HALLOWEEN FESTIVITIES

Halloween was as crazy and exciting as ever this year! We had our annual Pumpkin carving contest on Wednesday night while we were waiting for Grandma and Grandpa Smith to arrive. Man, these kids get into it! This was the first year Ben gutted his own pumpkin so that was a big hit. And he came up with an intraquite design for Chris to cut out, too.....

Olivia worked feverishly to creat her design on paper while Nick managed the scene and made sure his dad was doing all the work on his pumpkin.

We had a blast. Grandma and Grandpa arrived just in time for the lighting ceremony and to judge our creations. Guess what?! All the pumpkins were winners this year cuz Grandparents are like that....

Grandma Jen brought jammies for each of them and cute reading headlamps for the boys. So stinkin cute! (Well, cute until a frantic spotlight zoomed into my room at 4am the next morning, nearly blinding me while requesting a bowl of cereal...I kindly insisted he turn off his headlamp...)

All three kids had classroom parties that were really fun. Chris and I went to the big kids' parties last week and I went to Ben's on Thursday afternoon. It was the first time I have been in his class this year and he loved having me there. He held my hand everywhere we went and kept turning around for kisses in between whatever activity he was doing. LOVED IT! All of them had Friday off so we decorated some fun Halloween cookies with Grandma Jen.

Thank you, Nick....

Ben's cookie are frosted on both sides...

Friday night was our Church's Chili cook-off and Trunk-or-Treat...

Two tough KC Chiefs

Dad in his crazy "Ute" fan costume

Mom...nice fitted pumpkin t-shirt

The sweetest devil ever

And then there was Trick-or-Treating the neighborhood......

Nick's best friend, Drew, walked with our family

Liv saw two classmates on the street

Checking out their goods

Ben's "circle of candy"

Please note that his circle of candy is composed of individual
piles of candy sorted by brand...

After picking up hundreds of candy wrappers scattered all over the house, I told the kids they had exactly three days to make their candy vanish. Sure enough, the night of the deadline, only a few less than desirable pieces of candy remained. The week-long sugar high is officially over!