Trunk or Treat

Our Sunday school class held our first annual Trunk or Treat on Sunday night. The kids were so excited about it! I sort of forgot about it and had to put something together quickly for our trunk, but it turned out ok. Hudson put about 1,000 spiders in the back. It sure was fun getting all of those off the spider web after it was over! :) He was a huge helper with decorating the trunk. He wanted it just so, and even added some of his own toys (snakes and rats!) to it at the end...his idea! We even had strobe lights with spooky Halloween sounds playing!

 

I don't think anyone knew that rain was in the forecast for Sunday night. It started drizzling the minute we got there and didn't stop. We still had fun though! It just didn't last very long, but that was ok too.

As you can see, our boys decided to dress up in different costumes on Sunday night. It was superhero night this time. Who knows what they will end up being on Halloween night! I think it's kind of fun changing things up a bit! Good thing we have several costumes hanging around the house!

 I had never been to a trunk or treat before. Some people went all out, some not, but everyone had candy and the kids caught on real quick and loved it! Even Harrison was all about going to each trunk and filling his bucket! Once again, they ate more candy than I can count, but this is the time of year that they can do that, right!?!? Next week, candy goes away (pretty sure Mom and Dad will have eaten it by then anyway!).

What a fun night! Can't wait for Halloween night tomorrow night!

Carving Pumpkins

One of the few things we had on the agenda on Saturday was to carve our pumpkins. Hudson loves getting all the seeds out and even Harrison got in on the action too! They loved having their own pumpkin and made sure to let us know whose pumpkin belonged to who! Harrison kept saying, "That pumpkin mines!"

 

 We don't do elaborate pumpkin faces in this house. It just takes too long. Triangle eyes are good enough for me! Wait, I should say good enough for Joel because he is our expert carver!

 I love these next two of Harrison. He was being such a silly boy!

 And then we had to go put them on the stairs and light them up! (and all I see in this picture is the fact that we REALLY need to pressure wash our front steps--geez they look horrid!)

More fun activities this week, starting last night with Trunk or Treat! Pictures to come eventually! We are making the most out of Halloween this year! If you don't hear from me until Thanksgiving, you know I am partied out! :)

Our Very Busy Fun Friday

We love fall and all the activities it brings! This month has been especially busy, however, this Friday took busy to an all new level! It was such a fun day though! It's just taken us the rest of the weekend to recover. :)

 

Hudson and I started the day with his class trip to the Grand Ole Pumpkin Patch in Clanton. The day was FRIGID, but not a cloud in the sky.  I forgot how fun the Clanton pumpkin patch is. Hudson loved it because there was so much for them to do.

 

They started with the big inflatable slides! The kids just loved it!

 

 Then, it was onto the petting zoo...

 And the pony rides...

 They also did the tractor train, but I didn't get a picture for some reason.

 Love this boy!

 We had lunch after the train and that was the most miserable part of the day. It was under a covered area and the wind was whipping through. We've never eaten so fast in all our lives!

After lunch was the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch, where Hudson went to the first pumpkin he saw and declared himself done!

 Class picture in front of the sunflowers!

 We got back home around 2:15 and at 3:30, we had Mama Jean's Halloween party at Somerby. The kids have always loved going to this each year and Mama Jean loves showing them off. Here they are in the photo booth! Too funny!

 Morgan and Harrison doing the cake walk! They ALL won a treat at the cake walk. That was a big hit.

 There was a balloon man and the boys got swords (shocker). Then, it was outside to the hay ride.

 Cutest cow and transformer I've ever seen! Morgan's costume was great too! She was a cat and it was adorable!

Straight from Mama Jean's, we grabbed a quick dinner at Chick-Fil-A before meeting the Bridges at Boo at the Zoo.

 The kids had so much fun! We love our zoo so much!

 We all loved the spooky train!

This might be my favorite picture of the night. Spiderman was there and Hudson was all excited about seeing him, but then freaked out at the last minute. Haines was scared of him too and I don't know if that got Hudson scared or what because he couldn't wait to get up to him and then he was all of a sudden scared to death! Ha! Maybe we aren't ready for Disney World after all!

 Joel decided he wanted a picture instead (and he is such a nerd doing the Spiderman sign too!)! This makes me laugh! You can tell that Harrison was terrified too!

