Halloween 2014

Halloween seems to have become a two week event with all of the related activities.  First for us this year was to attend Carve for the Carillon.  Anyone in Springfield is invited to help carve 2014 pumpkins - pumpkins are provided and seeded, and you provide the tools and inspiration.  It was a beautiful day and there were many families scattered over Washington Park carving.

Ethan's finished pumpkin design.

And Olivia's finished pumpkin.

Once you carve the pumpkins, they are stored in refrigerated semi trucks until the next weekend.  Then the goal is to find your carved pumpkins in the dark!

Ethan and Olivia at Jack Spectacular.  This is where the 2014 carved  and lighted pumpkins are arranged around Washington Park.  This has become my favorite Springfield event.

We first found Olivia's pumpkin about 2/3 of the way through the event.  She was beyond excited to see it!

Ethan's pumpkin was one of the last ones that we saw!  He was trying to remain optimistic, but he was pretty worried until we found it!

Pumpkin carving!  Olivia carved her own pumpkin this year, while Ethan just directed me.

Olivia's final result - a winking pumpkin.

And Ethan's cross eyed pumpkin.

Ethan (dressed as Starlord) and Olivia (dressed as a medieval sorceress) at the Illini Country Club Halloween party.

Olivia walking her poodle balloon animal.

Ethan and his pumpkin bowling.

Starlord eating chicken fingers.

A new event for us this year was to attend our church's Trunk or Treat.  There were 35 cars with their trunks extremely well decorated passing out treats to the kids.  We could have just attended this event and the kids would have had more than enough candy to satisfy them!

Our Halloween night begins with a jack o'lantern pizza.

Starlord ready to brave the freezing cold.

And our medieval sorceress ready to trick or treat.

After 75 minutes of trick or treating, their treat bags were overflowing.  Joe had to put candy into his coat pockets to hold it all!  Our tradition is to then dump the candy out on the floor and let the kids (and mom and dad!) eat all that they want on Halloween night while watching It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.  After tonight the candy is rationed.

Fall Family Fun

I say this every year, but life speeds up in the months of September - December.  So many fun festivals, events, and holidays to attend!  Here is a quick look at what we have been up to for fall:

Ethan and Olivia playing with cousin Nathan at a Labor Day party.  Sprinklers are a huge hit for any age!

Nathan and Ethan - it was monkey see monkey do all party!

Olivia and Ethan at our final Cardinals game of the year.

Olivia, as always, striking a serious pose.

Ethan proudly showing off his ball that Yadier Molina threw to him.

Olivia and friend Ava watching Ethan's coach pitch baseball game.

Ethan ready to field a hit.

Ethan with a big hit!

At the end of this game, siblings also joined in on a little scrimmage.  Olivia did pretty well with hitting.

Another yearly family tradition - Broom's Apple Festival.  We like this festival since they are so laid back about the kids picking the apples and also eating all that you want for free while in the orchard.

This year the apples were so large that it took no time at all to fill our two bags.

Ethan wanted us to make an apple heart.

From apples to pumpkin picking.  I have a bit of a pumpkin obsession, so we require two large wagons to hold all that we pick.  I would like to increase it to three wagons, but I am out-voted.

A perfect question mark pumpkin.

Ethan doing a meerkat impression in the pumpkin patch.

Olivia and Ethan in the giant pumpkin section.

Our haul this year.

Olivia and Ethan at the Marsh Elementary Family Reading "Knight".

Ethan is still playing soccer in the YMCA league.  He is #1 with the green and black hat.  Ethan does a great job as a defender.  Unfortunately, Olivia's soccer team made the move to become a traveling team and we did not have an interest in devoting that much time to her soccer, so her soccer days ended last spring.

Ethan enjoying Lincoln Memorial Gardens on a recent school field trip.