The 3 Days of Halloween

When I was growing up, my mom threw the best Halloween parties!! Seriously, there were tons of people there, soooo much food and lots of fun for everyone with treasure hunts, haunted hayrides & favorites like bobbing for apples.  And she and my dad always had great costumes. My dad always wore his normal clothes and wanted to go as a cowboy, which he only got away with about every other year.  My favorite was the year my mom had him go as the headless horseman (yes we had horses) and he rode right through the party scaring everyone.

Compared to my parents, I'm a very lazy mom. I love Halloween, I love to dress up. But I don't have the time, space or ambition to throw a party like that. (Well, I have helped put them on at mom & dad's house a few times but never hosted one myself.) Regardless of that, Halloween was a multi-day event for us this year. We had a little party at our neighbor's house Saturday night. On Monday I took the kids to a community sponsored trunk-or-treat. Last night they got to go to the trunk-or-treat at my school as well as our church Halloween carnival & dinner, and tonight we did some traditional trick-or-treating and then capped it off with a jack o'lantern pizza for dinner. I don't know about anyone else, but I've been on a constant sugar buzz for the last three days and I have slight fear I may not be able to zip up my jeans tomorrow. But that's just the way it goes right?

 Parker and Tyree were so fascinated by each other's costumes, we couldn't get either of them to look at the camera. Jesse didn't dress up for the trunk-or-treat, but she did dress up for work so that's fun.

Okay, Braxton, our cousin is in the green slime costume (I think he's supposed to be the guy from Ghostbusters) Gideon is obviously Captain America, I'm a pirate, Parker's a puppy and Tyree is a Tiger.

 Oh see, there's Jesse as a belly dancer at work today. She looked really cute!

And here's our dinner! YUM!

The Pumpkin Massacre 2012

Well we bought four pumpkins but only actually managed to carve two of them.  The patterns our children picked, although not difficult, were a little time consuming. We intended to do the other two pumpkins later, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice & men. 

Anyway they turned out pretty good and the kids are thrilled with them.

Getting ready for the Great Pumpkin

Well we decorated the yard...

 ...with a little help from Gideon's friends Morrison & Kylee.

 And we went to the pumpkin patch

Where we rode the train.

 Daddy got to ride this train for the first time ever.

 And then we went through the straw maze.  (Gideon zipped through that thing so fast we never did get a picture of him.)

 And of course, we picked out our pumpkins.

 And Parker talked to the chickens.

 And we climbed the hay bales.

Tonight we're going to carve our pumpkins.  So pictures of that grand adventure are forthcoming.

Trav's New Digs

So I think I posted back in July that Travis had sold his other trailer - the 22 ft. 1979 Patriot (aka the ghetto box) in anticipation of going to Haiti for a few months and not needing it.  The plan was to upgrade to a nicer and newer trailer whenever the need might arise.  Well the Haiti job got postponed indefinitely and now he'll be going to Boron, California for 3 months followed by Elko, NV.  So the need for a new trailer has arisen.  Anyway he bought this one (used not new) off of the father of a guy he worked with on the Soda Springs job last spring.  It's pretty nice and I think it will be a good place for him.  And, unlike the ghetto box there's actually room for me to be able to take the kids and go stay with him for short visits.  Anyway it's a 2000 27 ft. Wilderness with the northwest winterization package.  If you want to visit him in Boron, the couch pulls out and the dining room table folds down to a bed.