GiGi all went to the World Series game. Daniel's mother, Grant, and I stayed home to cheer them on there.

After they left, but before the game started I spent some time with my Mom and Dad while my Mom and I worked on my Halloween costume (which you will see on the next post). I got back home just time for the pre-game show and some dinner. Grant didn't care much for the game, as you can see...

The Rangers were losing pretty bad by the time Grant, Grammie, and I started to wind down for the night. Grant was just about asleep and I was just really starting to get into the game when the electricity went out because a transformer blew. So I located the one candle I have and found some matches (while using my cell phone for light). I dug in Grant's toy box for our flashlights, which he plays with and throws in there. I found a few and we all ended up falling asleep waiting for the lights to come back on. An hour later, they came on.

The rest of the family arrived home several hours later and recorded a huge loss for the Rangers. However, they made some great memories.

So all of this, I believe, earns us our Family Night Fun badge. Even though we may not have all been together at the same time, I believe the weekend's events gave us some things to remember.

Recently, we also got some new neighbors across the street, including one little cute blonde girl with a pink motorized scooter. She rides it up and down the street all the time and my son can't help but stare and yell "HI!". She just waves back. She is probably 7 or so. One time he was driving his Jeep while watching her and ended up hitting a tree. I have feeling this won't be the last time he'll be distracted by a pretty blonde!

This past weekend my nephew, Fletcher, came into town for the weekend while his parents celebrated their anniversary. Congrats, Greg and Winonah!! We decided we needed to take the boys downtown to our local Fall Festival.

Pony rides were, of course, the first stop.

The blow up obstacle course was next. I thought Grant was too little to participate but he proved me wrong.

Vivian showed up for the festivities so we tried to get a good picture of all of them. All we wanted was a good picture of all of them....we tried.

1st round...oops, finger and someone isn't looking.

4th round...Ok, this one works alright for the moment...

5th round...ok lets get Vivi in the mix...

6th round....what are you looking at?

8th round...okay we are all giving up now.

Once that drama was done, we painted some pumpkins.

We then went back to our house were Fletcher fell in love with Grant's bunkbed. They spent the afternoon hiding up there pretending to shoot animals while watching "The Magic Schoolbus".

Due to Columbus being honored for getting lost, we got a day off from work! Daniel and I took Grant to The Great Wolf Lodge. Grant fell asleep on the way there and good thing he did because we had a long day ahead of us.

It rained, hard, the entire way there.


Here was the view from our room.

A quick snack before we start our day.


This is where I would insert all these adorable pictures of my son having a blast with his father and I at the indoor waterpark. The only one in the south of it's kind. However, I took a waterproof disposable camera in the park and it was too dark and only a few pictures barely showed up. I was quite upset to say the least. So here are some ones I found on the internet to let you get the idea.

That evening we checked out the stores at the hotel. Here, Grant is trying to convince me to buy this treat. He is quite the negotiator.

His negotiating skills worked better in the gift shop. He had to have these motorcycles.

Later, we went trick or treating at the hotel. He quickly said, "Mommy I can't trick or treat without my costume!". I reassured him the hotel staff would let us participate anyway.



As we wrapped up the day, we joined all the other children for storytime. He was excited about his new McQueen house shoes he got for the occasion.

Daniel and I were worn out. We had to hit Starbucks to make it through storytime.


These animatronic figures taught us not to be scared of nature. I was scared of the thing that looked like a little boys head on a stump. Surely he was scared of nature!

Cheese!

Grant was into the story line, or confused by the boys head, I don't know...


Grant and one of the Great Wolf mascots.

Next time, I'll know to be like those people I talked about who had their expensive cameras out taking pictures of their kids in the water. Ok, maybe I'll just get a diposable with a flash next time...if they still make them by then!