Tricks and Treats

Ready to head out the door for some treats. My little boomer sooner duo.
Fortunately all the homes we went to willing gave us some treats. Otherwise, I don't think they'd want the tricks these two could come up with.After we went to a few of our neighbors homes, we loaded up and drove around to some friends homes. I'm very glad the Henderson's had a well lit front porch to may photos easier. :)
About the time we got here, Isaac had it figured out and from here on out he was just as eager as Carly to ring the doorbell and say "trick or treat". They were both very polite and said thank you afterwards.

Posing with the Henderson's resident tiger, Rylan.
After some trick or treating, we went to the Harvest Festival sponsored by the church that Carly's preschool meets at. The kids enjoyed many of the same games, but with just a few differences. And I think Carly enjoyed being in her school "after hours".
This was them fishing for prizes.

His face says "I just caught a 100 lb halibut" to me.
I got a lot of nice compliments on Isaac's costume tonight too. It was nice to hear. I also fixed his shoulder pads since last night. I wasn't happy with how they looked, so I started over with them and I'm much happier with them.
I was VERY surprised that Carly played this game. She was supposed to dig around in a raw pumpkin for a large round bead. Of course, the seeds and "guts" were still in the pumpkin. Touching these slimy textures would normally not be something I'd expect her to be ok with, but she did it--blindfolded even!
Isaac stuck his hand in one and pulled it right out, brought his slimy hand to me, and was ready for it to be wiped off. That was about what I was expecting for him.
Then after some games, it was on to the gym where they had a kids dreamland set up--an entire basketball court full of bouncy toys! There were two smaller sized ones for younger kids, one with moderate challenges, and the big daddy bouncy slide.


Carly went down the giant slide a few time, but this was the best picture I got of her.
Yes, she loved it.
Isaac wasn't the only kid wishing the night could go on forever. I'd consider it a victory that I got two tired, sugar hyped kids geared up, and out to the car without even a hint of a melt down. Yeah for cooperation!
Hope you all had a fun Halloween as we did.

Harvest Festival 09

Carly went as a cheerleader and Isaac as a football player to the annual harvest festival at church tonight. Both of them had a great time. I'm really noticing how much Isaac is taking it all in this year. Even though he's done all this before, it's as if he's just now "experiencing" it. It's been so fun to watch. And incidentally, since we carved pumpkins and put them outside, Isaac has to greet them every time we leave the house. "Hi pumpkins!"
I went as a referee, which is soooooo appropriate being a mom to two very active kids. One of which likes to practice tackle moves on his sister. Now you know why picking a theme for our costumes was a natural process. Unfortunately, Shawn was working, but he was able to stop by for a bite to eat. Good thing he was already dressed for the party!


I ran the cake walk station, so I made oodles of pretty little cupcakes for the evening.
Which Isaac thoroughly enjoyed eating. Janet's convinced she saw him eating 5!!!
[insert giant eye roll and sigh directed at my son]
Two friends. They always enjoy being together.
It was nearly impossible to find a reasonably priced jersey for Isaac's costume, so I made one. The benefit of doing this was the ability to personalize it! I also put him in Sam Bradford's numbers. Sam had a season ending injury and has decided to skip his senior year and go the NFL draft. So I guess if he won't be wearing these numbers on an OU jersey, we'll have Isaac do it.
Carly really enjoyed playing a bunch of different games this time.


And yes, Isaac leaned more towards the games that involved eating.
Cowboy Matthias with a cupcake frosting mustache.
Most of the kiddie crowd. Both the kids and adults had some great costumes.

Noah's Ark Party

Carly's school did a Noah's ark party rather than a halloween party today at school. So my little "monkey" needed a costume. Here's how we made our decision on her costume:
Me: "How about you dress up as a lion or a kitty cat or a butterfly."
Carly: "No, I want to be a turtle."

Seriously? Ok little girl. A little googling and I found a nice and easy idea for how to make a decent turtle costume. And it didn't even require any sewing. Just a few burns from the hot glue gun. :(

Here's some other pictures from snack time at school today. They had a plain pumpkin shaped sugar cookie to decorate with frosting and sprinkles.
This is one of Carly's little friends and I just thought her costume was so cute. The girls in this class really have to stick together. There are only 6 of them and 11 boys.


By the way, little know trivia fact. One of the power rangers was actually on the ark! What? You don't believe me? He's right there on the right side between the dog and the skunk. Ha!
The boy on the left in this picture was also a turtle, which is biblically correct since there were two turtles at the party and two of each animal were in the ark. Although this turtle was of the slightly more rare "mutant" species.

Making Faces

A few nights ago, when Shawn had a night off, we dug into our pumpkins to make their faces. Isaac thought it was quite fun. Carly remembered doing this before, but it seemed like a brand new experience for Isaac.

Isaac wasn't very successful at spooning out the seeds from his pumpkin, but he enjoyed trying. He and I worked on his little pint sized pumpkin while Carly and Shawn teamed up for her big ol' pumpkin.

Just the way I like 'em. Simple and classic. Fortunately, Isaac didn't have any preferences.
We also had a third pumpkin that I had picked up at the grocery store for our carving party with the jr high kids from church. We didn't end up carving it the other day with them, so we did it the other night. But by the time we were doing this one--#3--we were ready for something simple. So Shawn did a bat. It sort of looks like a batman pumpkin though, but that's ok.
We also tried roasting the seeds from pumpkin #3. These smelled and tasted good, but trying a few reminded my why I haven't made these in years. A bit too crunchy for my likes.
Up close and all lit up!



Be the pumpkin this fall and
"Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16