Above is my attempt to get a picture of the kids in their Halloween shirts before we went to pick out our pumpkins. On the way we had to stop by the store to pick up some snacks for a youth activity that John had to go to later that day. I had to take a picture since Tori and James were having so much fun sitting next to each other in the car-cart, it was really cute and fun.

Here are Tori and James enjoying their pizza in the car on the way to the pumpkin patch. James was having fun, but wasn't quite able to finish his pizza before he fell asleep.

Below John, Tori and James at the pumpkin patch. We tried to get some more pictures of the pumpkins, but our camera stopped working so this was the last picture it would take that day.

These are pictures of Tori at her class Halloween party. They also had a parade in their costumes in the gym that we got to watch. I tried to video tape it, but I must have pushed the wrong button or something because it didn't record what I wanted. (I don't sound that technologically smart in this post, do I? Usually, I'm not this unlucky.) Tori had a ton of fun and loved wearing her costume and the funny teeth and eyes she got from one of the kids in her class.

And this is it for Halloween pictures. These are of John and the kids on Halloween. Tori, as always, loved carving her pumpkin and had been asking me to do it since we bought them. She was actually able to do most of the carving herself this year, which was very fun for her. She even helped with James' tiny pumpkin you can see sitting on top of John's. It was a really nice Halloween and we were lucky that the weather was pretty pleasant, also.

Halloween Dance Class

Tori's dance class did a tap and ballet routine for Halloween in their costumes and parents got to come in and watch. Below is the video - she just loves to dance, especially in a big fancy costume.

Halloween Party

Medical Partners (the medical spouse organization) has a fun Halloween party at the hospital that we love to go to every year. Tori decided to be Belle this year (it's the one princess dress-up she has that she hasn't gone trick or treating in, yet). It's a good thing Disney keeps making movies since we're running out of princesses ;). James didn't really have a choice - he got to be a chicken (what Tori was a few years ago).

I think one of James' favorite parts of the party was that I gave him a whole slice of pizza to eat all by himself instead of cutting it up for him. He also loved dancing to the music playing while covered in his pizza sauce. I tried to capture some of it in the video below, but of course he stops dancing once I start taping - I got him to do a little, though. Sorry about the end of the video, our camera is pretty much almost dead.

Here is our beautiful Belle doing many poses for the camera. Tori loved running around with her friends, coloring, and eating the fun candy and sugar cookies.

James loved running all over the room trying to grab anything he could.

I finally gave up and let him have his first sucker. He loved it! However, on the way home I had a very sticky chicken.

Pumpkin Patches

We decided to visit a new pumpkin patch this year that we heard was really fun. The kids loved it, but we didn't last too long because the day we could go just happened to be a 90 degree day in the middle of October. You can tell the heat is starting to get to them in the picture below.

This place a ton of fun things especially for kids Tori's age. They had two very large corn mazes (one smaller for kids, which is the one we did), they had a barrel train pulled by a tractor, peddle go-karts, a large jumping pillow and a bunch of pumpkins all pictured below. We also watched pig races, played in a corn sand box, climbed on a tire playground, and went through a haunted house. We didn't realize it was a haunted house - it was just called the curtain house and Tori really wanted go in, so we tried it out. We went through some dark rooms and a maze of curtains and all was fine until we turned a corner and there were gross heads hanging from the ceiling. Tori screamed bloody-murder. She calmed down really quickly when I told her to look down and that it was all pretend, but we made sure to get out of there fast. I guess it wasn't too horrible because later she asked to go in again (we didn't). We also decided not to get pumpkins since it was pretty early in the month, so we did that another day. Overall, it was a very fun, though a little tiring, day.

The Last Halloween Post

How many Halloween/Fall posts does one blog need?! These are our pictures from Halloween night. Above are all our pumpkins (John carved the vampire pumpkin in his research lab for a pumpkin carving contest between two different laboratories - John's won the contest!). Below Tori is all ready to go out Trick or Treating.

Above - Tori and friend, Cooper, ringing doorbells.

Below - James, Dad and Tori out getting candy.

James did surprisingly well for his first Halloween. I'm not sure how much he liked the lobster costume, but he did fall asleep about half-way through Trick or Treating. When we were all done James was thrilled to get home and take off his costume. It was pretty cold outside so I was thankful for the toasty-warm lobster get-up.

Below - Tori after Dad helped her organize her candy and James just hanging out and watching the show.

Carving Pumpkins and More Halloween Parties

Above Tori is helping James hold the tiny little pumpkin she picked out for him at the pumpkin patch. I love the way they smile at each other, just too cute! Below are the finished pumpkins - The haunted mansion was picked out by Tori and carved by John, the pumpkin with ears was actually carved earlier at a lab Halloween party by John and Tori and then the little pumpkin was drawn by Tori and I helped her actually carve her drawing.

Below are a few pictures of Tori at her preschool Halloween party. She is on the floor pretending to be a real mermaid because apparently her friends kept telling her that she couldn't walk if she was a mermaid.



Above they are doing the Halloween hokie-pokie.

This picture is from the ENT Halloween party. It was fun to see a bunch of the other residents and their kids all dressed up.

Pumpkin Fun

We had a lot of fun this Halloween. Above Tori is helping me frost ghost, bat and pumpkin sugar cookies (She is such a great help in the kitchen - she loves to help me cook anything, especially desserts. The nice thing is that she has gotten so big that now she actually really is a help in the kitchen.).

Here are a few pictures of us picking our pumpkins. Tori loves to do this and insists on carrying her pumpkin all around.

I loved their little faces in the pumpkins!

Medical Partners Halloween Party

Medical Partners had another fun Halloween party this year. I just really enjoy having another excuse to get the kids all dressed up in their costumes. Above is our little mermaid enjoying pizza and below is James as a lobster (the same costume Tori wore her 1st Halloween).

Above: Claire, Megan, Tori, Hannah, and Anne.
Below: Megan, Anne and Tori