Hello. My name is Mommy.: Halloween

Well, we arrived back from our vacation just six days before Halloween (and five days before Z's birthday party), and needed to get into the Halloween spirit quick. So, we headed off to the Pumpkin patch a couple days later.
We've been going to the same Pumpkin patch, Baumans Farms, since before Colin and I were even together. We just love it and we try to make it an even every year (it helps that we pick up some of their famous cider donuts and apple cider too...I don;t even like cider and donuts, but I'll take this stuff any day!). Over the years, word has gotten out about this particular farm, and it's gotten quite popular. So, we were quite surprised to find that there was almost noone there on the day we went! Of course, it was only a few days before Halloween too. We were also surprised to fine the pumpkin patch almost completely under water! Apparently a big storm had come through the area (while we were on vacation) and really wreaked some havoc on the poor pumpkin patch. That combined with the fact that everyone else had already picked out their pumpkin, meant pretty slim pickings for us. But, we were only getting a couple of pumpkins this year (as opposed to the several, 30lbs worth, we got last year!), so let each of the kids pick one out. Then it was onto the shop to get our goodies and back home to start carving!
Then, before we knew it Halloween was here! Z was very excited for his costume and trick-or-treating. He came up with his own costume this year; Vampire rock star. He's such a creative person and I was very proud of him for thinking 'outside the box.' Plus, we were able to use most of what we already had, so that saved some money on buying a costume...hahaha! Miss Avalee was a mermaid; I found her costume online for only $3.99 and just could not pass it up!
So, Grandma came over a little early to help us get the kiddos ready. As I was giving Z a vampire 'look' Avalee decided she wanted makeup too, so Grandma added some pretty purple to her eyes and some pink to her cheeks. She was so excited she ran to look at herself in the mirror right away.
The kids were also lucky to be joined by their cousin, Aly (who is only four months older than Z) this year for trick-or-treating.
After taking a million pictures of all the kids, we told them it was time to go, and boy were they ready to hit those houses...lol! Zavion has always been pretty low-key about trick-or-treating, and doesn't really go to many house before announcing he's “done.” But, Aly was go, go, go! She definitely had a different approach to the whole thing! And, Avalee was just happy to get to be with the 'big kids.' Last year, she was still too young to actually trick-or-treat, but we took her with us and just carried her (of course, she was in costume!). So, it was pretty cute watching her tag behind her big brother and cousin. And, some of the houses in our area have lots of steep stairs just to get to the front door, so she still had to be carried up a few of those. But, otherwise she did great even remembering her 'please' and 'thank you' most of the time.
And, true to form, Zavion pooped out on about the second street, so we finished up and headed up. The kids still had a ton of candy though, so it was a successful night!

Avalee was saying, "Daddy, get back here, NOW!" Lol!