Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Trick or Treat


Seriously one of the best holidays ever! Gotta love Halloween and everything about it! The weather, the costumes, the parties, the pumpkins, hayrides, and who can forget the candy?!

Also making Halloween extra special this year was grandma and grandpa Darrington visiting from Idaho! We love having them here- and the kids love the extra attention, hugs and kisses and being spoiled. :)

Our kids (ok, and me too) love the idea of dressing up as a family. We decided to go with the theme of Peter Pan. Of course Bryce being Captain Hook since he is our Pirate man, Carter the main man, Peter Pan as he never slows down, has so much energy and moves about so fast it almost seems as if he really is flying... Who could be a more adorable Tinkerbell than little miss Aubryn leaving myself to be Wendy and Brady... hmmmm.... well we've got Smee or the Crocodile. We thought the crocodile was the best bet wearing all green and I would somehow make a snout or something and hang a timer/clock around his neck.... until I heard someone in Bryce's class doing the same theme and their dad going as Peter Pan's shadow. Easy and simple. Right down my alley and Brady's comfort level. Although I still think other trick or treaters were a bit concerned seeing a 6'5 man dressed in all black walking around the neighborhood... we got it. :)

To begin the day, we all went to Larriland Farm thinking we'd do the hayride, get cider, eat some apple fritters and pick some apples.... turns out...

With an early snow... apples weren't lookin so hot... pretty though right?


Brady with his three kiddos...


And Bryce did love making and throwing snowballs...


Watch out Grandpa!


I enjoyed being the one being pushed for a change... :)


Slim pickin's...


Good thing for Grandpa. He was determined... I was enjoying being pushed through the aisles of apples holding Aubryn, Carter pushing and Bryce throwing and eating snow... Grandpa walked up and down the apple orchard finding one or two here and one or two there until we got half a bag full...lol. At least we didn't leave empty handed. :)
Especially since pumpkins were so expensive! We decided after looking through them, to buy them at the grocery store closer to home. The boys were disappointed b/c they brought their dump trucks ready to find the perfect pumpkin... but I think they got over it and we were still able to have some fun.


It was our first year trick or treating in our new house as last year was Sunday. I wasn't sure how I'd like it as townhomes we got a lot of candy in a short amount of time as the houses were so close together. I seriously debated driving to our old house and trick or treating there. Turns our, it was great here! Still got more than enough candy and didn't feel so crowded and squished- kids could run around more. It was great! Oh, the kids had fun too.

Aubryn quickly got the hang of it! She mumbled her ick or eet and a-ooo (thank you) and toddled off to the next house. In fact, now that it's January and the boys still have a couple pieces left on the top of the fridge in their pumpkin buckets, she will point to it and say, "ween?" Or recently, "candy- ween?" Made an impact... :)


Our awesome cosutmes. I found my nightgown at the thrift store... although no one knew who I was... I think I totally look like her! Same color night gown, sash... come on now! At least our family knew as was excited about it... and of course no one got who/what Brady was. No, he is not a stalker... ;)

Arrrggg! Let's get goin mateys!


The trio!


Trick or Treat!


After gathering the loot, home again with the candy passer-outers.


Grandpa helping Carter find (or stealing) the best pieces... :)


Of course need to trick or treat and the Petersen Grandparents house and show off our cuteness!
Notice how in almost every picture Aubryn has a lollypop in her mouth? And no, it's not the same one... she must have had 6 or 7...
Maybe it was the candy high that led to this:


Aubryn trying out her wings...

All you need is faith, trust and pixie dust!

Gotcha!

Ok, maybe it takes faith, trust, pixie dust, laughter...

...and kisses!

Pirate Bryce's 5th Birthday!



Happy 5th Birthday Bryce!
Bryce is still loving pirates. We even did a mural painting on his wall of an island and "X" leading to the treasure. It's super cute. I'll have to post a picture of it.
He had about 14 friends (most from church and a few from preschool and a couple of friends from the neighborhood) over for a "pirate party" and it was so fun. The weather was unseasonable warm for October (yes, his birthday is Sept. but with soccer and other conflicts, the party was October).
The best part was the treasure hunt at the end leading them all over the house- inside and out finally to a clearing woods with Carter as "Pirate Pete" standing in the wagon trying to protect his treasure. The kids threw "cannonballs" at him, knocking him off his "ship" to get the treasure. Inside the treasure box was the kids treat bags with tatoos, silly bandz, candy, necklaces, rings, gold chocolate coins and silver bubble gum coins.

ARRRRGGGGHHHH!


I went out of my comfort zone this year and made a super cool cake if I do say so myself. It was awesome! Best part was that Bryce thought it was aweomse too. :)



Aubryn was part of the clean-up crew eating left over cake and ice cream off guests plates... not to mention the top of the ice cream containers lid. Those little pirates better have a firm hold on their treasure with this little one around!