Halloween 2013

Halloween 2013. I will forever remember this as the year of Charlie's first Halloween, the year Hank and I attempted to be paleontologists but kind of resembled Boy Scout leaders, when Henry kept saying "NO! I'm a scary DINOSAUR!" whenever someone noted what a cute dragon he was, and as the year he also threw a huge heap of dead leaves on top of Charlie while trick-or-treating. Fun for all! Really though, it was a great night but Hank and I kept joking, "so when do we get to have some fun?" That's the way it goes though, when you have 90 minutes of light before it gets dark and you're trying to rush around an almost-three-year old in a dinosaur costume alongside a baby past his bedtime, right?

As always Halloween in our town is insane and wonderful and really over the top. This year the leaves were a little weird though- many had already turned and fallen off, but some were still totally green so it wasn't quite as beautiful as years past (see them here and here), but nevertheless I was still filled with wonder seeing our everyday sights turned spooky for one evening.

We started trick-or-treating around 4pm and were done by 5:30, and Henry managed to get a ton of candy. We went with Veronica and her family, and our friend Jana and her family. Henry loved being able to be with his friends and kept saying "this is SO FUN!" with the biggest smile on his face the whole time. This was the first year he really got it, and it made my whole holiday to see what a great time he was having. Charlie of course slept through almost all of it. While we were out, my mind kept jumping to next year, and thinking about how crazy it will be that Charlie will be over a year old and Henry will be pushing four. Time sure flies.

I hope you had a happy, happy Halloween too. And if you don't celebrate it, I hope your October 31st was just as wonderful.

  

Festival As A Verb

I love Fall. I love my family. I love Fall-festivalling with my family (see previous years here and here). Seriously though (and this deserves a blog post all its own), my immediate family members are my best friends. I love those guys and everyday wish with all of my being that we lived in the same place. Truth be told I often get sad thinking about my sister and me, both stay-at-home Moms doing the same things everyday, yet living three hours away from each other. I mean, we could be doing all of these things TOGETHER.

But anyway. This past weekend was our little town's little Fall Festival. Although I am thinking they must have put it in the newspaper down in Phoenix or something because there were so, so many people down there. We had a great time though, and luckily we arrived just as it began so we could hightail it out of there before 1pm when it started to get really packed. It's always a fun event- tons of things for kids to do between the jumpy castles, booths to trick-or-treat, and even a little pumpkin patch. It's events like this that make me love where we live even more, and grateful that there's always something fun to do with kids. And even though sometimes Hank and I dream of big cities and different places, right now small town life is really the life for us.

Here are some photos from our weekend- I hope you had a lovely one too!

Pumpkin Picking

Sometimes all you need is a little time running around in crisp, Fall air with your family to make everything in the world seem right again. It was Charlie's first visit to the pumpkin patch, and he spent almost all of it snuggled up in the wrap, sleeping soundly. This wasn't Henry's first time (see here and here), but it was the first year I feel like he really got it. Last year he wasn't even two yet, and although it was a great time, this go-round he was able to do a lot more. Some highlights: Henry's first carousel ride without getting scared, going on the train all by himself, and before they took off asking the conductor if he could stop to get Hank and me sunflowers from the field (I died from how adorable that was), and the huge smile on his face as he ran around and explored. It was a really, really fun day, and it made me even more excited thinking of all the fun to come with our new, bigger family...because really, nothing's better than being able to enjoy holiday festivities through the eyes of a child, and now, we have two (still feels weird to say that!).