Halloween and November Activities

I don't know why I have such a hard time keeping up with this blog but I will try to do better.  Here are some pictures from Halloween and the month of November.

Here the kids are ready to trick or treat on Halloween.  Jack as our dragon.  Garrett as our friendly neighborhood Spiderman.  Nikki as our purple witch.

The first week in November I had my grandparents come over and help me make some applesauce and apple pie filling.  So yummy!

I got Jack some new pjs.  I had meant to save it for Christmas but I decided not to wait.  He'll get his Buzz pjs for Christmas but for now I let him wear his Woody pjs.  And he loves it!

He's showing off his pjs by sticking out his tummy.

Nikki had Fall/Holiday concert.  Her class did one song with their recorders.  The bleachers were jammed packed full of audience!

Nikki is at the top with the white bow in her hair.  It was such a fun show to watch.  She has had a different music teacher every year I think this one is the best so far.  And he says he's here to stay until he retires, about 9 years.

Garrett and I spent an afternoon baking together. 

I even let him roll one loaf by himself.  He enjoyed that a lot!

And here's his finished loaf.  We usually snack on a loaf right after baking them so we snacked on this one ;)  He did a pretty good job!  We made 4 loaves of wheat bread and 2 loaves of zucchini bread.

That same day we baked bread we also went to the city Christmas tree lighting celebration for our FHE.  We invited my parents to join us and it was a lot of fun!

Jack had it easy, being pushed around in a stroller.

And there it is!  It stands about 40 ft tall AFTER cutting 20 feet off because it was too tall.  It was donated by a resident who planted it about 42 years ago in their yard.

It was so tall we could kneel underneath to get pictures.  Some kids could walk underneath.

Some of the businesses had some fun things going on.  Inside the art store they had "Santa's reindeer", which were two llamas.  They even let the kids pet them.

Garrett was trying to pet him but couldn't get his fingers through the fence.

There's the antlers!

The old theater handed out hot chocolate and cookies!

Then we walked down to the museum.

All aboard!!

On our way back to the car Nikki wanted another picture in front of the tree.  By then most people were gone.  Afterward we drove over to my dad's where we shared a loaf of the zucchini bread that Garrett and I baked earlier that day.  And we watched the Shrek Christmas movie.  It was a fun evening and great kick off to the Christmas season!

An Evening at Linder Farms

Yay!  It's finally that time of year for going to Linder Farms!  There are so many things to do and not enough time...or money..to do them all.  So we stuck to doing mostly the free with admission stuff.

We started with the straw bale maze.  The kids loved running through that one.

Here's the start of our journey in the small corn maze.  Nikki got nervous as soon as the entrance was out of sight.

The kids loved having their grandparents (my parents) there to share the fun! 

Now we are in the medium size maze.  Hmmm...which way do we go?

Jack looks a little worried that we might not find our way out.

But we did!  Thanks to the handy maps they hand out to you at the gate.  We would have been LOST without them!  Now that we made it to the end Nikki thought it was fun.  Several times she wanted to turn around and go back because she was scared.

Back to playing on the straw maze.

The kids discovered a little hole in the straw so we had each of them poke their heads through to get a picture.  If you're wondering why he has a blue mustache, we bleed blue in our family...BRONCO BLUE!...  Actually, it was his yummy blue Gatorade his friend gave him earlier that day.  He liked the stache' and didn't want me to wash it off.  So cute!

Nikki's turn.

Last but certainly not least, Jack!

Now off to the tractor tire playground where they had all kinds of tires to climb on.

Part of the playground was this hay stack.

Garrett climbed up to the top too...with a little help from mommy.

At the top of the haystack with my sweet girl.  I love that I was in so many pictures this time thanks to Laverne!

My little pumpkin!

I'm always hauling them around, lol!  And Farmer Tony up above to make sure no one falls off!

She fits just right in that tractor!

Garrett too!

Now for some fun in the corn box making corn angels!

Watch out, you might get some up your nose Jack!  Don't worry, it came out.  Such a funny picture though!

After the corn box we hopped on the hay ride and took a ride around the corn fields and pumpkin patch and back to the farm.  The kids got back in the corn box to play while my dad and I got in line to get some delicious melt in your mouth mini donuts.

I waited all year for these!!  So yummy!!!

Yep, they're mini all right.  They fit in her mouth!

Had to get a family picture on the hay stack.

Farmer Garrett

Farmer Nikki

Last but not least, the kids talked me into letting them go on the swing ride.  Last year, Jack wasn't sure he liked this ride.  This year he LOVED it!  As soon as the ride was done he said "I want to do it again Mom!".

It was a great evening to spend as a family and counted as our FHE for this week.  We were all so glad that my parents could join us for the fun!  We only wish that Daddy could have been there too!