Carving Pumpkins with Grandma

After all the excitement of the ward party, we were happy to have a little down time and spend a family evening carving pumpkins at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Evie and Lizzie remembered gutting the pumpkins and did really well, scraping away cheerfully with the help of their cousins.

They each mapped out what they wanted carved and this year, both girls were able to do most of their own carving as well!

Carson was all ready to get his hands in the muck - until he got his hands in. the. muck.  He took one handful and refused to put his hand back in that gooey cavity.  He was happy to watch Daddy finish gutting and carving the pumpkin.

Aunt Katie and Jessica came and made a cute pumpkin, too!

Grandma was very excited about her 'Jack the Pumpkin King' inspired pumpkin.

Evie loved that her pumpkin's warty appearance added to the fun!

Most of the finished products, lined up over the dryer (the fun ghostly light under them).

After carving pumpkins, eating and dancing around in the dark with the remainder of the glow-sticks, Grandma helped all the kids decorate caramel apples to take home.

I have video of the dancing.  It was all through the house, upstairs and downstairs, marching and twirling, following the leader and dancing like crazy.  It really was a hoot to watch! 

Ward Halloween Party!

My adorable crew of costumed cuties - A sorceress, an angel, a pirate and a parrot.  I love that this may be my first picture of all four kids where Cole isn't actively dashing away while I click the shutter.  He's even smiling!  May this be a continuing trend.

Evie and Lizzie worked together with a couple of army men to reassemble a skeleton.  A fun puzzle!

My favorite room was the coloring room.  The kids were so cheerful in here!

Cole took a turn playing the beanbag toss...or drop.  When you're that close, it's tough to miss.  And it really made him happy to do the things big kids were doing.

Carson had an excellent moment wherein he brushed aside the blindfold saying, 'I don't need it' and perfectly pinned the tail on the black cat.  Of course, the teenage girls running the game got a real kick out of that!

Carson also won at the cake walk and chose a yummy chocolate cupcake.

Lizzie wanted me to take a picture of her finished coloring project.  She worked very hard on it!  I love that her halo spent much of the night either askew or fallen off completely!  It was cute.

I wanted to remember how I did Evie's hair.  She wants me to do it another time without the need for costume.  It's a scarf woven into a french braid headband.  It's actually really cute!

This is how Cole spent most of his time.  It's really the easiest way to keep track of him with three others scrambling around.

There was a costume parade and Lizzie and Carson ran across almost too fast for me to catch.  I did miss Evie.

Outside, going car to car, it was more like winter and we were very glad we brought coats and layered up under the costumes!

This was part three of what's ending up to be Halloween in four parts.  There was the day of school Halloween parties and the pumpkin farm with Grandma, then the ward party, the tonight is pumpkin carving and treats with Grandma and we'll finish it up with trick-or-treating on Halloween night next week.  How awesome is that - a week of Halloween fun?  Hooray!

Celebrating Cousins

A get-together with cousins is always fun, but this time had a purpose.  Well, dual-purpose.  First, was to help make a support movie for Aaron's 7 year old cousin, who is in the nearby children's hospital for a bone marrow transplant.  This treatment is because she has Fanconi Anemia.  The kids all raced around in capes and took superhero poses.

The little boys couldn't keep up with the running, but they displayed their superhero-ness cheerfully.

The second purpose was to choose pumpkins to decorate or carve at Grandma's party the Saturday before Halloween.  The kids were all happy to pick their own pumpkins!

I loved that Ben just sat down and wanted to touch all the pumpkins!

This picture of Cole just makes me happy.

The BIG Backyard

We had such a treat to join Aunt Katie and our cousins at a local hidden gem, 'the big backyard'.

Cole spent all his time climbing ladders and sliding slides, while Carson spent almost all his time pedaling around on this big wheel.

Cole was also thrilled to have found more balls than he knew what do with.  He spent time organizing them and throwing them around.

Jess loved this little cozy coupe!  She and Carson made rounds.

It was, really, a big, indoor, backyard!  There was everything that should be out in the fun.  We really loved it!

On the sad side, it was a bit expensive, but we've already targeted a couple of 'free days' that they sponsor, and we're excited to go again sometime.