Halloween 2012

 Another wonderful Halloween is over, but we had a great time.

Grandma came by with a Halloween treat: some AWESOME balloons!  The boys loved them!

Then, the waiting game was on for trick-or-treating.  Finally, finally, FINALLY we got dressed up again and went out for our first annual Mill Haven Halloween Block Party.  It was small, but we are still new.  It's gonna be killer next year!

The boys played some bowling and ran around.  

We had some great eats and treats.

And the kids scored as they came down "Candy Row." {We all bought WAY too much candy, but had no idea how many trick-or-treaters we'd have.}
 

 Daddy got off work....straight from the OR. 

And it was FINALLY time for Mario and Luigi to get more candy!  

Evan stayed behind to pass out candy.

The haul:

Sweet dreams!

Jack-o-lanterns

We carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening on Monday night.  Here's the pumpkins before:

And here's the boys' reactions to opening the tops.



Kyle did about 3 scoops, got some seeds and guts on his hands, tried to flick said seeds and guts off by flinging his hands in all directions, and decided that this "hard labor" was not for him.  "DISGUSTING!  I can't do this!"

Thank goodness for Mom and Dad who can step in and do the dirty work of finishing up cleaning the pumpkins and the dangerous work of cutting out the faces. 

Evan's pumpkin was done in no time and with no mess.

Here's the finished pumpkins!

We put Evan's up on our barrel that we got from Avery Island.  Love it!  {Even though our home owner's association won't allow us to keep it on the front porch permanently, it's a great Fall decoration.} 

My crazy boys~

Ryan's scary jack-o-lantern. 

Kyle's happy jack-o-lantern.

Happy Halloween!

HOWL-o-ween Fest

Bridgeland {our neighborhood} put on a HOWL-o-ween festival last weekend, a tribute to dogs.  There were plenty of things for human children to do, also.  At first, the plan was to just take Kyle while the younger 2 took naps, but on the way home from Kyle's soccer game, Ryan saw a FIRETRUCK!!!! and it was all over. 

Both boys had a great time!

We went straight to the firetruck first. 

The boys got to talk to a firefighter, get in the truck, and learn about some of the controls and equipment. 

We strolled through the pumpkin patch, but only stayed a short time. 

We were really there for the BOUNCY  HOUSES!  Kyle went on talking about these things for days...."There was a Wipeout one, and a crazy one, and a dog one, and a jungle one, and 2 just jumping ones, and a colorful one, and a big, SUPER-HUGE boat slide!!!" 

Kyle was a great big brother, helping Ryan get up the climbing wall and {most of the time} waiting for him to make it to the next obstacle. 

He also reminded Po to stay close to him in line.  Ryan took that literally and held onto his older brother so as not to get lost. 

Jumping!

Sliding!

Finally, we watched a little bit of a dog jumping contest. 

Not a bad way to spend a few afternoon hours!