Big Red Firetrucks!

So yesterday we went with Katelynn's preschool to the firestation and then afterwards tried out a new Discovery Place Kids that just opened up (which is the coolest place EVER in case you're wondering.. more pictures to come from there another day!).  Can you believe though that I had a fun-packed day with the kids planned, and I FORGOT my camera!!  Ugh.. I'm so disappointed!  So, I used my crappy phone camera and got at least a few pictures to share.  My friend took some from her camera so maybe I'll have more to share when she sends them to me!

The firestation tour was pretty cool though.  They talked to the kids about fire safety and stressed how much the kids should not be afraid of fireman should they be stuck in a situation where the fireman were trying to save them.  Justin loved the tour (I think more than Katelynn), but he wasn't willing to get down and move away from me for many pictures.  Katelynn (as you will see from the first picture) was paranoid the entire time that they were going to have loud sirens go off that would hurt her ears.  At first, she wouldn't even go in the firetruck because she thought for sure it would make a loud noise!  Silly girl!

Katelynn is in the red dress with black polka dots.. notice how she wouldn't even get up as close as her friends were at first?

Not all of K's class attended this field trip (most of the time a few do not because each child must come with their parent on field trips.  No field trips are bused or anything.)  Katelynn is hiding in front of the two firemen in the middle behind the girl in the pink jacket.

 Justin of course had to investigate the bit of water on the floor of the garage!

 The rest of the pictures are from Discovery KIDS!  They have sooo many fun imaginative play centers for the kids!  I am in love with this place.  This was a real firetruck that Justin LOVED!

 Katelynn tried on the fire gear... it was so heavy that she almost fell over (and her friend DID fall over!)

 I am pretty sure the pretend-play supermarket area was one of the favorites of the day.  It's actually set up just as a real grocery store and the kids walk around and pick stuff up off the shelves and go to the cash register to pay. 

Sadly, this is all I have from my phone.  It doesn't take pictures fast enough and it blurs half of them.  We will be going to Discovery KIDS on a weekly basis so I'm bound to share plenty more pictures from there another day!

Trick or Treat!

I think it is safe to say this was the best Halloween we have had to date.  As soon as we had Katelynn, holidays became more fun, but this Halloween was SOO MUCH fun because Katelynn was super into it all, and Justin loved it too! 

We started our evening at a friend's Halloween party.  The kids had food, a bounce house to play in, and of course cupcakes!

 We headed out to trick or treat in our friend's neighborhood that was hosting the party.  (Sadly, Justin didn't get to wear what I thought was the cutest part of his costume (his feet) because he wanted to walk too and he couldn't walk in them without tripping).

 Jonathan and I switched off on being festive and wearing a witch hat.  :)

After only a few houses, we realized why Justin was so willing to ride in the stroller for a change... he was eating his candy- wrapper and all!  So much for the "parental check" of the candy before eating!

After doing a block at our friend's neighborhood, we headed home and hit the houses around our house.  We ran into some of the neighbor kids we know.  Below is Katelynn and Carlee. 

 This is the third year in a row, we have trick or treated with our next door neighbor kids.  My kids love being able to follow the older kids around!

 Max (Ninja), Erika (genie/belly dancer), Justin (frog), Katelynn (witch- minus the hat that she would not trick or treat in!)

 We didn't get in the house until almost 8:30!  Let's just say we are all exhausted this morning.  Before going to bed though, we had to check out the loot!

In all, the kids had a blast!  Katelynn says her favorite part was going to the "spooky house".  There was a house that had their garage turned into a haunted house.  Katelynn didn't go in the garage, but she waved at one of the scary creatures and got candy from the woman who took pity on those that were too scared to go in :).  Justin by far just loved the candy.  He couldn't even wait for it to be opened!  He started saying "Trick or Treat" on our second round of trick or treating at home.  It was quite cute how he was running from house to house yelling trick or treat!   It was a super fun night!

