Halloween Fun!

Because I think every picture of my kids is "the best one" I am really bad at weeding down to just a few. So, be warned that if you continue, you will experience picture overload (and this is after "weeding out").

We had a pretty great Halloween season! We took a couple trips to the pumpkin patches around town (I had no batteries in my camera for the first trip, but were really just trying to enjoy a nice day, so I guess it's alright). The second trip was of course on Jackson's Birthday. It was a little windy to enjoy it as mush as I would have liked, but we still got a few good pictures and the kids all enjoyed climbing through the pumpkins. They were a little cranky, but the stomach bug that hit about midnight that night probably explained this!

Jackson, Gage, Westin, Brooklyn and Kynlee (no, we do not have any idea what Kynlee was doing, but she did it in several pictures and it makes me laugh!)

My boys . . . if only Gage looked happier, but still a good looking crew

Great Mamaw Burns with Gage (she joined us for a little pumpkin patch fun) and Daddy with Kynlee (who insisted on being held most of the time we were there.

Kynlee and Brooklyn. Sweet girls!

Classic Gage pose these days!

I LOVE this picture of my pumpkins!

Gage practicing his future football hiking skills with a small gourd.

Westin decided it looked tasty . . . so much for football practice.

The Whole Gang!

Who do you think this is? . . . If you guessed Kynlee, you would be right! She got so mad when we put her back in the stroller to walk to the car, that she arched and wiggled her way from the seat to the basket underneath before we could strap her in! Only a Kynlee fit could accomplish a feat like this! Well . . . a Gage fit could probably do it too, except he would get stuck on the way down because of his belly ;-)

Halloween weekend we got the festivities started early with a trip to the Ranching Heritage Center Trick or Treat on Friday afternoon. This is an outdoor museum with replicas of historical buildings from the area. We had a great time! Granna and Poppo were here and got to join us.

Spiderman practicing his cattle roping skills.

The hay ride (we were a little cold by this time.)

Four of a Kind: Brooklyn, Kynlee, Westin, Gage. Spiderman refused to get in the picture.

After a break from Halloween festivities on Saturday with the Superhero party, it was back to Halloween on Sunday! With all the hustle and bustle of birthdays we hadn't carved our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch yet, so on Sunday evening we remedied this situation. Jackson couldn't wait! He wanted to carve as soon as we sat down. I explained to him that we had to cut off the top and clean it out first which he was also excited about until he saw the inside. He quickly delegated the cleaning of the pumpkin to me! I knew he wouldn't do it. Every year he cowers at the thought of putting his hands inside the messy pumpkin! The kid hates to get his hands dirty. I actually kind of like cleaning out the pumpkin guts, but I couldn't even get him to touch them. Maybe next year. . . once the cleaning was done, he was ready to jump in. I drew the face on his pumpkin, but he designed it. He told me what he wanted, I drew it on paper and he approved before it was drawn on the pumpkin. What's sad is, I think it was the best pumpkin I've ever done and it was designed by a 4 yr old. I guess I just have to reconcile myself with the fact that I will never be a professional pumpkin face designer (sigh). Oh well!

Mommy and Jackson carving

Jackson carving one of the eyes all by himself. He actually carved over half of one of the eyes completely by himself and did a fabulous job. I was really impressed, but he was pretty slow at it and got tired, so he gave me the job of finishing his masterpiece.

Granna's spider pumpkin with Jackson's "pumpkin face" pumpkin. In case you haven't figured out the inspiration for Jackson's pumpkin, it was in fact the pumpkin itself. He wanted the eyes shaped like pumpkins, the nose shaped like a pumpkin seed and the mouth . . . well, he wanted me to make it look like the pile of pumpkin guts, but I told him that I didn't think I could do that, so he settled for a silly mouth with the tongue sticking out. Pretty creative and cute in my opinion!

All lit up!

Finally, Halloween Day was here! For the past several years, our friends, the Campbell's have had a party at their house where we all eat dinner and then take the kids to trick or treat in a big group. This year was no exception, so Jackson and I spent our morning making pumpkin shaped Rice Krispie treats to take to the party!

Jackson stirring the gooey, orange, marshmallow.

The end result! (FYI: people love our Rice Krispy treats because they stay soft. Since Jackson is allergic to milk, we use his "butter", Smart Balance Light (totally dairy free) and the Rice Krispy treats stay soft and gooey!)

How do you occupy four 1 yr olds while trying to make fun Halloween treats? With cookie cutters and bowls of course! I had to take these two pictures because at this point, all four babies had their bowls turned upside down and were pushing them across the kitchen floor. Apparently this was the thing to do!

Brooklyn, Kynlee, Gage, Westin and Jackson in their Halloween gear! The suckers and having mommy in the picture was the only way this particular picture was going to happen.

Spiderman trick or treating!

Everyone else "trick or treating"

Spiderman with the "Bop It" (aka Aunt Kiki). She always has the most creative costumes.

Mommy's "Four of a Kind". Once again Spiderman refused to the in the picture. I don't know why he was so opposed to pictures with the Aces.

Spiderman and Batman. I think they need to brush their teeth. They're turning orange!

We had a great Halloween overall. Trick or treating was a little sad because Jackson was more aware than ever of the fact that he was getting lots of candy that he couldn't eat because of his allergies. He would walk away from a house with his head down and a sad look on his face while saying, "they gave me more chocolate." After about 20 minutes he was ready to quit. We told him that he got to trade all the "yucky" chocolate for good candy with mommy and daddy when he got home. This helped a little, but he was already kind of beat down by this point. Next year we're going to figure out a creative way to make trick or treating a little more fun for him. We're open to suggestions. He did love the dressing up and hanging with all the other little Halloween monsters, so we still had so much fun! We love this time of year and we can't wait for all the coming holiday celebrations in the next couple of months. Jackson just loves fun holiday activities and I'm looking forward to watching the babies take it all in this year! Such a fun and joyous, though very busy time!