Halloween Festivities

So to start off our Halloween Weekend of fun Jason and I went and saw Thriller on Thursday night.  My brother came and watched the boys while we went out.  It was awesome as usual, we loved the show and it was an awesome evening.
 

Friday I took the boys to Jason's office and we had pizza and went trick or treating.  Ashton had a blast with all the other kids around, Noah got the whole trick or treating  this year, he didn't say it of course but he would hold out his bucket to get some candy.

Ashton and his friend Nate, they are so cute playing together. 

We attempted to get a picture of all 4 boys, and this was the best that we could get.  Ben really wanted Noah's sucker and Noah was not happy about it, Nate decided it was a good time to pick his nose, and Ashton was to busy with the sucker to pay attention to the camera. 

The favorite candy for the boys were the suckers.  Noah had about 5 or so, at least they are small.  I think that out of the two boys Noah is going to be my candy eater, he hasn't been able to leave the candy alone.  Ashton will have a couple of pieces and he is done.  The boys had gotten their fill of trick or treating and they were having a break.

Saturday morning we went to Boo at the Zoo.  We went with our neighbors and all Ashton could talk about was were Truman, and he wanted to do everything that Truman did. He actually climbed on the elephant trunk and sat for a picture because Truman was.  I have been trying to get him to do that forever now.  The boys had a blast running.  I was bummed because I was able to get two pictures taken and my camera battery died.  Good thing for my iPhone, they aren't as great but at least they are pics.

The plan was to take the boys trick or treating around the neighborhood then Grandma and Grandpa were going to come and get them for the night, but when we told Ashton we were going to go trick or treating he said, "No mom, me don't want to go trick or treating we already went.  Want to go to grandma's house"  There was no convincing him to go so I called my mom and took the boys down earlier than we were planning.  I was feeling bad about not taking the boys trick or treating but technically it wasn't even Halloween anyways and they had gone twice already, so I took them to grandma's house and then Jason and I got to have 24 hours all to ourselves.  We are so lucky to have such awesome parents who want to take our children and let us have these breaks.  Jason and I went to dinner and then came home and watched a movie, pretty boring but it was still awesome to have that alone time without the kids around. 

Sunday we woke up and went to Park City and did some shopping at the outlets and then headed down to my mom's house and had dinner and spent sometime visiting and hanging out.  It was an awesome weekend.  I just realized though that I didn't get really good pictures of the boys in their costumes, like I try to do every year.   I may have to do that this week before I forget and don't get it done. 

Family pumpkin carving

We had so much fun last year with the pumpkin carving we had to do it again this year.  The weather of course was not going to cooperate, so I suggested we set up in the garage to carve the pumpkins and it worked out great. 

We carved pumpkins then we had dinner, we did judge the pumpkins and we all won a prize.  I love this tradition and I love making these memories with the family.

Josh was a party pooper and wouldn't carve a pumpkin. 

Dinner as usual was delicious, we all filled up on cheese ball and crackers, and bread and oil.  So that when we finally did eat dinner no one wanted dessert when we were finished.  But that is usually the case in our family.  We have decided we need to eat dessert first then we can have dinner so we get to enjoy it.

With our finished pumpkins

Mom got these silly glasses for the boys, Noah loved them and he wore them for quite a while, when he was eating his cookie.

Pumpkin Carving

So last week, we were invited to the Gibsons for a Halloween party and pumpkin carving.  It was a lot of fun, of course the boys didn't want to help with the pumpkins at all they just wanted to play which was fine by me.  We were in the garage carving the pumpkins and it was perfect the kids could ride bikes all around us and then when they wanted to go inside they could.  It was a great evening with friends.

We had lots of yummy food, I made an apple crisp and some carmel dip and some apple.  Both recipes were new ones I hadn't made before and they both turned out great.  The apples I used were from my mom's apple tree.

Noah, Nate, and Ashton.  They were so cute all sitting together watching the movie.  Noah thinks he is a big kids like everyone else and he is determined to keep up with them.

