Celebrating Halloween 2010

I love Halloween and I always have.

We celebrated Halloween tonight (the 30th) as we live in Utah and if Halloween falls on a Sunday, then we celebrate it on Saturday instead. We had our families over and I made the usual chili, cornbread muffins, mexican dip, fruit dip, and my sis Jess brought pizza fondue. My mom brought candy corn cupcakes for dessert. It was fun to have Lisa and Fletcher here from Reno, NV this year as well!

This kiddos and I spent the day preparing for the party and Paul had to work :( We always hate the 1 weekend a month that he has to work.

When Paul got home from work, Cowen fed him some chili :)

and I got my man a beer, while he relaxed and I took care of everything (in my dress, heels, and with full makeup on :)

yep,
I was a 1950s housewife and Paul was going to dress 50s as well, but got home from drill/work so late that he just decided to stay in his uniform. It still fit the theme well. We decided to take a pic of me doing dishes in my dress and heels. haha.

Then, we set off trick-or-treating with the kiddos, my sister Jaime, her husband Joe, and their puppies Essie and Ely.
Madilyn wanted to walk one of the pups as usual,

She usually wants to walk Ely, but tonight she walked Essie. It was cute to see a ladybug walking a bee! They were too adorable and the puppies really enjoyed it.

One of our neighbors dressed up in a grim reaper costume and wandered around the neighborhood all evening. It was awesome! His costume was so realistic and he was on stilts. It really set the mood for trick-or-treating.

pretty creepy!

Madilyn with her neighbor friend Aidan.

This house looked so awesome!

The kids loved all the Halloween decorations and the lady dressed up like a witch.

It was so fun to watch Madilyn and Cowen go door to door.

Cowen absolutely loved it. He would just stand there and pick candy out of the bowels and put it in his little bucket. Everyone loved him, so he scored a ton of candy.

Madilyn was a little more leery this year. She had fun, but it wasn't like last year when she was overwhelmed with excitement.
It was still very magical seeing the whole thing through the kiddos eyes.
So much fun.

My sister Jaime's pup Ely

and Essie

My love carrying the kiddos loot.

Gotta love trying to capture a family shot with 2 little ones. :) Madilyn is trying to eat some taffy without taking the wrapper off first and Cowen was trying to pull his monkey face hood off. Priceless :)

After trick-or-treating we came back and hung out. I always love having our families together. It is always a great time.
Cowen found the beer and thought that he would check it out.

While Madilyn and my mom frosted the candycorn cupcakes :)

Madilyn would put 1 candycorn on the cupcakes, then eat about 10 of them, repeat. haha.

then she made good use of my high heels by using them as ramps for her cars. She is so innovative. She had a great time playing cars with her Uncle Brian, Aunt Jessie and Alex.

Then Madilyn had us put on animal masks from her Curious George game and took pics of us. Here is her Auntie Jaime as a lion.

Happy Halloween!

*Fall Sky

Paul took these pictures at work one evening this week. The sky has been breathtaking lately.

*Mr. Helpful*

This little man is so helpful lately
If you mention that you need to get your shoes on, he brings shoes to you.
Then he gets his shoes and tries to put them on all by himself.

If your face needs wiped off, he is the man for the job.

When you are going to the bathroom, he grabs the toilet paper.

and he will always share his meal with you and wants to feed you.

He wants to try everything!

^^^Halloween Carnival^^^

Today was Madilyn's Halloween Carnival at preschool. She had her regular class for the first hour and 1/2 and the last 45 mins was the carinval. While Madilyn was at preschool, Cowen, Paul, and I went and had coffee and a donut and ran a couple of errands.
Then we headed back to Madilyn's school.

Cowen wore his costume too and was in heaven walking around and flirting with all the little girls. He is so social.

I secretly want him to wear that monkey costume all the time because he is just too darn cute in it! Good thing he likes wearing it!

