Be sure you check out the new Vanilla Orchid website!
My super sweet and talented sister-in-law, Molly, has been working hard and her business is growing! She has a brand new website up and running, and I got to take some of the photos that are featured. We had lots of fun setting up "food photo shoots" (and I had lots of fun eating the leftovers). Love you Molly!
was busy.
It included...trying on costumes daily, testing out the fog machine, carving pumpkins, parades and pinatas at preschool, and making Halloween sugar cookies with Ba.
Check out poor Jack's face! I don't guess he expected the pumpkin to be full of slime and seeds. He got over it pretty fast and dug right in. (and look at those muddy little fingers he already had)
HALLOWEEN MORNING....
A quick birthday brunch meet-up for Sally (with all of the cousins in costumes).
Samantha and Ellie cracking each other up.
Super Girl, Cinderella, Pirate and Oompa Loompa dancing in a circle.
HALLOWEEN EVENING...
kicked off with an appropriately revolting dinner (hot dogs speared with spaghetti noodles),
and then we were off for TRICK OR TREATING of course!
My princess had crazy amounts of fun, but my pirate had a long day under his belt, with no napping...ARRRR! He was quiet the trooper, but I kept thinking he was going to fall asleep walking down the sidewalk, so we took his loot inside and Samantha finished the evening handing out candy and spraying fog on people. This is still equally as fun as the actual trick or treating apparently.
Until next year (when we'll have a third little goblin in our house)! Hoping you had a safe and successful Halloween too.
Halloween is my favorite "holiday." It's just fun...no big planning or shopping events necessary. And I love Halloween crafts. For the kid's preschool classes, I made bat and ghost finger puppets. Friday is the Halloween parade, and the kids usually exchange some small goody bag with each other. So...ghost puppets for Jack's class, bats for Samantha's.
Samantha helped me package them up. She's really into Halloween this year too. Everyday she wants to decorate something.
Can't wait for Saturday! Samantha is going to be a "blue princess" (as in Cinderella), and Jack, a pirate.
Be sure you check out the new Vanilla Orchid website!
My super sweet and talented sister-in-law, Molly, has been working hard and her business is growing! She has a brand new website up and running, and I got to take a some of the photos that are featured. We had lots of fun setting up "food photo shoots" (and I had lots of fun eating the leftovers). Love you Molly!
It's that time of year again! Our annual voyage to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm's Pumpkin Festival. This year it even felt like fall. I am so thankful for the autumn-ish weather we've been having.
We did all of the usual events at the farm, with the exception of the corn maze (canceled due to the summer drought). Hayride, games and face painting... Samantha chose a cat and Jack, a crab (dreaming of the beach). After the ride we picked out some really cool bumpy pumpkins, and one fat "regular" for carving. We ate Elgin sausage wraps and bought a loaf of homemade cinnamon streusel bread from the bake sell. Good stuff.
Squishing together to stay warm on the hayride.
Picking out our favorite gourds.
We finally made it down to the beach this year! And it ended up being a beautiful time to go...not as hot as earlier in the summer, but still warm enough to play in the waves and pool. While we were there a "cool front" blew in. It got dark and windy, rained for about 30 minutes and the temperature dropped to the mid-80's. About an hour later it was sunny and in the low 90's again.
The guys doing some serious work on a sandcastle.
On the jetty with Jack and Ba.
Jack's FAVORITE part of being on the beach was chasing and catching fiddler crabs. This guy is all about his bugs and animals. We had to keep telling him not to stick his hands down into the sandy holes...but he still managed to catch several crabs. He also liked building sand castles, but isn't a huge fan of playing in the waves yet.
One of my favorite parts of the trip...searching tide pools on the jetty. We found big pieces of broken shells, crab claws, snails and lots of little fish swimming about.
What a happy girl! Samantha is a die-hard beach fan. She loves everything about it... sand, waves and wind. She was stung by jelly fish on both hands and STILL wanted to stay at the beach.
Samantha and Ba at sunrise. I love this picture of them.
