Happy Halloween!

This year this kids dressed up as Rapunzel:

A vampire:

And Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean:

Even Jeff dressed up as the Grim Reaper to take the kids Trick-or-Treating:

They all had a lot of fun tonight, and they got LOTS of candy! Lily even lasted as long as the boys did! Happy Halloween!

Carving Pumpkins!

We carved pumpkins last night! Jeff cut the tops off of all of the pumpkins.

Riley dug right into his pumpkin and started to get all of the gooey stuff out.

Both boys LOVE digging their hands around in all of that gunk.

Lily on the other hand, is a lot like me. She does not enjoy this part. In fact she didn't want to stick her hand in it at all. She said, "But I just want Daddy to do it!" Then Jeff said, "Hmmm, just like her Mommy...." ;0) She did stick her hand in for one picture, just so I had proof of how much she hated it.

She wouldn't even look down into the pumpkin, and didn't really use her hand, she used a plastic scoop. Ha ha!

I am always amazed at how messy Riley can be. Who gets pumpkin seeds on the BACK of their shirt?!?!

After Jeff cleaned out Lily's pumpkin, I drew a face onto her pumpkin according to her instructions. Then she helped me carve it.

Zach decided to use a picture to punch out holes on his pumpkin then he carved it.

I drew a scary face on Riley's for him and he did most of the carving.

Jeff got out a dremel tool to carve his pumpkin.

Here is Zach's pumpkin:

Lily's:

Riley's:

Here are all of them:

Look how tiny Lily's is compared to the boys'!!

And finally, here is Jeff's pumpkin!

I know, it is SO shocking that he did an arrowhead. ;0)

The kids are super excited about Trick-or-Treating tonight!!!

Happy Halloween!

Souting Fun

On Monday, Riley's scout troop took a field trip to the fire station. Since Jeff had just come down with pneumonia, I got to be the leader. I forgot my camera, so I took pictures with my phone. So these pictures are not good at all. Oh well.

The boys got to go through the fire station and see where the fire fighters work, and where they eat, and watch tv. Then they got to go out and see the fire truck!

They showed the boys how everything worked and they even had the dispatcher do a practice alarm and they got to see what happens when they get a call for a fire.

They all had a great time!

Then on Tuesday (I forgot my camera again.....), the boys had their monthly Pack Meeting for Boy Scouts. They get awards that they have earned during this meeting. Zach got 2 belt loops one for shooting and one for archery. He earned these at summer camp. The only picture I got of him was so blurry, you couldn't see him. :0(

This is Jeff with his Boy Scout Troop:

(Riley is the one with his hand on his Mario hat.) They all got their beads that they wear on their shirt. They start earning them by doing activities during their meetings. They will continue to earn more beads as the year goes on.

Since it is close to Halloween, they had a Halloween themed meeting, The kids all got to wear their costumes, and they played a game where they wrapped each other up as mummies. The team who wrapped their person up the fastest wins! They did this several times, so all of our kids got to be a mummy at some point during the game. Even Lily got to do it!

SO much fun!! =) The boys really enjoy scouting and they get to do lots of fun things throughout the year!

Halloween Party!

Yesterday, Lily & I had a Halloween Party with all of her pre-school age cousins! Lily & I decorated the house with lots of fun Halloween things and then set out some yummy snacks!

After Ares, Camden, & Johnny got to our house, we played our first game; Halloween Bingo!

I don't have any pictures of them playing the game, because I forgot to take pictures.
After the bingo game, we played Pin the Tail on the Cat! The mask was a cat face!

They all did a great job getting the tail near the back of the cat!

Then it was time for snacks!!

(Do you see Jeff in the background on the couch? He has walking pneumonia. :0( He isn't feeling too great.)
After our yummy snacks, we headed outside to hit the ghost pinata!!

Ares knocked the candy out of the pinata!!

Lily got quite the haul!

Our last fun activity was an art project making pictures with foam Halloween stickers.

The fun didn't end there though, everyone got a treat bag on the way out the door.

I hope everyone had a fun time at the Halloween Party! Lily is already planning her next one. ;0)

Thank you Dianna, Mary, and Kathleen for the yummy/fun things you brought!!

Fall Pictures

I took the kids' pictures in August, but it was SO hot (even at 8:00 at night) which made the kids (and me) kind of (really) cranky. So, I wasn't super happy with the pictures. A few weekends ago I decided to take them to Riverside Park and get their pictures taken again. I'm glad they are so cooperative with me and my obsessive picture taking. =) (A bribe of a surprise at the end doesn't hurt either.)
So, here are the pictures of the kids that I took:

(By this time, Lily had ripped her tights, and Jeff had to keep turning them to keep the rips out of the picture.)

I really wanted Lily up there too, but she refused to get in the tree. (It was kind of high up.) But, I'm glad she didn't want to now, because it turned into a cute "brothers" picture. =)

Zach did not want to get out of the tree.....