Trick or Treat!

A look back at our SUPER Halloween...

Instead of a Halloween Party at school, Nolan's class had a Pajama Party! So of course this crazy mama had to run out and pick up some new cute p.j.'s for Nolan to sport at school that day! He looked so warm and cozy. They watched Toy Story 3 and had popcorn for a treat! He also had to bring a small pumpkin to paint. He loved picking out just the perfect one! He hasn't brought it home yet, so I'm not sure how it turned out. But he told me he used lots of colors! I'll have to post a picture of his finished masterpiece when it comes home!

The night before we worked hard on creating a special Halloween treat for his friends at school.

We made MONSTER EYES!

Nolan helped me stick the eyeballs onto Rolos! I was so sick that day so Mark had to help out with the production as well! But they turned out pretty cute and Nolan enjoyed passing them out to his friends at the end of the day!

After school we went to visit Daddy at his National CineMedia Halloween Party! They really go all out and even though we came a little late and some departments had cleaned up already, the boys got some yummy treats and enjoyed seeing all the creative decorations!

Mark's department decorated and dressed up like the game and movie: Clue!

He was Professor Plum! Check out his hair...Mallory cut the middle so it looked like he was balding! Later after work we buzzed the sides off too, although I think he actually kind of liked his crazy 'do!

Mark got to leave work a little early that day which was nice because we were able to put the finishing touches on our costumes and head out to Trick or Treat as soon as we saw that our neighbors were home!

Nolan loved running down the street with his cape flapping in the wind!

It was so fun watching Nolan be so independent this year! He would run up to houses all by himself, ring the doorbell, say "Trick or Treat", get his candy, say "Thank you", and run back to the sidewalk ready to head to the next house!

It was fun to see what kinds of candy the boys chose. Heath has a bucket full of "M&M's"- his favorite. And Nolan has a random assortment- chocolate covered pretzels, Skittles, Halloween marshmallows, candy bars, Nerds...he wanted to try it all! Personally, my favorite Halloween candy are DOTS! What's yours?

Our SUPER FAMILY!

SUPER MOMMY and SUPER BABY!!!

SUPER DADDY was quite the sight! Mark wore spandex pants with underwear on the outside! What a good Dad he is to do this for his boys! The boys wore undies on the outside as well, but their shirts were too long and you couldn't really see them. When we put Nolan's on top of his jeans he said, "I already have undies on, I think I need two butts!" Such a funny thinker!

We hit up as many houses as possible around our block and by the time we made it back to our house the boys were exhausted! Heath had spilled his bucket about 4 times and Nolan was starting to walk very S-L-O-W-L-Y!

So we rested for a few minutes and did a little Tebowing too! Ha!

Then we headed out to Oma & Opa's house to do a bit more Trick or Treating, eat some delicious soup, and have some fun with the cousins!!!

Cohen and Heath liked watching for Trick or Treaters out the front door!

We managed to get all the kids to look at the camera for our annual costume shot! Brady was Mario, Payton was a Zoo Keeper, our boys were Super Heroes, Landon was a skunk, and Cohen wore Heathy's costume from last year and was an adorable little dalmation!

We snapped a family picture with SUPER AUNTIE in it too!

And here's a picture of our capes from the back! My mom worked really hard to whip these up in just a few days before my sister came out! She did a great job and helped make our Halloween extra special!

Check out the video below for a couple of clips from our Trick or Treating fun at the first house we went to and at Oma & Opa's...they were so excited at both!

Such great memories caught in photo and film!

Pumpkin Time!

My sister came out for a long weekend to have some Halloween fun with us!

And we had a lot of fun with PUMPKINS this year!

Auntie Mal bought Nolan this Pirate Mr. Potato Head set last year that you use with a real pumpkin! He loved it last year and it was just as fun one year later! He told me which piece to put in and where to place it.

And here is our Pirate Pumpkin! The boys think it is so cool that we get to keep him in the house!

They love posing for pictures by him and even ask us to take their photo with the pirate!

On Saturday we drove up North to an awesome pumpkin farm- Anderson Farms! They have so many Fall activities we didn't even have time for them all! Because of our recent snow the admission was half price and it was way less crowded than usual, which made for an even better day! It was snowy and a bit chilly, but we had a wonderful time none the less!

It really was a GREAT farm! We will definitely want to come back next year on a crisp and sunny fall day- WITHOUT snow!

The boys loved the animals of course!

Cheese!

And we had fun climbing this tire tower.

I heart this photo! Think it's a framer!

The boys liked playing in this train...

and making their way through this maze too!

Nolan did a great job on his own and this was his face when he made his way out the end! So happy and proud of himself! It was too muddy to go in the real corn maze so this kiddie maze was just perfect for them!

What a cowboy!

Nolan tried his hand at lassoing too, while Heath...

took his first pony ride! He had a blast! He held on all by himself and kept saying, "Woah"! He bounced himself up and down on the saddle trying to get his pony to go!

It's crazy because Heath used to be terrified of animals, even just a couple of months ago, now he can't get enough of them!

Nolan chose to just watch and cheer his brother on! He was amazed by how much the horses had to pee! Pretty funny stuff to a preschool boy!

