Halloween Fun - 2012

We had a fun Halloween -- in spite of the nasty stomach flu we got a few days before!  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays -- how can you go wrong with fun costumes and free candy??  LOVE IT! 

The week before Halloween, we took the boys to Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Patch in Irvine - and I am ashamed to say this was my first time going there after years of hearing rave reviews! It was beautiful - absolutely serene and I can't wait to go back. Who knew there was a hidden gem so close to us? We did the wagon ride around the farm, and then explored the corn maze. We will definitely go again next year! I'd love to take the boys to pick strawberries some time also...that would be really fun. 

The Kindergarten classes took a field trip to the pumpkin patch at Westminster High School, and it was quite disappointing!  Their pumpkin patch was quite bare, and the kids ended up picking pumpkins from a trailer instead of off the vine.  Oh well, Drew didn't seem to mind! 

This is the Kindergarten costume parade...he chose to wear his new fireman rainboots with a fireman jacket instead of the mummy costume, because that mummy costume is too tight to wear over your regular clothes.  The funny glasses/nose he's wearing were from the goody bags from his birthday party -- didn't you know that all firemen wear those??  LOL

The older boys were able to go to the Trunk-or-Treat at church on Saturday night (Aleks was sick that day), and then got to trick-or-treat again on Halloween night. Needless to say we have loads of candy left over! So I am making a special delivery to the bishop's office today -- I hope he will be happy for the donation!!! (It's about 8 lbs of candy!)

Drew was completely grossed out while cleaning the "guts" out of his pumpkin, and abandoned ship quite early -- so I finished it for him.  I personally love carving pumpkins, so I didn't mind.  This was the first year we bought Pumpkin Masters carving tools (actually I got them on clearance last year!) and I am kicking myself for not doing this sooner!  It seriously makes carving so much easier!  Jakob carved his own design - a Grim Reaper - all by himself! 

I had grand plans for us to all be garden gnomes -- but that idea didn't really fly with the kids...or Brad. :) So, I settled for a baby garden gnome - the Travelocity Roaming Gnome to be exact. Brad and I were going to dress up as a team from The Amazing Race - but he ended up working late that day and I knew we didn't have time to pull our costumes together -- plus Aleks absolutely HATED his hat/beard, so that was kind of a bummer, but at least I got a picture of him - it wouldn't have worked if I didn't have someone there to hold his hands so he couldn't rip the hat off! (Thanks Todd!)

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween too!