Halloween 2015

Fall was upon us and Halloween was just around the the corner, which meant it was time for our annual trip to Waldoch Farm.  It was a beautiful sunny fall day at the farm.  The kids loved all the fun outdoor activities - pedaling the 4-wheelers, climbing on the hay piles, playing in the playhouse and lots more!

But the real reason we come to the farm is for the pumpkins!  We loaded up on the big wooden trailer and the tractor pulled us down the dirt road, through the forest and right up to the pumpkin patch.

The kids searched high and low for the perfect pumpkins.  They finally found just the right ones.

We loaded them all up on Pa and made our way back to the trailer.

Everyone was a bit hungry so we took a snack break and then had to take the obligatory "How tall this fall?" photo.

Last year...

And this year...my how they have grown!

Eventually we made our way to our final attraction - the corn maze.  Owen loves the corn maze!  He loves reading the map and leading us all on an adventure through the corn while the rest of us just try to keep up!

Finding time to carve the pumpkins seems to be a challenge for us every year.  This year we snuck it in with no time to spare on the morning of Halloween - thank goodness Halloween was on Saturday!  The kids each drew the faces on their pumpkins.

Rose was especially excited to draw all over her pumpkin.  She kept giggling and giggling with each mark she drew!

"This is so much fun!"

"No! I'm NOT done yet!"

"See my beautiful work of art?"

Then the kids helped clean out all the ooey gooey insides and Shane went to work carving out their creative designs.

It had been a long day with lots of, "Is it time for trick-or-treating, YET?" repeated over and over again.  But alas, it was still not time for trick-or-treating.  Instead it was pizza time.  The boys were especially silly during dinner, playing with the stickers from their pizza box.

And then came the moment they had all been waiting for...time for trick-or-treating!  This year Owen was very adamant that he wanted to be something scary.  But Mom's rules were no blood and no weapons.  And we found the perfect compromise...creepy but not violent.  The name of his costume was technically "Phantom" but he looked more like the Grim Reaper to me.  Ohhh....who is that inside that SCARY costume?!?!?

Cole decided on the perfect costume for himself - a race car driver!  He LOVES to drive his motorized car all over the neighborhood so when he asked to be a race car driver, the NASCAR racing costume was just what he needed!

As for Rose, we had a Tigger costume in storage that was just the right size.  Both the boys were Tigger when they were one year old, so we kept with tradition.  She was adorable!

Our neighborhood is quite small and not everyone participates in Halloween, which leaves only a handful of houses to visit.  Each year we ask the kids if they want to go to another neighborhood to do more trick-or-treating and every year (so far) they've said no.  They are more than happy to get home to dig into their few goodies.

Waiting for them at home was a special bag for each of them filled with all their favorite candies that had passed the appropriate dietary tests (gluten, dairy and dye-free).  While Cole and Rose were ecstatic to see more yummy treats, Owen had a bit more to say.  His response to my dislike of artificial dyes was, "Mom, you're too strict!" but the bag of Mom's tasty (and dye-free!) goodies ended up being his favorite.