Halloween

The girls had a couple fun things this year right around Halloween.  At school for Red Ribbon week, they could wear a costume of a book character.  Madison went as the mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie book.  She created all her accessories and put her outfit together.

    

Ellie went as McGonagall from Harry Potter.

    

Props to Jeremy because he made sure they were appropriately attired since I was DC with the 8th graders that week!

Then, we had our first ever neighborhood Halloween trick-or-treat experience.

    

The girls were very excited about this.  They found Madison’s friend Mallory and went walking with her (Pepper and I trailing behind).  Madison was dressed as a circus ringmaster.  Ellie was McGonagall again.  Mallory was a scientist.

    

Jeremy and Grandma Yoh held down our fort and hoped to not run out of candy.  There were a lot of people in our neighborhood trick or treating!  Jeremy wore his Chewbacca snuggie; Gloria was a happy lady (look closely at her eyes!) 

    

Next stop, Grandma and Grandpa Ediger’s, which we could have walked to, but I didn’t know if they were home til later.  Can you spot the difference?

    

We went to our traditional spot next for Trunk or Treat.  No reason to go to both, but the girls enjoy going here; I enjoy seeing the trunks that are decorated and the youth manning them.  We saw quite a few of their friends there.

    

And our neighbors!

There was also some facepainting this year – so a cat and a spider.

    

Then, it is the GREAT CANDY SORT!

    

In addition to all this fun, they also both had parties/activities at church.  They decorated pumpkins, played fall games, learned the game Spoons, and made items to be sold at the Thanksgiving day auction at our church. 

         

Ramseyer Farms

We made our annual trek on Friday in October.  It wasn’t as nice as it had been earlier in the week, but it was the time we planned on going.  At least it wasn’t raining, and once you start doing stuff, you warm up pretty quickly.  Gloria has accompanied us since we started going, so she braved it with us.

We only had about 2 hours or so, which is enough time, but you also need to be a little strategic.  Thankfully, there weren’t any lines anywhere.

The girls wanted to start in the corn bin.  I am sure this is like the plastic ball pits that little kids play in that everyone freaks out about because of contamination and germs.  Frankly, I don’t care when it comes to this.  It is so fun to be in the corn.  Not only is it fun (kinda like playing in the sand without the stickiness of it), it gives you a really nice foot massage.  Anyway, we had some fun in there…

         

From there we moved on to Rubber Tire Playground.  Also a hit to balance, jump, climb, crawl, and swing in this land of black rubber.

                   

We did my personal favorite (just ahead of the corn bin), which is the peddle go kart track.  It is so much fun to race around the track – not to mention a great work out!

We slingshotted some potatoes at targets, did some mazes, tried to pull a tractor, and slid down the big slides.

              

We didn’t do some other things – the corn maze, the big jumping pad, duck races, or a hayride.  But I think we did enough.

At the end of the night the girls (and Jeremy) picked out pumpkins for carving.  (I know, I am a party pooper.) 

Then, we headed to Green Leaf restaurant for late evening dinner. 

A few days later, Jeremy and Ellie carved their pumpkins, and Madison painted hers.  (And I cleaned the house… which was fine with me)

That was the start of our fall/Halloween fun.  More to come..

Friends

(About three weeks late on this post)

Ellie was invited by her friend to celebrate her birthday. 

Friend birthday parties are nice, but we usually just have family parties since there are about 20+ that can show up for that.  When Madison turned 10, we let her have her first friend party.  It’s not that I am against having friends over.  It’s more like the expectation for the parties feel a bit much – invitations + meal + games/crafts/”thing” + cake + party favor.  I am probably making more of it than I should.  What I think a friend party should be is some cake/cupcake/dessert and some play time, open gifts and go home.  Anyway, that’s all beside the point.

Kinsley invited Ellie and two more of her friends to a dinner out to Wasabi (Japanese steakhouse).  What a fun thing to do! 

Because Ellie needs insulin, at least one of us was “forced” to go along.  Really, it was a good excuse for Jeremy, Madison, and I to get to try out the whole experience as well. 

It was a blast to watch the girls faces as the chef threw knives, started fires, and tossed food in their mouths. 

  

Then, they got to eat with chopsticks, talk with each other, and laugh.  Oh, AND they got ice cream at the end!

It was a great party!

Then last week, it was Gloria’s birthday.  She had come over on Saturday for a tasty meal (pork tenderloin, asparagus, and wild rice).  On her birthday, I bought pizza at Aldi to serve as her feast with a red velvet cake from Wal-mart.  Not up to snuff in my opinion, but getting together is what matters.  The girls had a fun time having her over. Happy birthday to a woman who is up for adventures, has a heart full of love, a generous hand, and a passion for her family (and its history).