 After that, we headed out. It was SO crowded and the kids had eaten so much candy it was not even funny. We didn't leave before having a long drawn out conversation with the talking pumpkin! These boys just keep us laughing all the time.

It was such a fun day and night, but boy were we glad to get in bed that night and thankful that we didn't have a whole lot planned for Saturday!

Church Picnic

Last Sunday afternoon after soccer, we headed to Camp Sumatanga for our church's picnic. It was the most beautiful day and a great way to spend the afternoon!

Silly time with Haines in the bouncy house!

They had all sorts of things set up for the kids to play with, all of it along the bank of the lake so it was the most beautiful setting!

 We took the world's longest hay ride...

 LOVE these kids!

 Trying to pass the time on the hay ride...seriously, it was 30 minutes long. And, it was cold!

 Sweet friends!

We had hamburgers/hot dogs for dinner and then did smores for dessert. It was so yummy! Then, we headed to the lake to fish. The rest of the group was all together and getting some super cute pictures of the kiddos fishing, and Joel took Hudson off to where no one was. I was so mad at him (I wanted the cute pictures--who cares about the fish!), but wouldn't you know that Joel caught a fish within 5 minutes of trying. It made Hudson's whole day!

 Hudson was a little bit scared to get too close to the fish, but he could not stop talking about it for several days after! He loved it and can't wait to go fishing again! Unfortunately, I think Joel set the bar high. Not sure he will be able to catch a fish within 5 minutes the next go round!

What a fun Sunday we had!!!

Old Baker Farm

Last Saturday, we braved the rain and went to Old Baker Farm. It's become a family tradition to visit a pumpkin patch each year (although Joel is not nearly as big of a fan of it as I am!). I love it though and so do the kids!

 

As many pretty days as we've had the past few weeks, the one day we plan to go the pumpkin patch is as ugly as can be. I guess the positive was that it wasn't that crowded!

 

Hudson has always loved riding the little tractors right when you walk in. Harrison loved them this year too even though his legs weren't quite long enough to pedal. 

 

I tried to get a cute one of them smiling by the pumpkins, but it just wasn't happening. This one was the best we could do. The reality of this picture is that Hudson is mad because he didn't want to get his pants dirty while sitting on wet hay, and Harrison was more interested in going to see the animals. Oh the things we do (we might have threatened!) to make them say "cheese" for one picture.

Harrison was all about the hay bale pyramid and wanted to climb to the top! My fearless child for sure. Hudson got up one level and wanted to get down immediately! To his credit, there was a civil war re-enactment going on, that included the firing of guns, that he was way more interested in.

 The token hay ride picture...

One of the reasons that we have always loved Old Baker Farm over the other ones is that it is way less commercialized, and it is a working farm. Normally, you pick your pumpkin right off the vine. However, what we heard this year was that all of the rain we had knocked out the pumpkin crop and so there weren't many this year. They had to buy them and put them in the patch. Which, would be fine if you didn't actually have to see the big truck in the patch throwing out pumpkins from big boxes...sort of took away from the experience for me! The boys obviously did not care one bit and loved picking out their own pumpkins! Much to Joel's dismay, we got our money's worth and made him carry four pumpkins out! Hey, we paid for it!

 "Boys, stand together and show me your pumpkins!" Geez, they followed directions! :)

I think these next couple of pictures are hilarious! I don't know why Hudson wanted to put the pumpkin on his head, but it makes me laugh!

Before we left, we had to do the corn maize. I love doing the corn maize. Joel hates the corn maize. Maybe that's why I like it so much! :) Once again, like last year, we got stuck in the middle and Hudson said he had to go to the bathroom. We actually let him pull the ole pants down in the middle of the maize and he then claimed he had to go #2. Not letting him do that in the patch! So, we maybe only cheated once and cut through a row of corn to make it out!

Celebratory picture showing we made it out! Oh and I failed to mention that it started pouring when we were in the middle of the maize! I can tell you that it was a very pleasant experience for the Reed fam! :)

Despite getting stuck in the maize in the rain, we really had a great time! I just love this time of year and all the "fall" things there are to do!

Hudson and I are headed to Clanton tomorrow with his class to do the pumpkin patch there! He is SO excited and I am too!!!