The Big Spook...

Well did y'all survive that marathon of a weekend?  Sheesh… by the time all the Preschool parties, Kindergarten parades, family parties, AND trick-or-treating was all said and done, I was officially ready to nap my way through half of November.  Kidding.  Kind of.

On the plus side, it made for some great time together with the kiddos soaking in the magic of another holiday in the form of "mummy dogs" & over-frosted sugar cookies.

Let's begin with the carving of the gourds, shall we?  It is my most loathed of all the Halloween traditions, but I play along because it seems to not be dropping off the proverbial holiday checklist any time soon.  And so… I draw, the boys "gut", and Ryno carves.  It's a symbiotic relationship.

And then we had a jack-o-lantern pizza and some root beer served over dry ice.

Holy Dry Ice!

These boys were completely mystified as it smoked and gurgled and Ryno filled their heads with "strange ingredients" he had used to create their brew!  Ryno nearly gave them a heart attack when he stuck his hand down in the "fog" and pretended that the creature from the dark abyss was attacking him.  I mean, seriously… their little faces!  They were so concerned for their Daddy-o and then they burst into giggles and mimicked that stellar move for the next ten minutes!  Ha Ha

After soccer games and visits from Grandma & Grandpa it was FINALLY time to go trick-or-treating.

Cousin Zane joined my dark lords and my little wookie to canvas the neighborhood.

They made out like bandits and came home totally wiped out.

Ace Face said to his mama, "I fink I just need a bath and bedtime, Mom."  I was all kinds of heart eyes at that little proclamation.

The next morning they all woke up an hour too early (thanks Daylight Savings time) AND a little croupy, but they dutifully got to work sorting their buckets full of goodies.  Kael gave us his "rejects" like a semi-sweet little lad, and Ryno collected a candy tax or two from Dax and Ace.

And now… Happy November!

Wait, What?!

Holy Moly I better get my act together for a few upcoming events… just some little things, like, you know, Thanksgiving, Christmas and a BABY!  Whoa...

The Force...

The force is strong upon young ones... that force being the "Grand Master Marketing Plan" that Disney cooked up leading up to the new Star Wars movie.  Because hello... I present to you, my little Star Wars characters a.k.a. my Halloweeners.  

There was nothing else they were going to be this year.  Star Wars is it.  Mostly because they get to be bad guys and carry weapons - I'm convinced.  I'm just saying, if I were a drinker, that would be my drinking game this year... a shot for every Star Wars character that rung my doorbell.  Good times.

Anyway, we have ourselves a Darth Vader, a Kylo Ren (the new bad guy we have yet to even see on the big screen) and a Chewbacca -- because really Ace wanted to be a Tiger but he ditched that when he saw the writing on the wall, and maybe a brother or two convinced him with some baseball cards?  Just a guess.

We visited the "Space Ship" park and snapped some photos of these scary dudes earlier this week.  When they said, "space ship park" I pictured sleek metal playing apparati... and when we got there to this all wood number I rolled with it.  Maybe this is some ghost town planet called Naboo or something?  What's a girl gonna do?

Poor Chewy was really struggling with his mask that was "pinching his eyes" and it sounded like a terrible plight to endure -- hence in most of his pictures he looks a wee bit wasted.  C'Mon Chewy... Wookie up and get your act together!  :)

Kylo and Darth were stealthily climbing around to find unsuspecting little people to scare and generally practicing their monkey bar and ring skills.  They take this bad guy business pretty seriously.

 It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it, you know?  And I guess long gone are the days they want to be something cute and cuddly?  That ends at the ripe old age of four with wee lads, y'all.

That's a fact I'm sad to report. 

Whatever they dress up as - they're still my little animals.  They split their time and talents between "Wee Lads of Love" and "Naughty little Newts".  And I dig it.

Happy Halloween, Y'all.  May the force be with you as well.

Sunday Funday...

We had a busy weekend with soccer and a family baptism and our usual Saturday shenanigans.  So when Sunday came along and we saw "Stake Conference" on the calendar... whelp, we decided to worship in nature with our little lads.  

And you know what?  I swear, on some Sundays, that is just the ticket for feeling closer to God.

Ryno called for a road trip to Strawberry and I always support a healthy outing outdoors (to selfishly preserve the cleanliness of the home front) - so off we went.  

It took a bit more hiking than we had planned on to reach the shoreline, but once we got there, it was worth it.  The boys spent their time collecting crawdad claws that had been discarded by the gulls (barf) and watching their poles between snacks.

Then sure enough - they hit it.  Kael reeled in a big old cut throat first. 

 Dax reeled another nice cut in second.  And just as we were packing up, little Ace man got a turn.  It was perfect and the fish were the icing on our proverbial Sunday cake.

It was so quiet and pretty out there... One lone boat puttered out in the middle of the reservoir and we had the entire shoreline to ourselves.  The hike was gorgeous with golden wheat grass against moody skies.  It was crisp and clean and utterly fall-ish.

Plus I caught that moment above with my camera... so all is right with the world.  :)

On the hike back we talked about the boys' girlfriends and they recalled funny stories about the deer hunt from the prior weekend.  It just felt (prepare for corny level to be seriously upped) perfect.

We don't have it all together and not every moment of every day is pristine and peaceful - but we know how to embrace and thrive in the chaos.  And that chaos?  It's our favorite variety.  :)

The Land O' Pumpkins...

Do you know how cool it is to "do fall" Preschool style? I mean, thus far, we've visited a dairy farm, an apple orchard, and now the pumpkin patch!  I wait all year for fall to come and then it does, and then I "have to" go on all these outings in the most beautiful, crisp weather known to man kind.  My life doesn't suck is what I'm trying to say in a not-so-eloquent way.

Pumpkins the size of Texas.  Relatively speaking.

The corn maze with my amazin' fellers.

Even this uber enthusiastic little mazer...

There are hardly words, Ace Face.

Photo Op props for my little punkins.

The smelliest petting zoo of all time.  Seriously though, if the smell has something to do with the ranking system then this one ranks HIGH, folks.  

Have we reached complete "fall cliche" status yet?  According to my calculations - yes.  Yes we have.  Mission accomplished, dudes.