Just the Girls

A friend of mine recently sent me this picture of Marci and me. Since I'm usually the one taking the pictures for this blog, I thought I'd better take the opportunity to make an appearance! Marci and I were sitting on a bench in front of the school watching the pre-K and kindergarten students parade around campus in their costumes. If Marci would have had it her way, she would be been a parade participant instead of observer!

Udderly Entertained

The Columbia zoo has a little bit of everything to offer. Marci even got to milk a cow!

Boone kept right up with the big kids, but he also spent some quality time on Mommy's hip and later on Daddy's shoulders. What a little trooper!

The outdoor carousel was a huge hit!

Whee!! Boone rode, too, but somehow I didn't end up with a picture of him. How in the world did that happen??!!

Clickety Clack

We covered quite a bit of ground walking around the zoo. The girls were especially cute parading around in their click-click shoes and princess gowns.

Osten was so proud of his Captain America costume, and I was relieved that the shield I made for him met with his approval. (Whew!)

Here's Aurora and Captain America waiting in line at one of the trick-or-treat booths.

Wardrobe malfunction! Out of nowhere, Marci plopped down in the dirt to empty some dirt from her click-click shoes. We were shocked that she was able to clickety-clack her way through the zoo all night without changing into more comfortable shoes. What stamina!

Boo in the Zoo

We got an early start to Halloween this year at Boo in the Zoo in Columbia. It was an after-hours event at the zoo with trick-or-treating and lots of other Halloween activities. Superman (who also celebrated his Halloween birthday a weekend early with us), Cinderella, Captain America and Aurora had a great time.

Here's a closer look at three of our little trick-or-treaters. The littlest one quickly tired of the photo shoot and wandered off to find bigger and better things.

This was Osten and Marci's first trip to the zoo. We spent a good bit of time at the elephant exhibit and couldn't pass up a photo with the elephant statue nearby.

Giddyup!

Dunking the Mayor

Osten discovered his first dunking booth while we were at the festival, and he was fascinated! He and Daddy watched the action for a long time.

Eventually, Osten decided to try his hand at dunking the mayor. I've lost count now, but I'd venture to guess that he was successful at least three or four times. And the mayor (who looks like he's about 25!) was a great sport and would make a big production of falling into the water.

After a great showing, Osten and Daddy decided to give some other people a try.

Check out those muscles! We had a good laugh about Batman's muscles lodging themselves under Osten's neck while he was on Daddy's shoulders.

Dancing in the Streets

We were at Piper's & Boone's house for Halloween this year to celebrate his first birthday with Jackson, Hudson and Pierson. After everyone's naps, we loaded into our cars and went downtown, caravan-style, to a Halloween festival. With seven kids in tow, it was a little hectic and I regrettably wasn't able to get a group shot of the kids in their costumes.

The festival was crowded with people of all ages in their Halloween best, and Tom and I decided to take a divide-and-conquer approach with the kids. Marci was mesmerized by the band that rocking out in the street. She and I sat on the curb and listened for the longest time while she shared a few of her treats from her basket with me.

After a little coaxing, she took her moves to the street and shook her little Tinkerbell tutu. I was too into the moment to get a good action shot of her, but here she is making her exit after quite a little performance!

All that dancing makes a little girl thirsty!

Let the Festivities Begin!

Osten could hardly wait to put on his costume and get to school for his class Halloween party! After some difficulty fitting Batman's muscles into his car seat, we pulled his costume down around his knees (much to his disappointment!) and strapped him in for the ride to school. Many of his friends were already there and in their costumes. From left to right: David, Aiden; 2nd row: McKenzie, Alli, Billy, Briana, McCall, Osten.

Miss Casey snapped of picture of Batman and Mommy! Meanwhile, Marci's party didn't start until later and I didn't make it back to pick them up until the party was over, so no school party pictures for Marci this year. Not to worry, we got lots of good shots of her the next day!

Pumpkin Patch

One of the highlights from last month was definitely the class field trip to the pumpkin patch. Mommy is still a little nervous when it comes to field trips (hopefully this will get better with practice!), so Osten was clad in his school t-shirt instead of cute Halloween shirt.

He was also (surpisingly!) the only child who brought along his car seat for the ride in the van. Not only did he not seem to mind, I don't think he even noticed! Here he is looking like a little king on his throne sitting next to two of his favorite friends, Aiden and Billy.

Despite Mommy's extra safety measures, he seemed to have a really good time. It was sure the highlight of my day to sneak away from work to enjoy a few minutes with the kids.

Here's a picture of the whole crew (minus a few of the extra helpers)! From left to right: Hannah, Gabi, Scarlet, Briana, McKenzie, Mason, Osten, Hudson, Aiden, Jaylee; 2nd row: Ms. Cherissa, Miss Casey, David, Alli, Billy.

Pre-Halloween

Daddy was sick the weekend before Halloween, and the kids and decided to give him some uninterrupted rest. We went to a Fall Festival at a nearby state park to enjoy some of the festivities. As is typical with this particular park, the festivities were a little, um, random and unorganized. I wasn't sure that the kids would even notice, but after about 20 minutes they let me know that they were not impressed. They did however notice lots of talk about trick-or-treating, and they begged and pleaded to return home for their costumes. I obliged. When we arrived back home, they decided not to wear their actual costumes. Osten selected his Darth Vader costume, rain boots and light saber, and he convinced Marci to wear his monkey costume from two years ago.

They were quite the dynamic duo! And we had a great time walking from campsite to campsite collecting candy from the campers.

We even ran into one of Osten's friends from school, Scarlet, who was decked out as a pirate.

After an unfortunate and traumatic accident (especially for Mommy who was still crying about it days later) involving a bicycle and resulting in the bloody nose of the century and a fat lip, we returned home to enjoy some hard-earned (especially for Osten!) Halloween goodies.

A Leg Up

Osten got a leg up on pumpkin-carving this year. Check out that leverage!

He was so proud of his work!

Note to self to hide the sharpie markers next year!

The real hit this year was our new Halloween decoration. Osten made sure we plugged it in every night!

A Lasting Impression

For some unknown reason, we used Sharpies on our pumpkins this year.

Not surprisingly, we have a lasting impression of the day on one of our kitchen chairs. Sigh . . .

In any event, the kids sure seemed to enjoy the fall festivities!

Manhandling the Merchandise

What is it about kids manhandling pumpkins? That's pretty much how we pick our pumpkins these days.

This lucky gourd escaped any noticeable damage and ultimately did not end up coming home with us.

After we noticed Marci wtih this little pumpkin in her mouth, we decided it was a keeper.

Oops! This one took a good ten-foot fall thereby securing itself a new home.