Halloween 2009

We've had some fun celebrating Halloween this year. We went to Freightmares a couples times, Adelyn had her Preschool Halloween parade, we had the Ekins over for the "Dinner in a Pumpkin," and then on Halloween day we carved our pumpkins and went to a Trunk-or-Treat over at Dicks Market with the Merrill cousins and then went Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood. Adelyn dressed up as Ariel, Elsie was Dorothy, and Cohen was a skeleton!.

Halloween Night!

Dorothy and Toto




The girls were having so much fun running from house to house saying "Trick-or-Treat" and "Happy Halloween"

Our neighborhood is a workout with all of the stairs!

This house was decorated pretty spooky and I loved what Elsie said after getting her candy..."He's not scary...He's pretty normal"...after meeting the man who lived in such a scary place.

Trick-or-treating blindfolded...you try it!

CANDY!!!

Cohen getting in on the action...trying candy through osmosis

The girls made off with a whopping 8 pounds of candy!



Dicks Market Trunk-or-Treat with our cousins
Notice Adelyn's red hair...we sprayed it with this wash out hairspray...it left red wherever we went!

Elsie fell asleep as we were pulling in



Elsie got separated from us for a minute and was holding back the tears

At the end of the line there was free chili, cornbread and drinks




The Ekins came over for the traditional "Dinner in a Pumpkin," and root bear cauldron.



Everett and Cohen...1 week apart cousins....don't you love Rett's bat costume:)

Snow White, Ariel, and Dorothy did a practice trick-or-treating to show off their costumes...don't you love what Elsie's holding in both hands

Adelyn's gel stained teeth...I had the girls decorate these eyeballs for dessert...didn't know what a mess they would be to eat:)

skeleton mask $2, dorothy wig $6...Andrea dressed in both...priceless


Adelyn's Preschool Halloween Parade...I was so proud of Adelyn because she was actually one of those kids that knew all the words and actions to the songs they sang...Adelyn LOVE'S going to school so I shouldn't have been surprised.




Last week at Freightmares the girls just ran onto all of the rides..it was a bit chilly, but the kid rides were empty and so we just ran onto all the rides.
"Puff"...for like the 5th time!




Adelyn feeling the big bad Wolf's hair


Dippin' dots

Fresh APPLE juice anyone!?

Last Saturday I took the girls out to my Grandparents house to help make Apple Cider. It was so much fun! My Aunt Diane, cousins Mattie and Melissa and my Grandparents all helped to clean, chop, churn, strain and drink the yummy fresh juice. I have a vivid memory of doing that with my Great Grandpa Aposhian when I was just tiny and I was hoping for the same for my girls just being there and being with their Great Grandparents! Adelyn and Elsie helped to drop the apples into the wash basin and then they helped to eat fresh apples and then just played around in the yard. Cohen hung out with me in the backpack. I hope we can do this again next year!
Washing the apples

Cutting out the bad parts of the apples

Mattie liked to try and get the perfect star when cutting off the bottom

The old Cider Press that my Grandpa just restored

Happy girls

Chopping up the apples and pressing out the juice

The pile of scraps after the juice has been pressed out...which of course still has use in my Grandpa's Garden

Straining the juice before pouring it into the containers...Diane had a nice sticky arm!

The final product...yummy 100% Apple juice!

Fall Family Video

We went up to Meuller Park on Sunday which we haven't done in a while since we always get scared away by the $8 entrance fee...but we went all the way in this time and had fun playing in all of the beautiful fall leaves and enjoying the warm day! Tom was testing out a camera that he needed to become familiar with for work and was just so excited with the great video quality that he was able to get. Adelyn and Elsie had fun collecting leaves and Cohen was just happy to be there...even if he was smunched in a backpack:) Enjoy the video...I'm so glad to have these precious moments recorded...thanks Tom!

Check out Tom's latest video of our family by going here http://vimeo.com/7143105
Press play and then pause it to let the video download completely and then watch it!

Black Island Farms

My friend Kristin invited me to join her ward's "Mommy Group" and they had set up a field trip to Black Island Farms. It was one of those days when I woke up and I kept debating wether or not to go...can I do something like that with 3 kids by myself?...do I have the energy?...but the deciding factor was that it was a beautiful day, one that shouldn't be wasted indoors! We arrived at the farm in Syracuse at 1:00 and instantly I was so glad that we had come. First of all it's normally $10/kid and $15/adult but since we had such a large group they let us come before the normal hours of operation so we pretty much had the place to ourselves and we only had to pay $4/kid and adults were free! Go if you can...they might close next year if they don't make enough money! Thanks Kristin for the invite...we had a blast!

Going on a tractor ride...we saw how corn, pumpkins, squash, zuccini, onions and carrots grow!

Fresh carrots!

Pick a pumpkin!

Teeny weeny pumpkins!

Our little clan

Baby cows...just a few of the animals they have in their petting zoo

Riding in the "pig" on the animal train that pulled the kids on a fun little course through the corn!

"Corn Box" I was feeding Cohen while I watched the girls play and they had gone over to this boxed in area and I thought they were playing in sand...when I got over there and realized it was CORN...how fun!

Corn Angels!


Slides! My girls could have kept going on the slides all day...I was so proud of them that they climbed up the huge haystacks by themselves and then had no fear going down the slides time and time again...the one black tunnel slide was funny because it vibrated their little bodies so they came out giggling each time...Elsie after a few times was going up to other kids saying..."try this one...it's CRAZY"



Cohen won the best baby award...he was his happy mellow self all day as we watched the girls play!

Feeding the goats with this fun little contraption where the kids put food in a bowl and pulled to ropes until the bowl reached the goat at the top!

Lamas

Cute little donkeys

Dirty little piggys

Photo shoot by Adelyn...she's been very into taking her own pictures lately with my camera...today she said "i'm going to be a patogger like Aunt Jen"


Pumpkin bounce house

Girls walking hand in hand as they walked back to do another round of slides

I just laughed as i watched Adelyn do lap after lap...coming down and running as fast as she could to do it again

The GIANT slide...we were there so long and just as we were about to leave, they opened up this huge slide...so of course we had to stay longer so my very surprisingly daredevil children could have a go!


I went down with Elsie the first time and I have to admit...I was a little nervous...it was high up and we got booking it down the slide as I was forced into a laying down position and was a little disheveled when I got to the bottom, but I had to laugh...I felt like a kid there for a minute and I wished I could have just kept playing!


What a great day! I had so much joy watching Adelyn and Elsie have so much fun...I loved seeing them try new things and knowing they're nervous but overcoming fears...seeing them be such good little partners all day and watching out for each other...I love having them in situations where I get to see how they interact with others...and for the most part they were quite shy, but also polite and considerate...having them outside and exercising their little bodies...seeing their huge smiles on their faces.
This might sound cheesy, but there was a moment that I was sitting on a haybail watching the kids play and this flock of white doves kept circling around and I had to give thanks to my Heavenly Father...for the beautiful day...for letting me be these kids Mommy...for the love that I have for each of them...and for the peace that I felt! Good day!