Trick-or-Treating

This year's Trick-or-Treating was by far the best year we've had (not having to cart around a wagon for tired toddlers is great!). The kids could not have been more excited to hit the streets -- they literally ran from house to house for nearly an hour.

Ready to go!

A quick picture with Mommy

Then it was off to Trick-or-Treat!

Here's a little video of the house-to-house. It's cute, especially when the kids see some of their friends. 

Once we returned home, I introduced the kids to the great fun of candy trading. They dumped out all the goodies and began to toss pieces back and forth until they were satisfied with their haul ...and this is only about half of what they collected from last week's events!

Then we lit up the Jack-o-lanterns and waited for other trick-or-treaters to visit. The extra pumpkin (on the left) is the one Nicole carved with Brayden at school last Friday.

Trunk-or-Treat

We held a Trunk-or-Treat event at church on Wednesday night and we all had a blast! The kids were very excited about the event, fast becoming one of our best children's events of the year. They each came dressed in costumes, but headed straight for the face painters before dinner.

Getting a pumpkin face

Sparkly, princess face paint

Looking good!

Layna had to check herself out first

She was all smiles at dinner

Brayden was happy, too

After dinner, the kids gathered in the costumes to show all the adults, and then it was out to the cars.

Ready to Trunk-or-Treat!!

Car #2 - The Tooth Fairy: "Eat Candy, Lose Teeth!"

After the kids gathered their own candy, they piled into Brayden's friend Maggie's trunk to hand out more candy (I think they had more fun doing that than trunk-or-treating themselves!).

My favorite pumpkin of the night was carved by our Youth Minister in the shape of our church logo -- look how good it turned out!

On Thursday, Layna had her school Halloween Party, which included costumes and pizza and a trick-or-treating trip to all the church offices upstairs. Although she dressed as a princess for trunk-or-treat on Wednesday, her real costume this year is dressing like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Check out her cuteness!!

The wave of kiddies

She makes one good Dorothy!

Trips and Pumpkins

Tuesday was a BIG day for Brayden -- he went on his very first school field trip! He joined a few other Kindergarten classes for a trip to Old Baker Farm, a fantastic farm south of Birmingham. He woke up this morning, ready for the trip! (Excuse me, but he is so cute!)

Bring on the farm

Even though we didn't chaperone the trip, one of the other moms sent us some great pictures of Brayden at the farm (thanks, Sarah!).

Brayden and Isabelle, ready for fun!

They learned how cotton grows and what it makes

Picking cotton

Look at all his cotton!

Mrs. Barnes' Kindergarten Class

Since he had such an excellent time at the farm today, we decided that it would be an appropriate night to carve our Jack-o-lanterns. We started off by having each of the kids design their own pumpkins. Brayden drew a three-eyed, scary monster. Layna drew a big-eyed, smiley pumpkin princess. Of course.

We started out opening up the pumpkin tops. (BTW, for some reason my skin had a very bad reaction to the skin/juice of gourds, including pumpkins ...thus the gloves.)

Brayden's making a "scary" face

Digging out the guts

Reeeeeach

Pumpkin guts!

After cleaning out the pumpkins, I took to free-hand carving their special faces. I think they turned out well!

Brayden's scary face

Layna's sweet princess face

We put them out on the front porch, ready for trick-or-treaters this weekend.

Another "scary" face

Visiting School

Layna and I had a very special experience on Monday -- we brought lunch to Paine Primary to eat with Brayden! We had such fun! I was surprised that they provided special, 4-top tables for families to eat with their students apart from the classes. It was such a nice lunch.

Funny story ...We got a handbook when Brayden began school, but I didn't read it (who reads those?). Apparently it had some details about what foods you can and cannot bring to school, and you cannot bring fast food to school. Actually, you can't bring "labeled" food to school, like fast food containers. Having not read the handbook, I walked my happy self into the office with a sweet little bag of food from Sonic. Oops. When I was told about the rule I said, "I'll be right back," and promptly went back out to the car and adjusted the food. I turned the brown Sonic bag inside out and rewrapped all the food in white napkins. So funny! Anyway, here are some pictures of the trip.

Fun with my kid

Enjoying their label-FREE lunches!

Such cuties

On our way out, we passed the Library -- and take a look at the awesome decorations!

Generally Fun

I don't have much of a story to tell of the last week, but I do have some random fun shots.

One of the kids' favorite things to do is have a "slumber party" on the weekends. They typically sleep together in Brayden's full-size bed, but last weekend, Layna had a new idea: bunk beds. For some reason, she started talking about bunk beds and asked if we could get them for her for Christmas. After trying to talk her out of them, Nicole realized she could do something similar by using Layna's trundle ...so a new kinds of slumber party was born!

Of course, we had to read a book and party before we slumbered!

Finally ready for the "slumber" half of the party.

We went to the playground and I caught this cute one of Brayden climbing on the dragon.

Last Monday, Layna and I met some friends at the Tot Lot near the church. One of her closest friends, Luke, brought his older cousin, Alden, to play, too! Although Layna loves most things in a playground, he new love is the tire swing!

A pit stop on the way to throw pennies in a fountain

Ready for some friends!

The Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend, we all headed to the Pumpkin Patch at Mathews Manor (a great piece of property with a formal house and chapel for weddings and receptions, as well as a walking trail with an outdoor chapel). This was the first time we visited this particular patch, but we had an excellent time. It's not the largest patch in the area, but while the kids are still young, this is really all they need. Plus the weather was absolutely gorgeous!!

We arrived at the patch to be greeted by lots of appropriate signage (hay bales and the like).

Ready for some fun!!

The kids saw a couple inflatables beyond the ticket table, so they were extremely excited to get to the action. We played for quite awhile before seeking out the pumpkins.

After time in the inflatables, we took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch (but it took a few minutes for the tractor to come around, so we played on the bridge!).

Playing on the bridge

Waiting on the tractor

Here it comes!

Finally, it was time to take a fun, bumpy ride.

We've arrived!

After picking a couple pumpkins, we headed back for more games.

We even got to eat candy corn-covered rice krispie treats! What's better than that?! It was a fantastic day -- a wonderful way to begin the fall season!