halloween festivities

Our "Halloween" was celebrated on the 30th with a trunk-or-treat at our church.  The kids were NOT happy that we were not going to go out trick-or-treating this year since Halloween was on a Sunday...until I told them that they would get plenty at the church party!  I stocked up on extra candy to hand out at the party and I think most of the families had the same idea!  Each of the kids had their buckets FULL...they were happy!  They had a great time playing games, going on hay rides and a yummy chili dinner.

Brayden had a last minute costume change do to a  huge growth spurt from last year.  Thankfully with a black cape and church clothes, it was simple to do!  He looked SO different with his black hair!

Drew was pretty excited to be Draco Malfoy again this year!  I was prepared to hem up his cape since it was dragging on the ground last year...but I didn't have to...it was at least 3 inches off the ground!

Ella made a pretty cute little lady bug!  We borrowed the costume from my sister, made a cute little ladybug shirt and she was ready to go!  A lot of the rhinestones fell off when washed for the first time...but we made it work for one day.  I hope I can fix it since I was really excited how cute it turned out!  I may just have to buy a new ladybug and start over.

It was very strange not having Morley with us for all of the costumes and partying this year!  He was off hunting with Matt and my dad for the day!  I am having a hard time acknowledging the fact the my kids are growing up...and growing out of some festivities.

While editing some of the pictures, we were playing around with some cool Halloween effects...

*lightening from Draco's wand*

*scary Dracula "movie" effects*



*miss lady bug in a crystal ball*

and of course all three before we left for the party.

Ella and Mia have been connected at the hip for the past few weeks and play so well together.  AND...they feed of each other.  For instance, this picture.  Both of them would NOT smile for the camera at the same time...and this double pouty picture was the funniest one I captured.  Stinkers!  The weather was PERFECT...nearly 68 degrees and NO wind!  I just want to bottle up days like that so I can survive the horrible Nebraska winters that never seem to end! 

So, while we were dressing up and eating candy...the three other men/boys were out killing birds.  Duck...pheasant...

They had a great time and came out okay at the end of the day.

Here is my dad pulling a sled full of decoys through the cat tails.  Camo...WOW!  My dad came out for a quick business/hunting trip and it was so fun to have him here for a few days!  I love watching the interaction between him and my kids.  They adore him and really treasure the time they can spend together!  We are really hoping that my parents and my brother Tom will be able to come back out for Christmas!!  Oh, we hope it works out!

After all of the hunting, it was time to sight in MORLEY'S rifle!  Yes...he has his own.  He saved up money from all the mowing this summer and was able to pay for half of it!  Matt took some video of him shooting it the first few times...and it has a bit of a kick!  He is REALLY looking forward to going deer hunting in a few weeks!

I stayed up until 1am Sunday morning making these pumpkin bread bowls!   I was so excited about them...I didn't worry about starting them at 8:30 in the evening!  Next time though...I think I'll use the Rhodes frozen dough instead of making them from scratch...just to save time!  I think they turned out pretty stinkin' cute and the kids were very excited about them. 



The "witches brew" soup was delicious too and quite possibly could become a staple soup around the house!  You can find the recipes for both HERE. Thank you Nancy for sharing!!!  We had a wonderful Sunday today!  I love just hanging out with my family!  We took my dad out to meet Si and had a good time remembering my horse days back when I was Morley's age!  All of the kids, Matt and my dad were able to spend some time hanging out and getting to know Si...and letting Si get to know them.  He received A LOT of petting and scratching tonight!  When we got back home Drew came up to me and said, "mom, thanks for letting us pet Si, we need to do that more often."  That makes me happy!

I can't believe October is over and now it will just a few short months until Christmas!  We were so busy with getting the house ready to sell and me taking a short vacation to WA...ALONE...that we didn't even carve pumpkins this year!  I think that is a first in 13 years that we have not done it!  The kids were good sports and now they just plan to take them out and blow them up.  BOYS!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!