Halloween goes on, and on, and on...

I'm all for holidays and all the excitement they bring for big and small alike. But I have to be honest, with Halloween falling on a Monday this year, we have had a LOT of pre-Halloween action. By the time we go trick-0r-treating on Monday night I will officially be DONE for the year on costumes, pumpkins, and the like. But it has been a lot of fun. We had Noah's preschool party on Thursday. He is the black spiderman this year. He asked for it, I found it for 3 bucks at the Cossitt clothing sale, no fuss no muss. The parents were invited in for the last 10 minutes to see the kids sing songs.Noah did great with the actions and faces, not so much with the singing. I played the part of the overbearing parent ever so well, whispering "sing, Noah, sing" through clenched teeth while videotaping. Awesome.
It was fun to see him part of a group. You can see there were 2 other spidermen there, but he was thrilled to be the only black spiderman.
Wrangling 17 preschoolers for a photo op is pretty much impossible.
On Friday we had a mini-costume party with the boys, Evie, and Ayla and Kyndal via skype. Sam was NOT a fan of the dragon costume for this portion.
Not sure if you can tell, but Noah is basically forcing the babies in for a photo. Sam is losing his mind while Evie is trying to escape. Classic.
Then Noah goes into Spiderman posing mode and the shoot is over.
It was really fun to see the girls in Iowa all decked out too. God bless technology!
Then today (Saturday) we headed to Palatine for some trick-or-treating at the farmer's market with Fred and Calvin and then to the park district party where Evie and Bob joined the crew. Sam handled the dragon much better today.
Competing delivery men. How cute are they?
Best buds, cheesy smiles, still cute at 3!
"What can brown do for you?"
The only girl we have... we have to borrow, but we'll take her!
Noah tries his luck at some toss games and manages to still look the part with leg kick and all...
We had a lot of fun in the gym with all the games and spooky cat archway.
While Noah hit the crafts with Aunt Philie, Sam went nuts in the little people gym. He got a little spider that he played with for a long time.
Check out my loot! I'm enjoying receiving better than delivering!
Whew, so maybe we'll take a break from costumes tomorrow so that we're ready again come Monday. Hope everyone else enjoys the fun!

Pumpkins R Us

We've been getting our fill of pumpkins around here! This weekend the boys and I headed up to the lakehouse while Mike headed to KC for a wedding. My parents and Josh and Tia went with us to the local pumpkin patch. Fun was had by all :)We have a picture of Noah and Bampa by this same pumpkin from 2 and 3 years ago, so fun to add to the memories with Sammy now!
You really notice the hair color difference when they are outside. The wagon ride lasted about 2 minutes, but it was still pretty cute.
They had a large pumpkin hallowed out for little people to pose in. Sammy thought he was hilarious and kept chuckling at himself.
Noah looks just THRILLED doesn't he. He was a bit tired of the posing at this point.
My lil pumpkin! Cuter than the rest, I think.
Bamma, whatever you do, don't let go of me!
Noah went on a pony ride with Bampa's help. After climbing off he told the local horse wrangler, "that was SO cool!"
Uncle Josh feeds the monster. I swear this kid will eat ALL day long despite his little peanut size.
Beautiful day with my boys! Nothing can be better!
Back at the house, Uncle Josh gets down to business...
Waiting for the big guts reveal with Tia... the anticipation builds...
Ewwwwwww!
Meanwhile, Sir Crankypants took up residence in the Baby Bjorn. How ridiculous is it that he still fits in it at 15 months?
The only artistic one present was Tia (otherwise it would have ended up with basic geometric shapes for eye/mouth) and she free handed this spooky masterpiece after a picture Noah and Josh found online.
Finished product with candle included...
Then we came back home for Pumpkins Part II with Daddy. You may remember his awesome Captain America from last year. Noah perused several super complicated designs online.
But then they came upon a classic. thunder, Thunder, THUNDER, THUNDERCATS, HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Pretty cool, eh?
So this afternoon Noah and I put out the pumpkin spread. Now to survive our first preschool Halloween party on Thursday! Happy Halloween!

Halloween Prep & Fun with the Mioni kids!

Whew, life with 2 boys doesn't seem to slow up much! We've instituted joint story/song time before bed with the boys. Previously, since they have slightly different bed times we were taking them into their rooms for song/story time separately. Now we're doing them all together as a family. It's been really fun and nice, besides who could pass up cute jammie time?After a recent trip to Halloween USA (aka Fred/Philie/Calvin/Stan's house), Noah astutely pointed out our lack of Halloween decor. A quick trip to Target rectified that and resulted in the purchase of fake teeth. Best $1 spent aside from all the drool on my couch.



We even found a costume for Ellie that she'll actually tolerate!
This weekend we had the Mioni cousins over to spend Sunday night/Monday morning. We took our first trip to Sonny Acres. This farm is only 20 min from our house and has rides, face painting, a petting zoo, pumpkins galore and lots of carnival food! We will definitely be making a trip back soon!
Mr. Big Nick himself...
Noah and Francesca try out the train. Nick ventured out for more fast/older kid rides.


Francesca rode a pony like a regular cow girl!
The 3 eldest got the face paint. Sammy we'll be ready next year I'm sure!
It was an awesome/beautiful/fun day! We highly recommend Sonny Acres in West Chicago for anyone looking for a fun time with kids. Entry is free, tickets for rides/attractions are $1 a piece and most things are 2-3 tickets. With 3 kids it was a bit pricey by the end of the day, but totally worth it!