The Catch-Up Before Christmas

I know, I know...I'm awful! It's January and I'm still trying to blog about Halloween! Call me lazy if you want, because I'm sure that's part of it, but I've also been busy. And lazy.

Pumpkin Patch

Is it okay to go to a free pumpkin patch and not actually buy a pumpkin? I hope so, because we sort of did that. I'm pretty sure the pumpkins were overpriced to compensate for the free games and activities, and while we're not struggling financially or anything, I wasn't about to pay $7 for a small pumpkin. Sorry.

We had a blast, though. I love Albuquerque weather in October. It's warm, but not stifling, and even in the evening we didn't need jackets. Even on Halloween everyone was having a love affair with the low 70s weather at 8pm.

The boys loved the pumpkin patch, if it's not evident on their faces. Free games that you can play as much as you want? It's every kid's dream!

Aubrey insisted she wear some slip-on shoes that Madelynn gave her (her argument: because Madelynn gave them to her!) but she couldn't walk well in them, which meant she got to snuggle up to Daddy a lot. Here we are in the super easy corn maze.

What's a pumpkin patch without PUMPKIN BOWLING? The kids used little pumpkins, which must have been genetically engineered to be hard as rocks, to bowl down large plastic pins.

During the course of the evening, I lost my kids and instead got an orange pumpkin, a wild cowboy, and a crazy horse. But they were all pretty cute.

They had tractor riding, but Hayden was too old to join, which luckily was fine with him. And what princess would want to ride a tractor when there are purple bikes available?! Roman raced Aubrey, who couldn't pedal to save her life. I'm pretty sure he lapped her a dozen times.

Aubrey and me.

This was the game we stayed at the longest. Throwing beanbags into a large board with holes in it. The boys were pretty good. I don't think Aubrey's ever quite made it to the board, but hey, she was throwing and that's all that mattered!

Roman in the hay bail maze. We lost Hayden. Or he got lost. I don't know.

This was their photo op place. And this is the best picture I got. I promise Aubrey isn't drunk. Just not always photogenic.

Pumpkin Carving

You know by now that we did not forgo our grocery budget for pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, instead we bought some for uber-cheap at the grocery store. The kids got to draw a face on their pumpkins and Jeremiah would carve them. I got stuck with the always-awful seeding of the pumpkins, which is about the worst part of Halloween for me. At least this year we remembered to roast them, and the kids loved snacking on them!

This year we had three different Halloween parties to attend, and of course I only took pictures of the first one, which was about a week before Halloween, but that's okay, because I promise they looked the same in all their pictures. Aubrey was a princess-witch-fairy, Hayden was a knight (anything to carry a sword!), and Roman was a puppy, the same costume as last year but he wanted to be warm, and well, he wanted to be a puppy. Total cost of all three costumes? Zero!

The first party was at our apartment complex, the kids came home with a bucket full of candy and little toys. And Aubrey won for best costume because she really did act like a princess-fairy-witch, so everyone was pretty convinced, and she also got a huge basket filled with candy, toys, and stuffed animals. Not even Halloween and the kids had enough candy to last through the end of November.

Our second party was the trunk or treat at the church. We showed up late, so everyone just shoved the last of their candy in the kids' baskets, which was great because it was quick and easy and they got some of the good stuff (i.e. chocolate!). We hung around for hot chocolate and doughnuts afterwards.

Finally, even though we were swimming in Halloween candy, we took the kids out for trick or treating. We went around our babysitter's neighborhood since I knew a few people in that area, and the kids had a blast. The weather was perfect (no jackets required!) and Jeremiah even got to join us for the event.

We have some friends at church, and they've become really good friends of ours. Not only does Tai watch the kids while I'm at work, but our kids and their kids are the same age. The boys play with Logan all the time, and when they aren't playing with him, they are talking about him or asking about their next play date. Logan has been teaching Hayden to skateboard. Roman's the same age as Tai's little girl, but since she's a girl, Roman refuses to really hang out with her. Aubrey's friend, Jocelyn, is her "best friend" and she talks about her all the time, usually calling her "my best friend Jocy" because if she just said Jocy apparently we wouldn't know who she was referring to. Tai and I are so alike on so many levels, it's great to have a friend in the area that I can hang out with and not worry that she's judging me for not wearing makeup or for feeding my kids fruit snacks for breakfast.

Anyway, the boys have had a few sleepovers with Logan. He taught them the fine art of building a fort out of blankets.

We got the tree up mid-November, just because we knew that with all the stress coming up, we might as well get it done. We had a low key weekend and decided to pull everything out. The kids managed to decorate the tree slightly well (meaning at least a few ornaments made it above their eye level) but Aubrey was fascinated at putting all the decorations on the same limb, so once she went to bed I fixed it up a little.

See the tongue out? That's so a Hayden thing to do when he's concentrating.

We spent Thanksgiving over at Tai and Zach's house. It was crazy with six adults and 11 kids. But we made it work. Sort of. Tai made an amazing cranberry sauce - she adds raspberries to hers which makes it a gazillion times better then the canned cramberry sauce I am accustomed too. I made up a stuffing recipe that was pretty amazing, and I'm totally unbiased when I say that. We left our friends house around 8pm and went to Walmart where we, against better judgement, fought the crowds for Black Friday (which really was Thursday). We got just about everything we needed, the boys witnessed a bunch of crazies fighting over $15 video games, and we went home to bed.

Aubrey and her "best friend Jocy" at Thanksgiving

We started a new tradition this year, "Elf on the Shelf." The kids loved waking up every morning to look for "Buddy"...yes, named after the "Elf" movie. They found him climbing the Christmas tree, sleeping in their stockings, eating ice cream in the freezer, swinging on the light fixtures, and snacking on Daddy's candy, just to name a few. Buddy was an excellent excuse for the kids to behave, although the could have done better :)

Aubrey insisted I take a picture in her "princess" dress and bow from Sycamore Sisters, my friend's Etsy shop. I love the bow. This was one of three Christmas dresses that she wore :)