Happy Halloween!

 Tonight we had an amazing moon!  None of my pictures were as nice as today's calendar, though.

 Last night we carved pumpkins.  Really, Jay carved pumpkins.  We learned that the greenish-blue ones are nice to look at, but really hard to carve.

 Alice wasn't sure what to think about the insides.

 Jack was sure that he loved playing in them!

 Their final designs--a smiley face for Alice and an Angry Birds pig by Jack.

 Tonight we had a special Halloween supper--mummy hot dogs, ghost bananas, witches wands, and skeleton cookies.  I don't know what to call the apple teeth things.  (All ideas from Pinterest, of course!)

 Then it was time for trick or treating.  Alice was still Cinderella, Jack was Luke Skywalker, and Joseph was a zombie.

 Alice kept up with the boys pretty well.

 She even took charge a few times!

 Checking out some decorations

 Hopscotch!

 Jack started organizing his candy when we got home.  Each kid got a Target sack full of candy!

Happy Halloween!

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

 We took a little road trip today!

 Our destination was the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, or as it's often called, The Cowboy Hall of Fame.  I'm not sure how it happened, but we had never been there before today.  We went as a go-along for our Frederic Remington artist study (more on that another time) but you can't take pictures of those.  You can, however, take pictures in the children's building, which is where we spent much of our time!

 Alice worked on conquering her cactus phobia from the last road trip.

 They had dress-up items for the kids!

 Alice loved playing in this cabin and cooking over the fire.  She liked it even more when Jack pointed out that the sign over the door said, "June's Cabin"--and then she didn't want him to come in.

 Riding the range!

The grounds are beautiful and we spent a lot of time outside, too!

Pumpkin Hunt

 Tonight we took Alice to the Pumpkin Hunt at the softball fields in town.  Really it's an orange Easter egg hunt, but it was still fun.

 I love these three!

 Jack was too old to participate, so he was Alice's coach.  He told her the other kids were plotting her downfall.

 She took it to heart.

Sister cleaned up!  

We've got a bit left to do for Jack's costume and then we will be all set for Halloween!

Fun Friday: Pumpkin Festival

 Today we went to the Pumpkin Festival at Shepherd's Cross.

 We took a hay ride!

 Outside were lots of pumpkins and lots of fun things to do.

 The kids loved the hay maze!

 They played this game for a long, long, long time.

 Alice got bored and moved on to the ring toss.

 I think her favorite thing was the heater.  It was really chilly out there--hard to believe we were at the park in shorts on Monday!

 

 Inside we found some games to play.

 We also ate our lunch there instead of eating at the park.

 This made me laugh because I looked over and saw them all in their element--the boys engrossed in a Percy Jackson book and Alice with a baby.

 We wrapped up with a little time at the park.

It was a great day!

Fun Fall Break: Camping!

 There was not a regular Fun Friday post because Wednesday we went camping and we didn't get back until today!

 There was lots of playing at the park.

 And my dad made a stick swing for the kids right by our camping spot.

 Even Alice could use it!

 There was soccer, too--and they only had to fish the ball out of the water twice!

 

 And there was inside playing, too (There's A Moose in the House).

 There was time for walks...

 ...and races.

 I think this is one of my new favorites.

 We spent quite a bit of time by the water, but no one caught anything.

 I think my dad spent about twice the time working on fishing poles and untangling lines compared to actual fishing time.

 My mom cooked most of our meals over the fire.  It worked out nicely that we had burgers Friday night since that was listed as one of Bill Clinton's favorite foods.

 Helping shake the pancake mix

 Roasting marshmallows

 I'm not sure who these kids' grandparents are, but they cannot be my parents.  My parents would never have made a trip to the store just for candy, and certainly wouldn't have made a list to get everyone's favorite kind.  My parents probably would have made me drink a V-8.

 It was cold in the morning, so we started around the fire.

Nights wrapped up with SpongeBob on the Kindle.

Now it's back to the real world, where I can't finish a book a day and the smoky laundry is piled high!