It's Pumpkin Time

All 6 pumpkins lit up and ready for Trick or Treaters.

We actually carved our pumpkins before Halloween this year which is a real feet in this house lately. I've been really bad with holidays lately and not getting things done. I have a goal to keep getting things done and not putting them off. Hopefully not being pregnant all the time will help with that. Anyway, we carved pumpkins on Saturday the 30th. It worked out prefect and allowed us to have freshly carved pumpkins for the Trick or Treaters that night. Kenny and I opted out of pumpkins this year and I think we'll be opting out of pumpkins for the next many years. I personally think 6 pumpkins is enough to carve, what do you think? So instead of carving our own, I helped Adam with his pumpkin and Kenny helped Dan (OK we really designed and carved them ourselves, but we gave all the glory to the little boys.) So, here's our pumpkins from this year. Enjoy the many pictures.

Sarah

How is it that my little girl is getting so big?

Sarah really wanted the great big, huge pumpkin that was decorating our entryway.

Ben

Ben drew his pumpkin himself. Kenny modified it a little by making the fangs go down into the mouth instead of up. Other than that Ben drew it himself and he was very proud of it.

Of course, Ben had to have a silly picture.

Hannah

Hannah wanted her pumpkin to have a sweet face, but still have it's tongue sticking out.

And Hannah, being the child who enjoys hugging everyone and everything, had to hug her pumpkin.

Gracie

Gracie and Daddy designed her pumpkin complete with its big nose. I think it goes perfectly with her messy, moppy hair.

I just loved this picture. It's so Gracie.

Dan

Dan/Daddy's pumpkin. Kenny's so creative with pumpkins. I think I'll nickname him the pumpkin king.

Dan sure thought it was awfully cool.

Adam

Adam got stuck sharing a pumpkin with me. That's OK by him though. Maybe next year he'll care, but not this year.

Halloween Costumes

Growing up I always wanted to be the kind of Mom who made her kids Halloween costumes. Well, I'm happy to say that this is one way I've become that ideal Mom I used to dream of. With A LOT of help from Kenny, I've managed to make Halloween costumes for the past 3 Halloweens. I never make the little kids (I want to make sure their costumes are warm and sewn good,) but I have made the other ones. So this year we made costumes for the oldest 4 kids. It was a lot of work and very time consuming, but I enjoy doing it and I think the kids really like that we do it. So, we let the kids choose what they wanted to be and tried our best to create it for them. (Be prepared for a lot of pictures.)

Sarah Kate

Sarah Kate wanted to be a cowgirl. She had her shirt already and it was what inspired her to be a cowgirl. We make the chaps and vest, and borrowed the hat from a friend. Her costume was by far the easiest to make.

Ben James

Ben wanted to be a bat. Yes you heard that right, a bat. This was the hardest to make and without Kenny's help there's no way it would have been done. Kenny designed it and I sewed it (well Kenny help with the sewing also.) Now that's team work. Ben loved it which is the only thing we cared about. In fact he loved it so much he wore it for a week straight.

Ben as a scary vampire bat

And as a silly bat.

Hannah Beth

Hannah Beth wanted to be Princess Leia. She had to settle for a girl Jedi. She got to wear a dress and that made it OK. She loved her costume and is always wearing her dress around.

With her Jedi Cape. . .

And Hood.

Gracie Grace

Gracie was a scarecrow. We wanted her to be a scarecrow last year, but didn't know how to make one so we settled on a Indian. This year Kenny was walking through Walmart and saw the cute purple striped fabric for $1 a yard and thought it would make a cute scarecrow costume. We bought it and the scarecrow was born. I'm proud to say this one was mostly me. Kenny helped design the coat, but I sewed the coat, pants, and put the straw on myself.

Gracie didn't get much say in what she wanted to be this year (she really didn't care) but I think the scarecrow was a perfect choice for her. She didn't like keeping her hat on, but it sure made a cute addition to her costume as does her moppy hair.

We had to retake Gracie's pictures right before bed and it was late. She was being super silly.

Dan Dan

Dan was a firefighter. This is costume was actually Ben's on his first Halloween. I love recycling costumes and seeing my kids in the same things as there siblings. When Ben wore this he was 8 months old. Dan was a little big for it, but he still looked cute in it.

Adam Boy

Adam was a monkey. He was the same monkey that Daniel was last year (we love this costume, it's great.) Adam feels out this costume better than Dan did and he's 2 months younger. It's funny how different kids can be.

I've had a few people ask me if it's actually cheaper to make costumes than to buy them. This year I can proudly say yes. We spent about $25 on all the kids costumes combined. We found some great deals on fabric (Hannah's cape, Ben's bat wings, and Gracie's pants were all from the same fabric that was $3 for 5 yards) and we reused scraps from previous years. It was well worth the time to save that much money. Plus I personally think they turned out cuter than any we could have bought. Maybe that's just because I made them.

All of them together. Man there sure is a lot of them. :)

Bath Time

We bought a seat that goes in the bathtub way back when Sarah Kate was brand new. I have a picture of each of my kids in it so the other day while I was bathing Adam I asked Kenny to come take a picture of him.

Adam loves baths as long as you keep the warm water on him.

Kenny took this one while I was drying him off and I thought it was cute. The picture next to Adam's head is Gracie. Do you thing they look alike?

Tummy Time

Adam's getting good at holding his head up. He's always been pretty strong in his neck, but I can tell he's getting stronger. He's awake more during the day now and so he has more time to work those muscles. He's getting so big, I can't believe it.

I just love his chubby cheeks.

Meeting Darth Vader

We have some friends who own the local Play N Trade. Play N Trade is a video game store where you can buy and trade games. At midnight on October 25 there was a new Star Wars game released and to celebrate they had Darth Vader and some Storm Troopers come to the store. Sara, our friend, called us just after 8:30 to let us know they about the event and to invite us to come. We had just gotten the kids in bed, but we figured it's not an everyday thing so we decided to get the kids up. Even though they had been in bed for about 30 minutes none of them were asleep so it was easy to get them up. Hannah dressed in her Jedi costume and Ben put on his from 2 years ago.

Goofing off with Darth.

When we got there Hannah and Gracie were terrified of Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers. AJ, our friends boy whose a few month older than Gracie, thought they were great and he helped ease Gracie into liking them. Soon she was giving them high fives and talking to them. Ben came up and tried to fight a Storm Trooper with his light saber. He hit the guy in the head and caused his helmet to malfunction. Mr. Storm Trooper was not please and was in fact very rude when Ben tried to apologize. Kind of a bummer, but the guy did fix the helmet so all was well. Hannah finally warmed up to Darth and his friends, kind of, and even gave them high fives. Sarah played with her friend Clarissa and didn't care at all about the Star Wars characters. Adam slept through the entire thing and Dan was terrified of them, but was fine as long as he was with Mom or Dad and was far away from them. It was a fun hour and we're glad we decided to get the kids up and go.

Giving Darth Vader a high five.