Finished pumpkins, they all turned out great.

This was Jason's creation.  At first he didn't want to carve a pumpkin, but he was talked into it.

We tried to get a picture of all the kids, but it didn't turn out so good.  Of course Noah was not going to cooperate at all, and you only see Ben's back side, and its a little blurry.  Oh well!

Jason rolls his eyes every time I want a picture of us.  You would think he has gotten use to it by now.

The Maxwell family, Hazel, Natalie, Macie

I will be so happy when the day finally comes when the boys cooperate for pictures and will look at the camera and smile.

Baby Ben, just chillin, having some milk.  He was the cutest little alien.

Pre-School family fun carnival

So last week at Ashton's preschool there was a family carnival, I almost forgot about it and remembered about the time we were going to leave.  So I grabbed the camera and off we went.  Noah was in heaven that he was able to stay at preschool with Ashton, he throws a fit everyday when we leave he wants to stay and play. 

Noah wasn't shy about jumping in and playing games, he especially liked this one because it had balls.  And this child loves balls.

Ashton tried out the fishing pond, he caught a spider ring

Ashton played blackout bingo, he was most excited at the end when he could eat his m&m's

Musical pictures, Noah watched for a couple rounds then he decided he wanted to play to. 

Then we headed upstairs and watched two short little scary movies, and had popcorn.  Before we headed up to watch movies we told some scary stories in the dark.  Ashton was quite funny he kept saying he was scared and wanted to leave.  I guess having your child be scared shouldn't be funny but it was, the stories were just silly.

Then the kids got sugar cookies to decorated with candy and pizza and apple juice to eat.  Of course Ashton didn't touch the pizza, he kept asking for pizza bread (which at our house is either bread sticks or the crust of the pizza cut off)  some of the other mom's were there and laughing at Ashton and how they have children just like him.  Noah of course is my good eater, he will eat almost anything we give him it is awesome.

Ashton showing off the pumpkin Miss Gail gave all the kids, she painted them all.  They were so awesome, Noah got to choose one too.

It was a fun morning and it was fun to see Ashton in a different setting and how he interacts with other kids and his teacher.  I can't believe how big he is getting.

Pumpkin Patch

So we headed to the pumpkin patch on Saturday with the Bellamy Family.  We decided to try a different place than we have gone for the last couple of years.  We headed to Black Island Farms up in Syracuse so it was a little bit of a drive.  They had all sorts of fun things for kids to do, there were animals they could feed, slides for them to ride, and tractor rides, corn mazes.  The boys had so much fun, the only bad part was that if we wanted to go and get a pumpkin we had to wait in the very very long line to take a wagon ride that would lead us to the pumpkin patch.  There was no way that the boys would of waited in that long of a line so we decided to bag it and we will have to go somewhere else to get pumpkins.

This was the great big hay slide the boys had a blast riding it, and I had a blast watching them go down it.  They made it about half way down then they would flip around it was funny to watch them. 

Ashton was up first

Now it is Noah's turn

The boys were so excited to ride this, I was actually surprised that Noah sat still the whole time and didn't even try to climb out.

This was the corn box, like a sand box but filled with corn.  What a great idea, the boys had a blast playing in it and I loved it cause they weren't filthy when they were done.
 

We went through the corn maze for a little bit, Noah found some corn and was having fun throwing it back in the corn stalks.  Ashton of course had to pee while we were in the maze, luckily we were at a dead end so I just made him pee on the corn stalks.  The joys of having a boy!  I try to get Noah to look at the camera and smile but it is almost impossible.

I wanted at least one pic of the family, this is typical of our pics these days.  Noah screaming and throwing a fit and Ashton not paying attention to the camera.  Oh well I am sure one day I will look back and think it is funny.

There are so few good pics of Jason and I so I made Korie take one.  Jason just rolls his eyes with me and wanting all these pics, but I know that one day he will be happy I did.