Happy Halloween!

Just thought I'd give everyone a little re-cap of our Halloween festivities this weekend! It started on Friday night with a neighborhood Halloween party featuring the band, Mind the Gap. Todd and I went as Brett and Deanna Favre - picture a purple Favre Jersey for Todd with Green Bay and Vikings symbols. For me, picture a pink Favre jersey, also with Green Bay and Vikings symbols, with the breast cancer ribbon in rhinestones on the sleeves. Sorry, no pictures :(

This afternoon, we had another party at our neighbors'. They do a party every year, starting after naptime and wrapping up in time to start trick-or-treating. It always involves hot dogs and beer and a lot of kids running around. This year was no different!



Most of the kiddos - princesses, Superman, a dog, a soccer player, Taylor Swift, and the list goes on!



Being entertained by a vampire so that they'd all look at the cameras!



They had "tractor" rides - really just a chance to climb on Paul's 4 wheeler



Brett and our neighbor's son, Evan, sharing some chips



Eating, playing, coloring pumpkins... but mostly NOT eating!



See? Coloring pumpkins is MUCH more important than eating dinner!



Getting ready to head off to trick-or-treat... the trailer filled with a few adults, a lot of kids, and the keg, being pulled by the 4 wheeler driven by a vampire. Classic.



All aboard!



I knew Kate would NOT like the trailer... she went along in the wagon. She actually loved it, despite how she looks in this picture!



It's hard to see here, but there is an adult at the front of this swarm of kids; I'm in the middle of the swarm, and there are more adults in the back of the swarm. Somebody had to watch the keg, right?!



The end result of our pumpkins... Kate chose a "Ghost Castle"



and Brett chose Lightning McQueen. Shocked. I know.

Our partying doesn't stop there, though! Tomorrow we're having everyone over to watch Packers vs. Vikings, round 2. This partying sure is a lot of fun, but I'm worn out!!

Pumpkin Carving

Parade day, take 2

The cool thing about Brett being in 2 classes this year is that he gets to do fun things, like Halloween parades, two days in a row! So, here is his Tuesday/Thursday class at their costume parade! Don't they all look cute?! Love it!

Parade Day!

Today was the annual Halloween Parade at the preschool. Basically, we bring the kids in their costumes, they make a lap around outside while all of the parents take a gazillion pictures, and then they go back to their class and the parents go home. That's the way it is supposed to go...




We started the day with a picture of our ECU victory gear!



Then we put our costumes on over our ECU gear. Brett is Superman and Kate is Tinkerbell, but she'll tell you that she's a butterfly.



We got to the school and took a few pictures in the hallway while we were waiting for the classrooms to open. This is Kate with her friend, Matthew. Apparently, Matthew kissed Kate's chin on at least one occassion. Brett remembers this and told Matthew this morning not to kiss Kate's chin because she has germs. Got to love big brothers!



This is another one of Kate's friends, Logan. He was Scooby-Doo! Logan's birthday party is a BIG reason why Kate no longer cries at school drop off!



This is Brett's class on their parade... nice, quiet, in a line. They are 3 and 4 year olds.



This is about 1/3 of Kate's class - chaos in full swing, teary eyes. They are mostly 2 year olds, with a few 3's. BIG difference! Brett's class last year was almost completely in tears by the end of the parade!



Pretty impressive - 9 boys, 3 girls, and 2 teachers, all sitting getting their pictures taken. What you don't see here is that Matthew's wing is apparently bothering Kate, and she went into the most pitiful pouty-lip face that you've ever seen. Then the tears slowly started, and, well, you can guess how it went from there!! It's a good thing that Kate's so light because she gets held, a LOT!



Again, Brett's class - see the difference?! I love all of the costumes!! They all look so cute!