Ewww... Pumpkin Guts!

Tonight we had a little pumpkin carving party. We invited Jonathan's parents, his brother Matt, and Matt's girlfriend Anna over for some chili dinner and pumpkin carving. We had a great time and were able to get our pumpkins carved and ready for Halloween tomorrow!

Justin had some interest in the pumpkin carving at the beginning, but it faded quickly.  He kept wanting to cut open the top by himself.  All I heard was "I do it!  I do it!"  He did not want any help!

 We finally convinced him to let us help and got the top cut.   Justin, of course, did the honors of pulling off the top.

 Now was Mommy's favorite part- getting down to pulling out the ooey-gooey pumpkin guts!  With Justin being a boy in so many ways, I thought for sure he would LOVE this part!

 But, as you can see, his first reaction was not a good one.  He was grossed out, and it was hilarious!

 I finally convinced him to hold some of the pumpkin guts, but he still wasn't so sure about them.  This is about when he gave up on pumpkin carving.

Grandma and Grandpa took over cleaning out Justin's pumpkin

 Katelynn had a blast this year with the pumpkins.  Daddy helped her get hers cleaned out and then she decided to use a kit we had that you pounded in pieces that will light up with a light inserted in the pumpkin (kind of like Light Brite when we were kids).  We were very impressed that she was able to get them in all by herself!

 While the rest of us were busy actually getting our pumpkins cleaned and carved, Anna and Matt were having a pumpkin gut fight and teaching Justin some great tricks for grossing out his sister and future girlfriends.

 Katelynn even had to take a break for her project to watch the fight.

 After decorating her own pumpkin, Katelynn chose to come over and carve a face in Justin's pumpkin with Grandma.

 She got two eyes carved before calling it good.

 Two very cool pumpkins and two very sleepy kids later, our pumpkins were done!



Pumpkin Painting

This afternoon after naps, the kids and I headed outside to paint our baby pumpkins!  Tomorrow we will carve our big pumpkins, but I thought this would be a fun activity for today.  Both kids didn't want to quit with one pumpkin.  Justin kept asking for "Nother Pumpkin?"

 Our finished pumpkins!

(From left to right- Katelynn's, Mommy's, Justin's)

And the Halloween Party Fun Continues.....

Today is the start of our weekend (as all Fridays are), but it wasn't a day for me to sleep in (not that any day is!).  We got up and attended two Halloween parties before 1 pm!  Let's just say by 1 pm, my kids had PLENTY of cupcakes and sweets!

Preschool Halloween Party!

This year Katelynn decided she wanted to be a witch.  At only four years old, I was shocked at how much she stood her ground on her decision.  She came up with this idea over a month ago, and I waited until the last minute to make her costume, figuring she would change her mind for sure, but she never did!  Today was her Halloween party at school.  She got to wear her costume all day today at school and then her party began at 11 am.

 I helped with her party, and I was exhausted by the end of it!  What a party!  The kids had a parade around the school building in their costumes, came back in the building and trick or treated to various locations around the building.  After that, they split into small groups and we hosted four different games for them.  In all, I had eight groups of three and four-year-olds to host a game with.  I was beat by the time I was done with that part!  :)  Of course the party ended with pizza and cupcakes!  It was a great party, and the kids had so much fun!

The parade begins...

Trick or treating!

Fall Pictures

I have really been itching to get a good picture of a the kids together.  I don't often head to the portrait studio these days with having my good camera (if only I could edit and take awesome pictures with it...).  Today was picture day at Katelynn's school, and a beautiful day outdoors.  So after school, I decided I was going to attempt to get some good shots of the kids while they played outdoors.  While I would have loved to get even better shots, I'm pretty pleased with what I got.  Now I just have to figure out how to edit them to look really awesome as an 8x10 shot!

The first three are my favorites of the two of them, and one of those ones will be what I use as an 8x10.