Halloween

There was no school on Halloween and once again we were blessed with wonderful weather!  We did our traditional trick or treating to the businesses at 4:00.  We started right at 4 so it went pretty fast.  The girls look forward to this.  Our favorite place to go is the assisted living center because it makes the residents so happy!!  They give out good candy, too, which is an added bonus.

 Morgan, Maddie & Reagan run to the next area.  Maddie wore her spider bride costume because she didn't want to have to navigate the balloons in and out of buildings.

Ready to go trick or treating.  Morgan made her ladybug tutu and she helped one of her friends make one, too.  Morgan went trick or treating with one of her friends.  I made Maddie's costume from an idea I saw on pinterest.  I would say that way more than half the places we went commented on how great Maddie's costume was.  She had a lot of fun with it.  Reagan in her clown costume that I made.  Reagan put on her own clown make-up today and she did a better job than anyone else had done the other days.  It was a successful Halloween!

Puking Pumpkins & Pinterest

I have loved using pinterest for gathering holiday ideas.  It works out great because I can have all my ideas together in one place with little pictures.  It worked out so great for the girls to be able to pick some projects they wanted to do.  I ended up pinning 117 Halloween ideas and out of those 117 ideas pinned we actually did 16 of them.  I thought that was actually pretty good.  I can feel proud that I am at least using ideas from pinterest and not just collecting them.

 When I saw the idea for "puking pumpkins" on pinterest, I was sooo excited.  I knew I had the missionaries coming to dinner the Sunday before Halloween and I thought this would be the perfect meal.  It was a definite hit!!

A close-up of one of the pumpkins.  I didn't cook the peppers so that they would have their firm texture.  Reagan ate her entire pepper and was wondering why no one else was eating their pepper.  A little while later she was complaining that her stomach hurt her.   Hmmmm, I wonder why!

Church Party & Carving Pumpkins

This year our church had a fall party along with the trunk or treat.  There was a chili cook-off and some games inside and then we went outside for the trunk or treat.  Our ward is really small, but we had a great turn out and it was alot of fun!

 Reagan in her clown costume.  For years I have been trying to get one of my kids to be a clown and I've never had a taker until this year.  I sewed Reagan's costume - something I hadn't done in awhile.  We also bought these darling clown shoes!!  She had fun being a clown!

 Maddie has a hot air balloon walking around in the costume parade with Lila.

Reagan, Maddie & Morgan carving pumpkins.  I got my camera out at the beginning, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the finished product!

Halloween Class Parties

I never seem to get very many pictures at the school parties because I am always too busy running the party.  However, I  at least got a few.  This year the class parties were on the 28th of October because we didn't have school on Halloween.

 Reagan works on her glitter spider web.

 Here Reagan and Bryson make some silly putty using glue, water and borax.

 In Maddie's party we played a classroom scavenger hunt type game.  It was wild!!  In this picture, Maddie's teacher, Mrs. Cox, is jumping over a chair.  Mrs. Cox actually won the 1st game.  Maddie is laughing at Bridgon!

 Maddie hanging out during another game.  Maddie wore a spider bride costume which we had hanging around our house.  She couldn't wear her other costume because she has a classmate allergic to latex!

 Eating snacks!

These broomstick bags were pretty cute, but they were alot of work!!  The girls helped me with them so it was fun that we could work together!

Tanganyika with the Garrett's

I think that Andover is a really awesome place to raise a family.  However, sometimes Wichita is a little lacking when it comes to exciting things to do.  However, Tanganyika is definitely a really neat place that we are glad to have in Wichita.  I had told Brenda about Tanganyika and so when they had some half price coupons, I bought them for both of our families.  Tanganayika closes for a few months in the winter so we were running out of time to use our discounted tickets.  We are so fortunate that we've had such great weather this fall and so even though it was late in October, we had a beautiful weekend to go to Tanganyika.

 Left to right:  Anna, Maddie, Reagan, Morgan & Amber.  The rules for petting the kangaroos is that people can't go off the sidewalk.  Most the time the kangaroos stay away from the sidewalks.  However, the worker had helped this one to go over on the sidewalk.  This kangaroo was raised by humans so it is more friendly towards humans.  The girls loved petting the kangaroo.

 Every time we go to Tanganyika, the girls ask to ride a camel.  In the past, we've always gone on week days and so the camel ride hasn't been open.  I told them that they could ride the camel if we are ever there when it was open.  They definitely held me to that promise.  They were checking on camel rides as soon as we got there!!  This is a picture of Maddie riding the camel, but all 3 girls took a turn.

 Morgan feeds a lorakeet.

 Morgan got this lorakeet to land on Reagan's head.

 These red birds were a little on the mean side and Maddie isn't oo pleased with them!

 We had some friends from church who were also at Tanganyika.  They told us not to buy bird food because they weren't eating.  We didn't buy much at first, but then we started buying it.  We found that wearing flowers in your hair worked like magic to attract the birds!!  In this picture, the worker is showing Morgan what she looks like with the birds.

