Halloween 2012

Each year we go to the same pumpkin farm near Stillwater.  It is probably terribly overpriced but the kids have grown to love it and the fun traditions we partake in each year....so we keep going back.

The farm looks like it only open in the Fall for pumpkin season but I could be wrong.  It is a large piece of acreage that houses a gigantic glass arboretum jam packed with pumpkins, wall to wall.  It is the pumpkin jack pot.  Outside there is a collection of painted wood characters with cut outs for your face, animals for petting and feeding and random spooky sculptures about.  They offer a corn maze and hayride as well as food, face painting, jump houses and coin operated rides.  I have pictures of the kids from each year we have gone in the wooden cutouts, some day I will have to line them all up to see how they have grown!

Paige is a natural..

 

Quinn, Not so much. 

 

 

I did manage to get one good picture of him though.

 

 

 

On the other hand, Quinn loves the chickens!!! And feeding all of the animals.

 

Inside choosing the perfect pumpkins!

 

This was the only good one I got before Quinn realized Paige was touching him and he started hitting her.  Ahhh, sibling love.

 

For some reason they love this ride.  It just goes around and around...for about 1 minute.  They have to ride it every year.

 

On the hayride!!!  Always a fun time!  The driver narrates and tells bad jokes while you ride through the corn maze and pumpkin fields all filled with Halloween characters.

 

Everyone needs a turn on the old tractor.

 

 

This year for Halloween Paige wanted to be a vampire and Quinn wanted to be a witch.  I tried to paint Paige's face as shown on the face paints we bought and quickly realized that I was not good at it.  At all.  Oh well.  The end result was pretty great and Paige was happy.  In fact, she even won the costume contest at the YMCA for the scariest costume!!

 

 

We added the widow's peak and colored her hair black.

 

Quinn never did really get into a full costume. 

He just kept saying, "Quinn be a witch and do magic!"

 

A sad attempt at a picture of the two of them...Paige does look pretty creepy though.

 

 Happy Halloween!!!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Pooh Bear!

Quinn turned 3 on October 2nd.  It was a beautiful day for a birthday, a colorful Fall birthday.  My husbands birthday is just one day later and he said he has always had beautiful weather on his special day and I believe he is right!  The only time he can remember the rain was when Quinn was born and we spent his birth and my husband's birthday in the hospital celebrating something so much bigger.  Our baby boy had entered the world!

This year we spent Quinn's birthday at Grandma and Papa's house (er' farm).  Daddy had to work that night and we still wanted to celebrate! We thought we would try to get a few nice photos of the cousins on the horses for grandma..it kind of worked out?  They would have been so much better if I had checked my camera settings before I started snapping away.

 

 This picture cracks me up...funny Dakota!

 

 

Grandma and her most special pony Jubilee.

 

 

After the sun went down a bit Papa brought out his digger to take Quinn for a birthday ride. He even let Quinn drive! Look! No hands!!

 

 

Of course Paige needed a turn too! 

 

Beautiful leaves and my beautiful little girl!

 

 

Quinn and his Granny

 

Mama and the birthday boy!

 

Look at all of Quinn's presents!!!  They are almost as tall as he is!

 

80's flashback.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!!!

 

 

Playing with his new diggers

 

 

Time to sing Happy Birthday to Quinn!  He has always loved when we sang to him.  Last year he just laughed the whole time...this year he smiled.  I had this big plan to make him a digger cake with dirt (oreo crumbles) and all but when we went to go buy the chocolate cake he spotted the monster cake...and so a monster cake it was!

 

Make a wish!

 

Good job!!!

 Must be good if Paige likes it!

 

 

Happy Happy Birthday Quinn! 

We all love you so very much!

3 years old!!!!!

 

 

Had to Catch my Breath.

So life got really busy for awhile there.  I feel guilty everytime I think about my blog because there are so, so, so many things I want to write about.  Over the past few months my son turned 3, I lost my sweet Grandmother, I started a new job and my house flooded.  I guess I can't blame myself for not having the time to write. 

Things have begun to slow down a bit which says alot because we are now quickly approaching the holiday season and I am just now feeling caught up!  Before I can fully feel caught up though I am going to post several updates...all seperate from one another but very important to me that I share them with you. Here goes......

Paige's 6th Birthday

Last year, when Paige turned 5, we celebrated her birthday like we always celebrate our birthdays..with a family summer barbecue at our house of course!  But last year something changed, after her party was over and the Grandma's and Grandpa's had all gone home...Paige asked me when her friend party was.  I was a bit taken aback? It wasn't something I had even considered that she may want?  Well, lucky for us she took the news very well that her friend party would have to wait until she turned 6.  

Over the course of her kindergarten year she was invited to party after party because apparently, in kindergarten, you invite the whole class.  It is amazing, but they do!  I guess at the tender age of 5, everyone is your friend and since you can't narrow it down to just a few you invite them all.  The parties ranged from home parties with inflatables to Pump It Up to Jump Zone and always were anticipated with excitement all week long.  Paige decided mid-year that when she turned 6, she wanted her party at Chuck E Cheese.  Perfect!!

Weeks before her party Paige and I sat down with her school yearbook and selected all of the friends she would like to invite, she chose 10...1 girl and 9 boys and Paige couldn't wait.  Her theme was Angry Birds because well, she is obsessed with everything Angry Birds.  I ordered her cake from Target and embellished it a bit with the Angry Bird game pieces.

We got to play for a while first before everyone got there.

On this ride, the faster you pedal the higher the car goes up, and then back down.

Paige and Quinn with Chuck E. Cheese himself!!

More rides and games....

When it was time to go back and eat pizza the party host had both sides of the room divide up and shout either the word "Happy" or "Birthday" to see who was loudest.  Paige was shouting her little heart out for her team!!

Then it was time to sing Happy Birthday and blow those 6 big candles out!!!

She got a Chuck E. Cheese birthday medal and inflatable crown filled with tokens!

Then Paige got her chance in the ticket booth.  There was one ticket worth 1000 points and she had been telling us for weeks that she was going to win it!

And she did it!!!!

Then she got to pull the winning string on the pinata filled with coins and tickets....

But she wasn't quite prepared for how aggressive all of the kids would be collecting the loot and pouted a bit..

She opened her gifts!

Granny got Quinn something too, a new digger that Dad had to get running.

And then with all of her tickets, Paige bought this awesome punching bag...that Quinn loves.

Paige's real birthday was a few days after her big friend party so we had a small party for her at home.

The gift she wanted most was a new Angry Bird bedding set....

Happy 6th Birthday our sweet baby girl.  We love you so very much!!!