Happy Halloween!

While I'm not a fan of the ghosts, goblins and witches that you see around on Halloween, I do love an excuse to party and let the girls dress up. This year was an especially fun Halloween because not only did we have all the regular school parties and such, we also made our own hayride for trick or treating around the neighborhood! Marmie and Granda were even here to join in on the fun with us!

Happy Halloween! and More!

We had a great Halloween! On Friday, after the girls got home from school, we went to the Homecoming Parade up the street.
Maryella loved waving to all the "princesses" and stood up every time they came by so they could see her pretty costume.
When we got home, Annlee got to open gifts from Marmie, Granda, Max and Trista, and Linny and Chris. She loved everything!
Then we decorated our pumpkins with these Mr. Potato Head type of pieces that you can stick in them. So much easier than carving!!! Elianna even helped pick out the pieces she wanted!
Showing off their pumpkins!
On Saturday, we celebrated Annlee's birthday with her friends. She wanted a Halloween themed dress up party and we had lots of fun!
The kids got to guess what was under the cloth by sticking their hands into some rather gross stuff! Spaghetti with eyeballs and Rat Jello Jigglers. I completely forgot to take pictures of what they looked like, but it wasn't too appetizing!
They each got to decorate their own pumpkin and then they showed them all off!
We played pass the pumpkin.
Annlee opened her gifts and got some really fun stuff!
She blew out the candles on her pumpkin cake.
After her party was over, we ate dinner and then started getting ready to go out trick or treating. The girls looked so cute all dressed up in their costumes!
Kaylin was Hannah Montana - we've gotten lots of miles out of this costume this year!
Annlee was a ballerina. I tried to talk her into wearing one of the beautiful recital costumes we've collected over the years, but she wanted to go with her practice leotard. Oh well.
Maryella decided to be Snow White and even wore a wig for a couple pictures! She was so cute! Elianna was a bumble bee! I wish I had taken a picture of the back where she had a little stinger! They all loved trick or treating and getting lots of candy!
Marmie and Granda were in town and got to go with us! That was special!
Elianna got tired pretty quickly - the time change has her all off her schedule. So Jeff took her home early for bed. Gives a whole new meaning to the song "Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee!" Once we got back to the house, we looked through the candy and made sure everything looked ok. There were a couple Snickers bars that I had to sample just to make sure they were good! One of the church members down the street had made pumpkin cookies for the girls and they all enjoyed eating those.
I think one of the highlights of the evening for them was watching for more trick or treaters to come to our house.
They really enjoyed handing out candy to them! It was a good way to get rid of some of those suckers and bubble gum that I can't stand having around our house!
We had a wonderful evening and were completely exhausted the next day. It was worth it though! And just for laughs, here's one more picture from the evening... Trick - or - treat, smell my feet!

Farm Field Trip!

All the kindergarten classes at Annlee's school went to a farm yesterday for their field trip. They got to ride a school bus, which was the most appealing part of the trip for Annlee. She couldn't wait to get on the yellow bus! On the way home, though, she said the bus was hot and dirty and she was squished. She learned that the bus isn't all worth all the hype!

When we got there, we went on a hayride and the kids learned about farming and got to pick a pumpkin to take home with them.

We then went to the petting zoo section and the kids learned interesting things about the animals. Did you know that donkeys can hear sounds up to 3 miles away? And chickens have more bones in their necks than giraffes?

Then the kids got to feed the sheep out of their hands.

And they could crank this thing that sent a bowl of corn up to goats that were on a roof of a little building. Those goats would go crazy trying to get at those bowls of corn!

After that, we broke up into small groups and got to spend some time doing other activities that the farm offered. They had a spook trail, a corn maze, a playground, pony rides, a corn cannon, rubber duck races, and a cow train. My group, which was Annlee and two of her friends, picked the pony ride and cow train, then we had time for one quick slide on the playground.

Then it was time for a picnic lunch and the drive home. The kids were worn out, but they all seemed to have a great time!