 This was the record for us for most birds on a single person and as you can see 2 of them are eating the flower in Maddie's hair, one is eating Maddie's hair, and the remaining one is actually eating the food!

 These birds were determined to get the nectar out of Morgan's flower.

 I loved this shot of the bird on Maddie's face going after the flower.

 Maddie's hair flower, after the birds were snacking on it.

 Usually, the first place we go is the lemurs.  Today it was the last and as always it was a definite favorite.  In this picture the Lemur is on Amy's lap.

 Amy, Amber, Reagan, & Morgan with the Lemur.  I love the Lemur's pose in this picture.

 Reagan and the Lemur.

 Morgan with the lemur right on her lap!

 Amber, Anna & Chris with the lemurs.

Chillin in the play structure.  Reagan and Amy are on the light.  Amy is Reagan's buddy and she loves to hang out with her!!

October Craftiness!

We had some fun using all of the halloween ideas I've been collecting on pinterest.

We made this ghost wreath using blow tops and kleenexes.  It was fun and easy to make and looked really cool done.  However, it was so heavy that when I put it on my wreath hanger on my front door it just bent it out of shape!!

We did a bunch of small little projects and then filled a flat rate box up with the things we made and additional candy. We then mailed it to Marissa.  The lady at the post office told me it weighed almost 10 pounds so I was feeling very grateful for the flat rate box!  The gold present is a bottle of Maddie's nail polish that she sent to Marissa.  I made the snack mix and cookies.  The snack mix had a bunch of crumbs and Marissa ended up separating the crumbs and calling it "bird food".  Maddie and I made the fake blood.  We all helped with the ghost suckers from the wreath.  Reagan & Morgan made the brooms.  Morgan made the mummy suckers.  Maddie made the felt pumpkin and the yarn pumpkins.  Morgan and I made the juice box robots!

Walter's Pumpkin Patch

     We have a pumpkin patch pretty close to our house which we usually go to.  It is fun, but the last few years I have heard several people say that the best pumpkin patch around is Walter's out by El Dorado.  I was excited when Reagan's girl scout troop decided to go to Walter's for a girl scout activity.  Walter's is about a 30 minute drive from our house IF you take the right exit on the turnpike.  If you miss the exit, it turns into a 1 hr drive.  So it took us 1 hour to get there and 1/2 hour to get home.  We had left early so we would have extra time to play at the pumpkin patch.  With our detour, we ended up being right on time

 Maddie jumping off some hay bales

 The girls running across the suspension bridge.

 Playing in a mini maze.  I loved the ghosts on the fence line.  They added a nice touch!

 Morgan & Reagan ride the horses as Maddie pushes.

 Maddie having fun on the horse.

 I LOVE this picture because it truly tells a story.  To get on this rope swing, you had to stand on the bench, grab the rope and then jump onto the seat.  The swing then swung down over some water.   Morgan was excited and jumped right on.  Morgan completely loved this rope swing!   Maddie & Reagan thought it looked scary. Morgan rode a few times before Maddie got the nerve to do it, but once Maddie tried it she loved it, too.  Reagan was too scared to try.  However, later in the day Reagan finally did it and she loved it as well!!

 Grandma Reagan and Grandpa Morgan at the pumpkin patch!!

 This was a different type of swing for them to try, too.

 Reagan, Morgan, & Maddie as smores.

 Morgan loving the fire pole!

 Morgan and Maddie at the Crows Nest which is at the top of the fireman's pole.

 Jumping on the big bouncer.  I even got on the bouncer and jumped later on.  The camera was in the bag while I was jumping.

 My girls have always loved anything that involves climbing.

 Morgan & Maddie roast smores with Reagan's girl scout troop while smoke blows in their face.

 Morgan examines her marshmallow.

 Riding out to get our pumpkins afer we had been there for an hour and a half or so.  It was getting cold and it was definitely cold on the hayride!

 This is the 1st pumpkin patch that we had been to where the girls actually got to pick their pumpkin from the vine.  Usually the pumpkins are just laying in the field, but aren't attached to vines.  Reagan shows off a pumpkin she just picked from the vine with the vine still attached.

 Morgan makes sure that her pumpkin is small enough!

 Picking pumpkins!!

 Maddie and her pumpkin on the hayride back.  After the hayride back from the pumpkin patch, all of the other girl scouts and their families left.  Even though it was cold, my girls stayed and played some more.  There was hardly anyone there and it was so much fun!  The pumpkin patch closed at 7 and we stayed until about 6:45.

 Reagan climbs the rope ladder in the barn.  There was a big corn pit in here, too, where the girls stayed in for a long time, taking turns burying each other.

My 3 little cowgirls riding their horses!!  I tried to get a better picture, here but Reagan didn't stay on long enough for me to do that.