Serious about our pumpkins

So I know this post is a little behind.  But I need to finish Halloween before moving on to birthdays and Christmas and all the fun stuff ahead.

On the hayride to get to the pumpkin patch.

I took Adam around to find a pumpkin.  He wasn't too hard to please. 

Hannah went around with Will and found a good one she could almost carry.

Megan with her selection.

After paying for our pumpkins we decided to play a little.  They had some huge pumpkins just perfect for sitting on.

We got a nice family picture.

Poor Whitney, about to be pumpkin smashed.

I think Whitney was more just confused but she played along. 

We decided to de-goop and carve pumpkins in the garage.  It worked out perfectly. Except Hannah kept throwing away the pumpkin seeds.

Showing off some of our pumpkins.  Whitney carved hers into a trident from Zeus.  Megan's is hard to see but it was Harry Potter.  And Rachel wanted to make a scarecrow.  It ended up looking cool.

Anyway, those are our pumpkin adventures.

Ward Halloween Party

We had a themed family Halloween costume this year.

Starting with the hardest to figure out.  Take a guess at our family costume.  Adam wasn't too sure about this one.

And Will.  I guess that beard was a bit itchy.  Sorry.

Hannah looking all cute.

Then myself.  I hope you have guessed what we were by now.

This will give it away.  We all went as Harry Potter people.

Rachel was kind of proud that she didn't need to wear the glasses that came with the costume.

Poor Whitney decided she didn't really want to be Harry Potter.  But I already bought the costumes last year after Halloween.  And once I have spent money, it is too late.  I thought they were cute costumes. Next year I get to decide the theme.

Hannah standing next to her best friend at the party - Ollie.  She looked more like an angel than Hedwig.  Oh well.  Ollie was a member of The Addams Family.

I stayed with Adam and Hannah.  We went around playing games and collecting candy.

We ran into Whitney in the Harry Potter themed room.  That was a cool room.  I guess you got to try and make a potion.  And try a cupcake to see which Hogwarts house you belong in.

This room was hilarious.  Adam and Hannah could not get that donut off the string with just their mouths.  It was fun to see them try though.

Finding 'eyeballs' in the 'brains'.  I didn't think Adam would be willing to do this.  But he liked it.

And in the young men's room. 

Rachel wanted to show off all the rings she collected while playing games.  So it was a 'soup'-er fun party.  We have so much candy now.

Rachel's News

Since Will and I both wear glasses, we have both wondered which of our kids would end up needing glasses and who would be first.  Apparently, Rachel won the weaker eyesight genetic lottery.

The glasses look black but they are really dark purple.  When Rachel's school eye exam came back saying she failed we decided to get her into a local optometrist.  She was nervous about the exam and about other school kids laughing at her glasses, but now she loves them.

And Hannah shows off how cool it is to wear glasses.

I guess we will see in the future who else might win this particular lottery.

kids day by whitney keeler

We are at kids day.

                                                    Here are in a military truck.

                                              They brought horses to ride, we all liked it.

                                                                     Yea horses!

                                                     

                                                        They had a place to throw a football.

                                                           They gave out free ice cream.

                                                         They had a bean bag toss.

                                                          Me and Hannah in the truck.

                                                                       They had bowling.

                                                                   
                                                             I loved the dunk tank.

                                                           Megan liked the giant bubbles.

                                                                    Hannah loves horses.
                                                         

                                                              There was a ring toss.

As you can see we had a fun time at kids day.

A Very Scooby Party

There are more pictures I could put up from Utah but I think it is time to move forward before I get too far behind.  Megan turned six in the end of August but we waited a couple of weeks before having her birthday party.  She wanted a Scooby Doo party.

Whitney had a Scooby Doo party a couple of years ago.  I wanted this party to be different.  The only thing that was the same was the traditional coloring pages at the beginning while waiting for everyone to arrive.

Then the kids had to attend monster fighting academy to be ready to join the Scooby Doo gang on a mystery.  We had to shoot a ghost.  I think this ended up being one of the favorite activities for everyone.

We did monster bowling.  Poor Will had to be the setter upper for all monster pins.

A beanbag toss to knock over the monsters I drew on boards.

They all got medals for graduating from the academy.  Then it was time for the mystery - the candy was stolen!  The kids had to put together this puzzle to get their first clue.

They had to dress like mummies to get their clue from the mummy.

They had to find the sea monster who was hiding under one of these fish,

They had to tell a joke to the clown monster to get their clue.  Adam needed a little help thinking of a joke.

And they had to feed snowballs to the hungry snow monster.

Eventually the clues led them to Red Beard (sans the beard) who had taken the candy.  The kids were happy to get it back.  I had put things like Scooby Doo fruit snacks and Scooby Snack Grahams and Scooby straws in it. 

We had a pizza cake.  I must admit I was pretty proud of how this cake turned out.  It was a huge hit with all the kids.

And finally the opening of the presents.  The kids were so cute and excited when Megan would open the present from them.

Anyway, I think the party turned out well.  And Megan had a fun day.  That's the most important.