(Grandma Penny and monkey man (a.k.a. Cowen) watching the "eat dirt" work)

The kiddos wore their costumes and they got to play games and make halloween crafts. It was so fun to see all the cute kids in their costumes.
Madilyn made a ghost out of a sucker with a tissue over it, played plinko, pin the face on the jack-o-lantern, stamped her face and hands, ghost bowling, and musical chairs.

It was a lot of fun!

Madilyn had a little bit of a hard time when I dropped her off this morning, so it was nice to be able to come and spend time with her and stay for her tumbling class. My mama (Grandma Penny) was able to come up and see the carnival and Madilyn's tumbling class too. It was neat to have my mom there!!

Madilyn making her lollipop ghost sucker "boo"

Here she is showing her brother some of her loot.

Cowen wanted to play Plinko too. He LOVES Madilyn's preschool and wants to be involved with EVERYTHING.

cute moment.

Here Madilyn is sitting between 2 of her favorite friends in her class. Austin on the right and Jackson on the left. The little boy in the skeleton costume is Tate and Madilyn talks about him all the time.

fun with stamps. We put them all over her hands, arms, and

even her chin. She loved it.

The last activity of the day was musical chairs. It was too cute to watch this one! They didn't take a chair away each time, thank goodness because Madilyn was always giving up her chair to someone else and then she would say "where is a chair for me?" haha. hilarious.

After Madilyn's tumbling class, we all went out to lunch at Cafe Rio before Paul had to go to work and my mom had to head back.

It was a great day!

Now Cowen is napping and Madilyn is relaxing and watching some of her favorite shows. I really thought she would pass out and take a nap after such an eventful morning/afternoon, but who am I kidding? It is Madilyn we are talking about :)

When Cowen gets up we are going to bake some pumpkin muffins and play outside before dinner...now, what to make for dinner?
Sometimes it is hard to cook just for the kiddos and I. I will be happy when Paul is back on day shift again in a couple of weeks!

*Time Flies (Whether you are having fun or not :)

We spent this weekend cleaning/organizing the garage. It was much needed and actually we had a pretty good time with it.

Madilyn helped by keeping us company. She is such the little talker and it is so fun to hear what she is saying (except when the "Oh damnit!, or "Holy shitballs" come out)...yep, wonder who she is hearing those things from?

Moving on.

Cowen helped too. He loves to sweep and just explore.

Cold weather and rain/snow have definitely hit or lovely state. It was pretty cool being in the garage while the sky dumped rain/hail/snow outside. We got to watch it all happen, and I loved it. I really want a big covered porch someday where I can sit all cuddled up in a blanket and watch it rain/snow/storm. It would make winter a little more bearable :)

Anyway-----

Saturday night we celebrated my dad who turned the big 60 on the 20th. It was low key and fun.

It is already Wednesday and we are busy prepping for our Halloween Party on Saturday evening.

Madilyn is so excited that she can hardly stand it. She gets to wear her costume to preschool tomorrow, so she is pretty excited. Paul and I are excited to see all the kiddos in their costumes. Her school is having a Halloween Carnival the last 45 minutes tomorrow and the kiddos are going to put on a little parade.

Happy Wednesday.

Madilyn's 1st Field Trip

and it was to the pumpkin patch. This is the same pumpkin patch that we visited a couple of weeks ago. We were all pretty excited to go back, as we had such a great time the first time.

We went down the slides

had lunch among the pumpkins

learned about onions, carrots, and other things on the hayride.
This is Madilyn holding a big onion and talking with one of her classmates Austin.

Madilyn picked out a pumpkin

and we took a family pic in the patch. Madilyn's friend from preshool Makayla wanted to be in the pic too...so cute. They are pretty good buds at school.

Madilyn with the pumpkin she picked out.

we roped a few cattle and a little brother :)

had a little anxiety with all the people on the slides (Madilyn doesn't like crowds...she is just like me in that respect)

and we tried the bigger slide this time! and LOVED it!

It was a great day!!!