This was the only kind of horse he was interested in riding!

Nolan and Auntie on the tractor ride!

At the end of our day Nolan asked everyone, "What was your favorite part?" (He does this with everything, movies, fun places we go, etc. It's so cute! What a good conversationalist!) He said his favorite part was this tractor ride!

Heath cuddled up with Daddy for the bumpy ride! Check out all the snow in the fields!

The pumpkins were covered in snow so we couldn't get out to pick one. But it was a pretty ride around the farm with the mountains as our backdrop!

After the tractor ride we checked out the pumpkins.

Nolan took his brother and a pumpkin for a little ride! It was hard work!

Mark and I even managed to get a rare photo together on this ginormous pumpkin! It's skin looked like a cantaloupe!

My cute 3 year old!

We tried a family picture near the end of our day at the farm...what was I thinking, we should have taken it right away when we got there! But the boys were so excited to see everything we just didn't do it and then this one didn't turn out so hot! Nolan's eyes are closed and Mark thinks HE looks like the pregnant one! But I had to post it for memories sake!

Auntie bought the boys these cute little pumpkin juice boxes!

They thought they were pretty cool! And we bought some freshly popped kettle corn too! Yum!

Heath LOVES cats these days! He found an old stuffed animal cat of Nolan's and sleeps with it all the time! On our way out of the farm we spotted this cat. He loved watching it and was saying "Meow, Meow" over and over and over. He liked petting the cat when Mark was holding him, but when we put him down next to it, he got a bit nervous!

Love this picture of my sister and I!

We ended up leaving the pumpkin farm, pumpkinless! Their pumpkins were WAY overpriced! So Mallory and I ran around to about 4 different stores while the boys napped trying to find some pumpkins for us to carve that night! Everywhere we went they were either sold out or the pumpkins they had were mushy! We finally found 2 great ones at Home Depot for only $2.29 a piece! What a deal! Remember to stock up on your pumpkins there next year! For the size we bought we would have paid $10 each at Anderson Farms!

Later that night it was carving time...

Nolan helped me carve the top of the pumpkin and pull it off!

When we opened it up he said, "See I told you it would be slimey!"

Nolan watching his Daddy carve the face.

Mallory had some pumpkin carving issues...Mark had to coach her a bit!

After carving pumpkins we cuddled up on the couch to watch "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and "Spooky Buddies" together as a family!

And here are the final products!!!

Mallory carved the spider and Nolan, Mark, and I carved the bat flying inside of Mr. Moon!

I just can't get enough of holiday traditions and they become more and more fun as the boys get older each year! Stay tuned tomorrow...Trick-or-Treat!

Halloween 2011- The Monster Mash

We have had a spooktacular Halloween this year! We did so many festive activities that I'm going to break up all of our fun into a few different blog posts! The first thing we did to kick off this holiday was attend the Antelope Ridge Monster Mash!

My school does not celebrate Halloween at school on the 31st so they throw an optional Halloween party at our feeder area highschool, Eaglecrest, for families to choose to attend if they want to. I go every year to see my students dressed up in their costumes, but this was the first year that I took my boys along with me! I thought that they were finally old enough to enjoy some of the activities.

So we got all dressed up in our costumes and were ready for a fun family night!

The boys LOVED their Super Hero costumes that my Mom and I made! They ran around with their capes waving behind them! And they actually kept their masks on for most of the night!

I love that they were able to wear their costumes on more than just one night this year! And their costumes are great for dressing up in and playing with at home too!

When we got there we had fun collecting candy and prizes and checking out all the fun costumes!

Nolan played this game first. He had to walk around in a circle while the music was on. Then when the music stopped he had to stop on a Halloween picture. The girl would pull out another picture and if the one you were standing on matched then you were the winner! We played 2 times in a row and the second time Nolan WON! He was standing on the Haunted House and when the girl pulled out a matching Haunted House his face lit up! He was so excited! He ran up to get his prize! He chose a ghost eraser and could not have been happier!

Then we went through the Haunted House! Both boys did pretty well for it being very spooky! I wasn't so sure about bringing them in, but Nolan really wanted to do it! They held on to us and jumped from time to time as some creature popped out at them or growled, but overall they were very brave! Impressive! But the funny thing was, the only thing Nolan was scared of the whole night was a Garden Gnome! Not anything creepy or bloody, just the Mom of a student I had a couple years back who was dressed up like a Gnome! She came up and hugged me and Nolan was terrified! Later he said, "Mom, that lady had a beard!" Ha!

Then we played a few more games...Spooky Plinko,

Spider Web Sucker Pull,

and the Spider Throw!

Heath decided to just walk up and put the spider into the bucket!

And finally we tried Pumpkin Toss!

Nolan LOVES all of these blow up decorations! They had a "Friendly House" full of cute Halloween decorations! We went through the Friendly House 2 times because Nolan thought is was so cool!

We got these super fun glowsticks as prizes! Heath was in awe of them! He was dancing with them and shaking them like he was at a rave! It was so funny!

It was super crowded and loud so we didn't stay long but we had a great time while we were there! The Monster Mash will definitely now become another fun tradition to do with the kids each year!