Festivities Leading up to the BIG NIGHT!

Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE Halloween! I love everything about it! It's my mom's favorite holiday, too! Halloween brings back some great memories for me and now that I have kids of my own, I want them to have great memories as well. I know they are too young to remember their first few Halloweens...but that's what cameras are for, right?

I feel like we have been celebrating all month long! This month, we've been to 2 pumpkin patches and attended 2 Fall Festivals. Sadly, our annual Pumpkin Carving Contest, which is a huge celebration we have at my mom's house every year, had to be cancelled due to my mom being sick. However, we were able to make some new memories and enjoy the BIG NIGHT anyway!

The first Fall Festival we attended was at Maria's school.  As we walked in, the auditorium walls were lined with booths and activities for the kids to do.  They provided pizza, fruit and drinks for everyone.  The kids had fun doing a color cake walk, bobbing for marshmallows, ring tosses, crafts, and more!  They were able to wear their costumes, and it's a good thing because we realized Naomi's giraffe costume was too small so we knew we had to find something else for her to wear on Halloween.  But it still looked cute on her anyway!

Maria, the Lion, and her friend, Strawberry Shortcake, at their pre-school Fall Festival making treat bags.

Gerry and the Giraffe

The baby giraffe eating apples and goldfish.

Maria and her buddy Natalie

Bobbing for marshmallows...

"Pumpkin Picking"

Renesmee Cullen ain't got nothing on this baby vampire!

The second Fall Festival we went to was at out church.  Bobb, Laura, Olivia and Dominic joined us for the festivities! The kids were able to jump around in an inflatable pumpkin, decorate cookies, go trick or treating in a room where everyone handing out candy was dressed up as a character from Toy Story (so cute!) and Olivia even rode the mechanical bull.  (Maria was having a tantrum at the moment because I got out of line for the balloon animals.  It was taking way too long!) Anyway, we had a lot of fun!  I didn't get very many good pictures becauseI have been having some issues with my camera. But here are a few:

Maria and her Friend Berry the Bear

Decorating cookies...

Mmmmm!

Attempting to wait in line for the balloon animals...kind of hard with a 3, 2, and 1 year old!

Since the Pumpkin Carving contest was cancelled, and Naomi was a little bit sick, we decided to stay home the night before Halloween and carve our pumpkins as a family. The first one we did without a pattern and it turned out really cute. Maria wanted a happy face so that's what we did. She helped me scrape out all the guts and pull the eyes, nose and mouth out. The girls also had fun trying to put the pieces back in...like a puzzle. After we lit the first one and put it on the porch, Naomi had to go to sleep. She was getting way too crabby to stay up. Gerry and Maria carved the second one...it was Moose A. Moose from Nick, Jr. They did a great job...even though it took a lot longer than we expected.

 





Stay tuned for pictures from Halloween!