Halloween -- the Never-Ending Celebration!

Class parties ... the church Trunk-or-Treat ... by the time we get to actual trick-or-treating in the neighborhood we were so tired of putting our costumes on we almost didn't make it.  =)  Actually, the kids are at such fun ages for all of this ... if I can just stand it! 

Nathan's First Recital

Nathan's First Piano Recital

He played a cute witches song and the theme from Star Wars.  Caroline May is his great teacher!

Pumpkin Carving

Remind us next year NOT to print off stencils from the internet!  We've never used so many toothpicks (while children weren't looking so they wouldn't know how what bad shape their pumpkins were in) to hold pumpkins together in our life!

Halloween Costumes

Elizabeth as Snow White

Joshua as a Ninja

(We found at Wal-Mart the ninja backpack with swords, and then trust Greg to help come up with the rest of the outfit from things we had at home.  An inside-out skeleton costume, black socks with holes cut in them for his hands, a belt from a piece of fabric we got at our wedding from someone international, and a t-shirt + YouTube tutorial for the mask!)  Joshua was born to be a ninja!

Nathan as a Dementor

What a crew!

Halloween Playgroup

What's not to love?!

 

A fun Halloween playgroup at the church where Elizabeth got her favorite new accessory.  =) 

Life's Real

I was flipping through pictures of October and thinking what a great month we had...until I came to this one! Then I remembered that October wasn't the totally glossy picture the rest paint it to be!  These are days' worth of dishes from when the dishwasher died.  Within a week or two (if I remember correctly) we had the dishwasher break and need replacing, we got a flat tire in the middle of a soccer game, and maybe that's when the basement flooded too.  Maybe I should take more pictures of life's realities ... to make us more accurately grateful for the good times, and not so hard on ourselves when our current life isn't as glossy and we seem to remember the past.  =)   

Soccer Season

Soccer worked out great this fall for both Joshua and Nathan.  Just a six-week season, with practices for each of them at the same time and location and games on Saturday mornings.  Both of them do really well, so it was interesting at the end of this season to have Nathan say ... "I don't think I need to play soccer again.  I think playing at recess is enough."  When do you encourage a boy in a sport they really could be great at, and when do you let the eight-year-old make the decisions for himself?!

 

Fall Yard Work

Thank goodness we've only got one real tree with leaves ... because it alone is quite the fall project!  Even Jack, the neighbor boy joined us to rake leaves this year.  (Especially when we bribed him with scones and hot chocolate when the job was done.)

Zombie Tag

 

Somewhere along the way Elizabeth picked up the game "Zombie Tag" from Nathan and Joshua ... and now no one can play it with the flair she can!  We've even seen her trying to teach a member of the bishopric how to play it in the hall at church.

Reading with My Sister