Being the room mom for Kate's class, I helped stuff all of the goody bags, which sent Kate into a tailspin because she saw me in the hallway, but couldn't come to me in the hallway. Then, after the parade, I went back to the class to help get the kids out of costumes. She was pretty much fine with that, until I had to leave. Luckily, they were painting pumpkins after that and she got distracted :)

As I went down the hall, I saw one of Brett's teachers struggling with getting costumes into their blue bags, so I volunteered to help those kids get out of costumes too. They had some serious costumes - most of them required full wardrobe changes. Try explaining to a 3 year old why she should wear her sneakers with her play clothes and not her pretty princess shoes, especially when it's not your child! Haha!

What a fun day!!

After school and naps and all that good stuff, we carved pumpkins, but more on that later!

End of Season Picnic

Saturday was Brett's last soccer game. Thankfully, the weather held off and the kids got to play their last game. Then, they had a picnic and reward ceremony. Kate and I missed it since she was sick and probably highly contagious!

4 Girls and a Brett

On Friday morning, our friends, the Craters, came over to play and run around and take advantage of a beautiful day outside. Their oldest daughter, Allyson, and Brett went camping together (with the dads) a few weeks ago, so it was fun to see them reconnect. The kids are still very much so in that "I'll play beside you, but not with you" stage, but Ally and Brett are starting to play together more. They were going to hunt for a green monster or bear or something. They wanted to go into the woods - I convinced them that the area around the fire pit would be a little safer for the younger crowd!















We were way impressed that we got 5 kids sitting at one table, eating lunch at the same time!

Soon after lunch, they headed home and we headed inside, which is when I realized that Kate's slightly runny nose from the morning and turned into nasty thick congestion and a 102 fever. Lovely. After a trip to the pediatrician, it was assumed that Kate had H1N1. Her flu test was negative, but her symptoms were classic flu-like symptoms. She had her seasonal flu shot a month ago, so it *shouldn't* be seasonal flu. After a few rough days and a few really bad nights, she is all good again! We're praying that we didn't infect our friends!!!

Do you remember?

Do you remember what you did two weeks ago? Well, we're catching up on some missing pictures from about 2 weeks ago! Grandma & Grandpa came in to town for a very quick visit. We still had an action-packed few days with them, though! It started with grandma opening her birthday presents. Of course, you know who wanted to help!







Like any other Saturday, Brett had a game. Apparently, Grandma & Grandpa brought their crazy Illinois weather with them because it was COLD! I mean, low 40's and windy. I was not a fan. Brett didn't seem to mind though!





This kid, Carter, definitely laid himself down in the middle of the field during the game. So, what did Brett do? He and the other kids went over to tickle Carter until he got up!

After Brett's game, we ran home, ate lunch, got cleaned up, and loaded back into the car to drive to Mount Olive College in Mount Olive, North Carolina - home of Mt. Olive pickles. Renee's girls had a game there that afternoon. It's usually a tough game, but Renee's girls won, 2-1, in a very exciting game! Kate was more excited about the large puppy sitting next to us!









Last, but not least, the final picture before Grandma & Grandpa leave...

Pure (chilly) joy

We have an annual tradition - Sunday morning at the State Fair. Usually the weather is beautiful in mid-October in North Carolina. This year, it was drizzly, misty, cloudy, windy, and in the low 40's, but that didn't stop us! We had a few more layers than usual, but the show still went on! Memere, Poppy, and Aunt Dithy all tagged along too - there's just something fun and exciting about seeing the kids' faces light up at all of the fun fair exhibits, rides, food, etc.

The kids were really excited about the animals, especially Kate. She wanted to see the sheep. Nothing else. Just sheep. Brett wanted to see a monkey. We had to explain that the fair and the zoo are not the same thing. He eventually got it, or was too distracted to care. I'm not sure which!

Last year, Brett had to be sort of coaxed on a few rides, and that was about all he wanted to do with them. Kate wanted to go last year, but was too little. Brett is usually a fairly cautious kid, so I wasn't sure how he was going to react to the rides and stuff this year. He LOVED them! He couldn't get enough of them! Kate, on the other hand, was absolutely petrified... whole body shaking, bottom lip out, tears rolling down her face, petrified! Instead, Todd won her a small Nemo (from "Finding Nemo" movie) and that completely made her entire day!