Halloween Carnival

On the Friday before Halloween we headed downtown for The Y's Halloween Carnival. There were lots of games to play.
Treats to create.

Faces to be painted. Cute dogs to be cuddled.

And cuddled some more.

We even saw Hoot (The Y mascot). Brother loved the baseball game.

As did Baby Bear.Sister enjoyed the music. And we all enjoyed experiencing our first Haunted House together. It was fun to have the big kids clinging to me all the way through. Sister declared, "I want it to be over now," towards the end, then said, "That wasn't scary at all," when we were out. What a wonderful Halloween night!

Halloween Party

Time again for the Moms' group Halloween Party!Baby Bear didn't really care about participating in all the fun activities. He was more interested in eating cookies and playing with cars.Brother Bear loved the activities and had a great time with friends.Sister was upset with me (notice she's missing her wig...Mommy's mistake. I had a lot to organize that day with two conferences and all the costume parts to remember. Oops). Fortunately, the cookie decorating rallied her spirits. (=Look how many friends we had join us!

A great time was had all around.

Happy Halloween everyone!

First Dentist Visit

As a break from all of our Halloween fun, Baby Bear had his first dental exam on Thursday. He adored the fish in the aquarium.
He couldn't tear himself away from the mirrored height chart.
And, what fun it was to brush the teeth of all those crazy creatures.

Sadly, I have no pictures of him in the chair since he threw a fit about it. His exam was done in a two lap arrangement (mine and the dentist) which they said was normal for kids his age. All I have to say, I preferred waiting until the kids were three-years-old for these visits. Still, his teeth look great, we're doing a wonderful job with brushing, and he'll see the dentist again in six months when they hope to get pictures of his teeth. Good luck! I wonder if I can convince my dh to attend that visit in my place. (;

Costume Parade

Today we celebrated Halloween at the big kids' school since they have no school for conferences tomorrow and Friday. It was so fun to see everyone in their costumes.

Here are the kids in front of our house with our pumpkins. (Baby Bear's costume is labeled at a 3T; clearly that was a mistake as it is way too small for him. He loves it anyway).Sister is Daphne (from Scooby-Doo), Baby Bear is Scooby-Doo, and Brother is Batman.Brother parading through the school with his class. Sister parading through the school with her class. Baby Bear only joined her for a short while.Brother with a few of his friends during his class party. Can you tell Iron Man was a popular costume this year? Sister with one of her friends during her class party.

What a fun time everyone had!

Creating Masterpieces

On Sunday the time came to create our masterpieces out of our pumpkins. The kids each designed their own. Brother actually designed Baby Bear's as well since his scribbles were too difficult to discern. Shhhh...don't tell him.

Daddy got the pumpkins started and showed Sister how to do it. Then, she took over and really did a wonderful job.

Here's her pumpkin.

Then, she carved Baby Bear's pumpkin. The boys supervised.

All done. Aren't they the cutest pumpkins ever? (Oh, the jack-o-lanterns look good too). (; Now, we're all ready for Halloween!

Cleaning out our Pumpkins

Friday night the kids and I got to business and cleaned out the pumpkins. The kids were so excited.
I always have to make sure that we keep the seeds and the guts separate.
Brother and Sister did a great job this year.

Baby Bear spent most of his time "helping" by mixing the seeds and the guts up. We finally had to send him to find the movie with Daddy.

Sister and Brother did most of the work this year. It was great!

Now, we're all ready to carve them up. Time to relax and watch "How to Train Your Dragon" while our seeds toast up!

Chopsticks

Aunt Sarah brought each of the kids a pair of "learning chopsticks" from Korea. They are really fun and are pretty easy to use. The kids were so excited about them. Brother's are Thomas, Sister's are some bird character, and Baby Bear's are an alligator/crocodile character.
I made a special Thai "Noodles Delight" (chicken and noodles with peanut sauce) for our first chopstick meal. The kids had a good time, though Brother did give up and use a spoon for his noodles.
Baby Bear still tends to use his fingers more than his utensils most meals anyway (though he MUST have a utensil), but he did try out the chopsticks.

Maybe he doesn't have the idea quite yet. (=

Now, they like to pull them out and use them whenever they feel like it. So much fun!

(Pardon the lack of pants on Baby Bear. He's in a phase of taking them off all the time.)

A Pumpkin Pickin' We Go

We were blessed with beautiful weather one Saturday so we headed over to the pumpkin patch. Sister's friend came along because she'd spent the night at our house.We always have to measure "How Tall This Fall". Can you believe how much the kids have grown in the past few years?They all had a blast in the hay maze. I think they would have stayed in there for hours. Maybe Schilters should put chairs out front of it for parents (hint, hint). (=

All the kids loved the animals. Baby Bear caught a kitten again and didn't want to give it back.I loved the baby goats (kids) as they kept climbing the walls of their pen; They remind me of Brother Bear, my climber.

Baby Bear really loved to hug all of the baby animals.

The pigs were so sweet.

Then, we headed over to pick out some big pumpkins.

Sister picked the first one out for Baby Bear.

Then another for herself.

47 lbs of pumpkin later, all four kids had pumpkins to bring home and it was time to take a wagon ride.

This wagon drove all over the farm. It was really fun.

Another fabulous Saturday of family fun!