October was a month full of lots and lots of fun...
Ellie had a great time at the Bat Bonanza in Mrs. Ledford's 1st grade class. They learned all about bats, did bat crafts and even had a party with food shaped like bats!
The Fall Festival at Mill Creek Elementary came next and it was so much fun! There were inflatable slides, bouncy houses, a petting zoo and lots of carnival games. Ellie couldn't resist getting her face painted as a cute little puppy. Emory was too busy running around to the rock climbing wall and bouncy houses to stop for a picture.
We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch in Mandarin with the Stalvey girls. Dan and I met the Stalvey's in our childbirth class before Emory and Brianna were born. Each year Maiko and I have met at the Patch and taken them, and now their sisters too, for pictures together dressed in costume with all of the pumpkins. It's so fun to see them grow up together-- but how I wish that they would just slow down a little bit!
Emory and Ellie each picked great costumes this year. Ellie chose to be an artist and together we made her costume. We loved splattering all of the paint on her smock, making her pallette and candy bucket and finding a cute beret for her to wear. Emory is really into reading all of the Harry Potter novels (he's on number 5 right now) so he was the cutest Harry Potter around.
To our surprise, Ellie and Emory were both able to fit into the Pumpkin Carriage again this year. It's always been a favorite and makes a really cute picture but each year I think that this will be the last time that they can fit through the very little door.
They could even still squeeze into together... but it was a tight fit! Will they make it next Halloween???
The night before Halloween is always pumpkin carving night at our house. It's just too hot to do it any earlier here in Florida. The pumpkins will rot -- yuck! Ellie chose a bat for her pumpkin since she has learned so much about bats from Mrs. Ledford and now knows how cool they really are. Here she is poking the holes for the bat pattern into her pumpkin so that we can carve it.
Here's Emory doing the dirty work of getting the seeds and all of that other stuff out of the inside of the pumpkin. For the first year ever, Emory and Ellie cleaned their pumpkins all by themselves. It makes the pumpkin carving much more enjoyable for Mom and Dad :o)
While the kids were cleaning pumpkins, I couldn't resist dressing Piper up in her hula skirt and lei for a couple of cute pictures. She's such a sweet and patient puppy!
Next it was Owen's turn. The pirate hat that we had for him was a little too large and kept falling off of his head, but he fit just right inside of Emory's pumpkin once it was all cleaned out! Look at that cute little tongue sticking out!
Owen was such a good sport. He let me take lots and lots of pictures.
Aren't these three just too cute???
Here's Ellie's pumpkin. She named her bat StellaLuna after the children's book by the same name. Doesn't StellaLuna look cute hanging upside down from her branch?
Emory designed his own scary pumpkin this year rather than using a template. Daddy helped him carve it after Emory drew the design on the pumpkin. Look at all of those teeth!
After watching the GA-FL football game (Go Gators! - now that the cHokies are falling apart all we've got left is to cheer for Tebow) it was finally time to head out for some trick or treating. Ellie made a cute paint bucket to collect her candy in but Emory wanted a pillow case so he could get LOTS of candy. He quickly figured out how heavy lots of candy could be when you're trying to run with it and dumped some of it into the bag on the golf cart.
What a scary group! Emory and Ellie had friends over for dinner before trick or treating and here they are all decked out in full costume and ready to head out the door. Thanks to Ga for staying at our house and passing out our candy to all of the little kids in the neighborhood. It allowed Dan and I to go out on the golf cart with all of our friends and watch the kids trick or treat.
Notice anything different about this guy? He went into full Harry Potter attire with the black hair and all. What a mess that spray on hair color is to apply but it looked great. All night long I had trouble finding him running around because I didn't recognize the black hair!
Ellie was too cute and this really was the perfect costume for her! She loves art and is always drawing something for us. It was lots of fun to make the costume together with her too. Ellie has lots of great ideas and is very creative.
The kids all took off at a full sprint from house to house for at least 20 houses. Even with the golf cart it was a little tough to keep up with them because their group got so spread out. The girls definitely took the lead this year and left the boys to trail behind. It was a warm night here in Florida and the kids were definitely feeling -- and looking -- it!
The jack-o-lanterns looked great on the front porch and Ga said that they received lots of compliments through out the night from the trick or treaters.
When we finally got home a couple of hours later, Ellie couldn't wait to count her candy. I'm almost embarrassed to put the final count in print -- 125 pieces of chocolate and 125 pieces of other types of candy. Emory brought home the same amount. We'll definitely be taking this to school to share!
Many thanks to Ga for making the long drive to St. Augustine to spend Halloween with us again this year. It's been about three or fours year since she's done that with us and it was lots of fun. We hope that she'll make it an annual visit and stay longer next year! We love you Ga!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xoxoxo
