Halloween 2009

This year Halloween was on a Saturday so I began the day working a bit. I got out in time to come home and get the girls ready to go trick or treating. As a tradition, we always go out with the Traugers and so they came over to meet us. Kirsten had broken her wrist so it was a bit of an abbreviated trick or treating for the Trauger girls.We took the obligatory pictures and then went out begging the neighbors for candy. The girls were very excited and they were getting loads of candy. Since Jasmine's preschool teacher lives on our street, we stopped by her house and also got a picture with her.Jasmine made an adorable Dorothy and Ava was a sweet Tootsie Roll. Daddy stayed home passing out the candy and we got more trick or treaters this year than we ever had before.When we got home from the evening, Jasmine stuffed herself with candy before we sent her off to bed. It was a great evening and I was so pleased to share it with the family.

Campbell Annual Halloween Bash

This year marked the 6th Annual Campbell Halloween Bash. It is fun to have this tradition and even though this year we have been busier than ever, I was determined to keep the tradition going. It keeps a semblance of normalcy in my life if I can keep doing the things I always do.
We usually carve pumpkins but in the last few years we have added activities and games for the kids as well as the pumpkin carving since many of our friends have small kids that can't carve pumpkins and play with sharp objects and they just want to have fun.
We decorated the house to get ready and be in the mood and we got some yummy food as well. We brought out the witches brew punch with the dry ice coming in handy to make the punch boil and bubble.I was happy to see our friends and we had a great time during the night, chatting and carving pumpkins. Since Ava is so small and required so much attention from me, I didn't carve a pumpkin this year and let some of the kids carve it for me. Lorne carved an amazing one as usual and Kevin only carved the small pumpkin to fit inside a bigger pumpkin. I was a bit disappointed that the Astles didn't carve at our house this year - they always do and it is fun to watch the creative geniuses at their task. Hopefully they will bring their pumpkin next year.I was so pleased that the Zarcones came down from Frederick to party with us and we were so happy to have the Bishops also - it had been too long! Our new friends The Todds came and Marcia came after she was done at the shop. A great group of people and totally fun.It was a smaller group than usual but still very fun and we hope all that didn't make it will join us next year.

Preschool Halloween Party

The first big class party of the season was the Halloween party and I signed up to help. I was excited as I love Halloween and I love to help make kids feel special.The classroom was decorated, the food was set-up, the punch was made with scary things inside and the kids were excited!After eating a whole bunch of great food, it was time for the kids to go outside and beat on a Pinata. I am not sure how that is a Halloween tradition but I am happy to oblige. The kids of course were excited to pile on top of each other to get candy!After all that excitement, we rounded up the kids for a class photo and cleaned up the mess! It was super fun to be involved and begin our Halloween festivities with the Pre-K group!

The Halloween Parade

Each year, Jasmine's Preschool has a Halloween Parade and the parents can come and watch the whole school parade around in their costumes and then kids get to sing to us as well. This year, Jasmine was excited to have not only her parents come and watch but also her new little sister.
She chose her costume this year for the first time and she wanted to be Dorothy. Originally, she wanted to have Ava be Toto and carry her around in a basket but I vetoed that idea pretty quick.
She looked amazingly adorable as Dorothy and she did a great job in the parade and subsequent singing.Once I get the video edited I will post it but for now, here are some pics from the event.

More Fun with Tio Rory

It is nice to have my brother back and to be able to spend some quality time with him. It is also great to see how much he loves our children and likes to spend time with them. Here are a few fun pictures of another time he came over to spend time with us.

Belvedere Plantation

I love to go to the pumpkin patch with the family to pick pumpkins and relish in some true fall fun. It had been raining so much in Virginia that we hadn't had a chance to go. I was bound and determined that we would go to the patch no matter what and so we all went and we invited Rory to join in the fun.It was a gray day but it wasn't raining when we set out. The other great thing was that it wasn't hot and it wasn't cold. The fall colors on the way down were so amazingly beautiful.The thing I love about Belvedere is that there is so much to do once you pay a somewhat high fee to get in. They even had some new stuff this year. The first thing Jasmine wanted to do was bounce - what a shocker that was! Tio Rory joined in on the fun with his niece and she was happy to play with him.They then tackled the Pumpkin Mountain slide. Jasmine loved it and went a few times. Tio Rory only went once - it was too much for him to handle!We then decided it was time for some food. As we were standing in line to get some lunch, the skies opened and it started to downpour. This was a bit upsetting to me and to the other people around. We ran to a tent and proceeded to eat our food, get wet and get bothered by a ton of bees that decided to find shelter from the rain as well.
When the rain slowed a bit, we ran to the barn and Jasmine did a bit of swinging on the rope in the barn but tired of it quickly.By this time, the rain had stopped so she asked Tio Rory to take her to the racing bikes. He agreed and since Jasmine's legs weren't long enough to reach the pedals properly, he walked the whole track with her and pushed her. What an amazing uncle!It started to lightly rain so we decided to head out to the pumpkin patch to see if we could score some pumpkins.Once we got out to the patch we decided it was too risky for us all to get off the ride because we couldn't afford to get stuck while we waited for the tractor to come back and get us so Lorne got off with Jasmine and she quickly found her pumpkin.Not getting off the tractor proved to be the right choice because as we got back to the barn, the skies opened up again and the rains came down with a vengeance. Rory managed to borrow an umbrella and carry Ava to safety.