Halloween Party at School

I loaded up the kids and took them to Josh's Halloween party at school. The parents always have such fun games every year. 

There was a race involving taking eyeballs out of a bowl, going around a ghost, putting the eyeballs in another bowl and finally throwing them into a stack of boxes.

This one was really cute. The kids put stockings on their heads with a pumpkin in the bottom and knocked over bottles. 

Then they had a sucker decorating station and snack station. Patrick and Daniel got to participate in these. 

After the games were done we walked over to Daniel's classroom so he could participate in the morning parade. 

When his class was done, they got to watch the rest of the school in the parade. 

Patrick liked seeing all the costumes.

Happy Halloween!

Trick-or-Treat Street at the local High School

This year we went to the local high school's trick-or-treat street. It was great.

They had games set up on one end of a long hallway where the kids got to play and get candy.

Then they had decorated all the rest of the hallways for halloween and had students handing out candy. 

It was pretty neat.

Patrick loved it. He even figured it out about halfway through. He started the evening holding onto the candy they gave him. Then he figured out to put it in his basket so he could get more. It was really cute.

End of football season party

Daniel's football team had an end of the season party at a local restaurant. It was pretty fun to see everyone outside of practice and games. 

Daddy got stuck at the kids table.

Daniel's coach said some very nice things about Daniel being the comedy of the team. I was impressed with his speech because Daniel spent the whole season whining and spinning on the field. He was a great coach. He was very patient with the kids and even took time to teach Daniel to continue running and not just fall over when he runs into another player.

He also got a trophy. He was pretty excited. 

One of the moms brought Broncos cupcakes for the boys that had bright blue frosting. We all thought this was pretty funny, until the next day with the frosting made a second appearance in Patrick's diaper. Really gross!

Thanks for a great season, Sharks!

Carving Pumpkins

The boys really got into it this year. Josh did his all by himself. 

He cleaned it...

...designed and carved it by himself. 

Daniel designed it and carved some of his.

This is as close as Patrick got to his.

Josh's

Daniel's

Patrick's (designed and carved by mom)

Unfortunately, they did not survive to Halloween due to a bunny infestation and mold. Good thing I got photos right when they were finished.

Halloween Brownies

It's full on into fall break and I thought today would be a good day to make a special dessert. Daniel and I found Halloween chocolate chips at the grocery store and they had a recipe for Halloween Brownies on them (really just regular brownies with orange frosting). I thought it would be a good way to keep the boys occupied for an after noon. 

Daniel has been helping me a lot with the cooking and Josh is getting older so I decided to let them make the brownies themselves. All by themselves. I was just on hand for assistance. They got out all the ingredients, read the directions, measured everything, and stirred the batter. 

I helped dump the batter into the pan and turned on the oven. 

I think they did a pretty good job. And they taste pretty good, too.

Pumpkin Patch

One of our outings this year in MOPs was to take the kids to the local pumpkin patch. We went on a Wednesday morning so Josh was at school but I think the other boys had a lot of fun. 

We started with the corn pool. Daniel immediately laid down and asked to be buried. 

I don't know if Patrick really liked the unstable ground. 

It also had a petting zoo with llamas,

a turkey, 

bunnies, goats, and baby chicks. The kids got to pet almost all of the animals, including the turkey's head. 

They also had some swings set up. 

And a bouncy obstacle course. Patrick liked being bounced on this with his buddy.

Then Daniel ran through the hay maze before we headed into the big corn maze (no photos).

They also had a snake maze that was pretty cool and long. Daniel loved leading the way.

We ended the day with a hay ride around the farm. 

It was a nice day and a great way to spend a Wednesday.

Firetruck at school

At preschool, Daniel is discussing community helpers. As part of this unit, the teachers arranged a firetruck to come visit the school. It was in the morning and Daniel goes to school in the afternoons so we made a special trip to see it. The preschoolers got to go inside to see a presentation by the firemen while the moms (and siblings) waited outside. This gave the little ones a chance to see the firetruck up close before it was invaded by preschoolers.

The firemen talked a little bit about the truck and then gave the kids a tour.

They even got to walk through it. Daniel thought that was pretty cool.

Here is a group shot of all the kids.

Then the firetruck had to leave. It left with its lights and sirens on. It was a fun outing. When the teacher asked who was going to be a fireman when they grew up, almost all the kids raised their hands. Daniel, however, did not saying "I'm going to be a police officer." That's a change from last year.