More Halloween Fun!

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE holidays! Admittedly I listen to Christmas music WAY before the world thinks it is acceptable, I use corresponding napkins for every holiday, even St. Patrick's Day and I completely rearrange my decor to accent the festivities, taking down family pictures and replacing them with glowing spiders and misting pumpkins! And I love it! I love it even more that my kids appreciate it now. They get so excited with me and make it all worth it! Last night our FHE was "Halloween" themed. We carved our pumpkin, and made a really cool witch dinner! I often look at other moms and think, "how do they come up with such fun ideas for their kids and where do they find the time to be such supermoms?" Well, last night, for one second, I felt like a supermom! Of course, I woke up this morning to the mess from last night that I didn't have the energy to clean and felt more normal; less super! Anyway, it was a fun night! We go Trick or Treating tonight. In Iowa we celebrate Halloween the night before! Weird, but we are excited.

For soome reason the formatting is being weird, so I will quickly explain the following pics. The first two are carving the pumpkin, Hallie with an interesting untensil, but whatever! And the third picture is the finished product, a glowing cat! Next is our witch dinner, made with meatloaf, mashed potatoes and squash. And the last was from the "Trunk or Treat" We went as the Wizard of Oz. Hallie was quick to remind everyone that she was not a princess, but was Glinda, the nice witch, and mom is the mean witch . Mag was Dorothy, the center of the whole theme, and too interested in her candy to even look up! Dad was quite possibly the world's largest munchkin! We thouight it was pretty funny!

Pumpkin Patch

Howell's Pumpkin patch was such a blast! We played in the corn box, in other parts of the world they use sand, but here in Iowa, we like corn! The kids did a mini corn maze, climbed the hay tower, played on the tire swings, fed the goats and even had a picnic. We had a great time and love experieceing all that Iowa has to offer in the Fall.

Halloween Fun!

Here in Iowa, there are so many fun things to do for Halloween! Last year I think we put our costumes on at least 7 times. So, the festivities began last night at the Living History Farms. We roasted marshmallows, listened to stories, went on a hayride and went trick or treating. It was very fun! And of course, the girls ate it up!

Dance Class

OK~So I am finding out by looking at all of my friends' blogs that I really don't know how to blog at all! Everyone has music and slideshows and very witty, interesting text! So I am a little behind, but I set up my blog so that my fam and friends could see what is going on with my family. I am slowly getting with the program, but I have accepted the fact that I will never be like the true "bloggers". So I guess back to my usual family updates! Hallie started dance lessons and we are so excited about it! She loves it. Last week was onservation day and she was one proud little dancer! It was so fun to see her dancing!

Just hanging out

Decorating for Halloween. The girls thought this was so much fun!
We made caramel apples with some friends. Hallie and Maggie ate more caramel and choclate out of the bowl than they got on the apples. Yummy for the rest of us!
The girls at FHE doing their favorite thing-- "Brag time". We all stand in front of the TV, ideally one at a time and say nice things about each other. The girls love it. Good thing i don't let kids touch my TV. The fingerprints would drive me nuts! (J/K- that is pretty bad!)
Maggie loves to try and swat flies. Unfortunately, we always have one or two in the house.
Daddy and Hallie caught a pet frog. Hallie named him Cinders and kept him in his "home" until we convinced her to let him go so he could find his mommy.

More from the orchard

Aren't they cute?
That's one hot papa!
Magsy milkin the cow.
Hallie thought this was so funny!
Here are the girls in the Iowa Corn!

Apple Orchard

We found the cutest apple Orchard out in Des Moines. We picked apples, did a corn maze, saw farm animals, and rode tractors! It was really fun!
Is that the cutest?!
They had the three little pig's houses. Hallie and Maggie were the pigs and Aaron was the wolf and they ran from house to house about 10 times!
Wow, that Iowa corn grows tall!
They had a one room schoolhouse, complete with a dunce cap and a bell-- which we rang at least 20 times!

Swimmin in the Lake

No trip to Cali would be complete without a swim in Canyon Lake! This was actually the girls' first time swimming in the "big lake".
Hallie driving the boat! Scary!
Mags-- smilin as usual!
Hallie got brave at the end and took off her floatie!

First Dentist Visit!

Hallie had her first visit to the dentist while we were in CA!
Lucky for her, the dentist was Baka!
Open wide!
Of, course, Maggie HAD to have a turn! If Hallie does it, you better believe Maggie is doing it, too!

San Diego Trip

We took a fun trip to San Diego in September.
We love being with Grandma and Grandpa!

Of course we went to Disneyland! This is all of us in Tarzan's Treehouse. We miss Daddy though!

Our little punkin' Mag!
Hallie with her fav!
My personal favorite! My mom thought the kids were with her being silly! Nope! you're on your own mom!

Hallie's in Preschool!

Hallie's First Day of School!
Sporting the "Princess Backpack"
This was picture day at school. The dog
has become a fixture!
I did manage to get one picture w/out the dog!