All Things Halloween!

There have been many Halloween celebrations this year!  I think we've gotten about as much fun out of it as possible!  Our first bit of fun was on October 26th.  It was a cold rainy day, but Ken took the girls to Orangeville.  Fiona and I stayed home for the morning fun, nice and dry!  There were several things planned in Orangeville for the annual fall fair and last day of the outdoor farmer's market.  The girls got their faces painted, decorated pumpkins and they did some trick or treating.  The haunted Dojo was a highlight!

After Orangeville it was a brief stop at home before heading out to Richmond Hill.  We crashed the trunk or treat party at the chapel.  The miserable weather brought everyone inside - so it was really a trick or treat down the halls to all the classrooms!

Here is my cute little cupcake!

Then it was over to the Plumbs for their annual Halloween Party.  I really meant to take more pictures... (and actually the first picture was stolen from a friend!)

Next up, pumpkin carving.  Not sure when we will start giving the girls knives?  So far their jobs have been to help clean the pumpkins and to tell Ken what to carve.  Kate decided that she wanted her pumpkin to look like her jack-o'-lantern bucket, and Alice wanted what her sister had. (And of course there had to be a snack of Halloween Oreos!)

Next up, Halloween DAY - Kate dressed to go to school!

There was a Halloween Parade for the Kindergarten students, but it was one of those morning that Alice would not be moved... so we didn't go.  We made our own garbage day fun instead! The garbage man (is there another name these days?) really did seem delighted to be presented with a bag of treats!

Next up, the grand finale!  It was raining, but not too cold.  Ken offered to take the girls around the first bit and then I was going to take over.  However I wimped out.  I sat on a folding chair by the front door and held the cupcake baby on my lap and gave out candy. 

Halloween was great.  Lots of fun, some good treats to enjoy, happy children all around!

Random Stuff

Kate's class (and all the classes in her school) decorated Scarecrows, which were then placed around town.  You were then supposed to donate to the food bank at each location.  We walked one day after school when Fiona was napping and Ken was home to go visit the Scarecrow.  We even took some cans!  This was October 23rd.

Fiona had her first jump in the Jolly Jumper on October 24th.  It was a little late I suppose because she wasn't really that impressed.  The expression on her face kind of sums it up!  (I also put Alice in and she loved it - sadly I only took video not a still.) 

Kate likes to put her Stuffies to bed.  Tonight's arrangement was by far her best work! This was October 27th. (UPDATE - the other day I mentioned to Kate that I thought it was cute the way she had put her stuffies to bed.  She informed me that they were not in sleeping formation, they were all sitting on the couch watching a show! This would be the live performance kind, as there isn't a tv in the front room.  Nov 18, 2013)

You know those moments when the kids are playing sweetly and they're quiet... and then you think, wait, it's too quiet.  Everyone has those moments.  I took this picture and then walked away.  Ken the sweet man that he is actually cleaned it up.  And by the time he got to cleaning it up the girls had added a few cups of flour.  This was today, Oct 30th.

And the henna tattoo.  When I got the tattoo, I was imagining that it would slowly fade away, and that it would fade away beautifully.  This picture was taken on Oct 7 when it looked beautiful.  It did however not stay looking beautiful.  Before it disappeared completely my hand looked like it was covered in age spots, somewhat unfortunate, but it was still fun!

Reptilia

Sometimes it seems like making plans is more difficult then it should be.  When Saturday is the only day to get together with another family, finding a free Saturday can sometimes be very challenging!  I'm so glad that everything worked out to get together with the Cohens!  I worked with Gayla at Blue Willow for several years.  We were both on leave with our first babies at the same time.  Gayla and Jeff picked up Jake in Russia in July of 2008, and of course Ken and I brought Kate home from the hospital in January of 2009.  Gayla and I have gotten our kids together a few times, but we missed our annual pool party at her parents house this summer.  It was a rainy, chilly day today and we had originally talked about visiting a farm or the zoo.  When we knew for sure the weather wasn't going to cooperate, we decided to visit Reptilia instead.

Ken and I have talked about taking the girls to Reptilia but we never actually did, until today.  It is an indoor reptile zoo.  There are lots and lots of snakes and lizards.  It's a good size and the animal enclosures are set up so that the kids can see everything at their eye level.  Kate and Alice enjoyed looking at the snakes but their favourite area was the little play area that had a sand pit, turtles you could feed and stuffed animals to play with. I forgot the real camera, so my phone pictures will have to do.  And quite on purpose, I did not take any pictures of snakes eating rats... we saw three different snakes being fed.  Kate and I had the same response, yuck!

After the fun of Reptilia we took all the kids to the play place at McDonald's.  Jake and Liam had never been to a play place at McDonald's.  To say that they enjoyed it, would be quite the understatement!  All the kids had fun playing together, and Jake told Kate that they would have to meet up and do this again soon!  CUTE!  Thanks for a fun day Cohen family!