Fall Fun

 Pumpkins

We bought and decorated pumpkins this week on Tuesday knowing they should last a week now that it is colder outside. I didn't want to carve the girls like I did last year because carving one is hard enough on my hand so I let them do paint. Chris carved a ghost, I carved Totoro, Claire painted Jasmine, Aladdin, and Abu, and Shay painted pretty colors. We haven't had them lit up at night because we are saving the candles for Halloween night, but we think they turned out great. Claire and Shay had a lot of fun and wanted to get more pumpkins to paint again, and Claire has even planned next year's painting to be Rapunzel themed.

Trunk or Treat

Our ward Trunk or Treat and carnival was Wednesday night. There were tons of games the girls got to play to earn little toys or treats, plus face painting and Halloween temporary Tattoos. It was fun to see all the costumes and trunks that people decorated and get to know more members of our ward better. Chris and I dressed up as some Monster's Inc. characters and Claire joined us as the little girl 'Boo', but Shay did her own thing and was Catboy. I hand-made the shirt for Chris to be Sully, my hat to be Celia, and my little baby bump was Mike, but somehow I forgot to get a picture of us all dressed up. We will be doing the same costume when we take the girls out for Trick or Treating this week so you'll see it next week!  The face paint even stayed on the next day when Claire dressed in Halloween PJs and I put a pumpkin bun in her hair for school and Shay joined me at the dentist. She had fun with their little arcade games and showing off her butterfly paint and witch tattoo.

Corn Maze

On Saturday, we went to a farm that had a lot of activities including a corn maze, animals to see, a zipline, a barrel train, a hayride, peddle carts, and a bouncy blow-up jumper. With so many things to do at a really good price, we had a blast and plan to visit in the future! The only complaint was that the corn maze map and checkpoints were all QR scanning and on a phone which wasn't easy with only 1 bar of service for it all so we wandered around instead of finding each checkpoint. They had this mini maze that the girls could figure out how to get through in less than 5 minutes and then we all did it together to read the trivia questions before the mighty maze! The animals weren't for petting exactly, but we got to see them and read the jokes that were posted about them. We all really enjoyed the car racing the most and the girls said their favorite was the zipline. The almost 3 hours we spent there wore us all out and Shay was cranky from her short nap in the car, but our day wasn't even over!

Party

There was a neighborhood Costume Halloween Party that we were invited to Saturday evening that filled the rest of the day. Claire dressed up as a mermaid, and Shay was Supergirl. Since I hadn't planned matching outfits with them, Chris and I didn't dress up, but honestly it was because I was tired from the corn maze and didn't want to change clothes. Not many other adults dressed up so I feel good about the decision even if it was mostly because I was lazy. The hosts had made a ton of fun Halloween themed food and there was pizza, a bouncy house, and plenty of talking to meet everyone. I can say I don't remember many names, but now that I know faces and got to know where people have moved from it will be nice to wave to people around the neighborhood. We have a lot of California neighbors living here! As we were getting ready to leave the girls go little goodie bags and opened them immediately to play with the fun things inside of course and wanted to see what the crazy eyes looked like. There were Jack Skeleton decorations that sang and danced that the girls were excited about especially since we had just had a movie night with it on Friday.