Happy Halloween!

 This year's Halloween is brought to you by a stormtrooper and Max from The Secret Life of Pets:

This weekend we enjoyed a Fall festival where Willow became a cat-faced dog:

and a Lego building event at Toys R Us:

Their Frankensteins:

The kids did great trick-or-treating tonight!

Pumpkin carving fun!

I told the kiddos that if "Pumpkin Carving" was a holiday, it'd be my favorite. We lucked out with a 70-degree to enjoy carving our pumpkins in the backyard this weekend. Owen still isn't convinced that he should touch the slime so he was happy to scoop with a spoon. Both kiddos did great and even helped paint a few. We end up with quite a few pumpkins due to Owen's field trips and the couple patches that we visited. And I couldn't resist the price of BOGO for $8 at Kroger! Thanks to Pinterest for some great ideas!

The kids enjoyed helping drill holes for one of the pumpkins!

Oh...Alli was helpful too:

Pumpkins by day:

Pumpkins by night:

Backyard Firepit!

Chris' latest project has been working on a backyard fire pit:

He finished it up yesterday:

And we tested it out for the first time tonight:

It makes a pretty good s'more and we're pretty sure it will make for some pretty good backyard memories too (like Willow trying to lift Owen onto the rings while her mother and father relax by the fire...).

Monarch butterfly!!

Remember this? The caterpillar that formed its chrysalis on Owen's Caterpillar (get it??)?

Well, that chrysalis found protection in our home for exactly two weeks before it started changing from it's pale green to this evidence of a butterfly ready to emerge:

After checking out pictures and information on several websites, we predicted that it would emerge in 7-12 hours...perfectly in the middle of the night. I decided that I was ready to pull an all-nighter to witness it emerge (because seriously...how often does that happen??) so I took pictures every hour all through the night (I'll spare you all the pics) as I anxiously awaited the moment it would happen. 

I "slept" on the couch so I wouldn't wake Chris up every hour but poor Alli tried to sleep with me and got irritated/confused when I woke up every hour. I even had multiple dreams about the butterfly in those short periods of sleep. When my alarm would go off, I'd say a quick prayer that it hadn't emerged while I slept, then I'd go take a picture and check its progress. I'd then debate whether or not I had another hour before it emerged, or if I needed to stay "bulldozer-side" for the next time period if it was that close. I'd often sway back and forth whether I could sleep for another hour or not, then would reassess by looking at the time lapse pictures on the internet, which showed it turning pretty transparent, then black...meaning it would emerge in a matter of minutes, which I DIDN'T want to miss!! I always decided I had another hour of sleep (well....45 minutes by the time my excitement settled down). 

This was the last picture I took before I headed off to school. I was pretty convinced it was going to emerge within 5 minutes of me leaving, just to spite me. It didn't. 

I would text Chris for updates between two of my morning groups, then at lunchtime...awaiting the latest news and picture updates. This was the last picture Chris took before heading upstairs to read Owen books before quiet time:

And when he came downstairs, this had happened:

Crazy huh?

I had read online that they take off within 4 hours of emerging in order to mate, so I didn't want to keep it inside too long. Thankfully I was able to get home within that timeframe and saw it walking around its makeshift indoor habitat, testing out its wings. 

We took it outside to release it. As with the entire past 24 hours...it took its time but finally took flight. 

Happy trails little monarch!

More pumpkin patch fun!

We enjoyed spending most of Sunday afternoon with the Caldwells. We did a great job of taking out all of the toys in the playroom and getting their children wound up, as per usual. The weather warmed up compared to the few days before that, so it was nice to get out in the sunshine and enjoy the pumpkin patch in their area.

Teaching Hannah a few new "tricks?"

Hunter made his own "rides:"

They did a great job adding a few new play areas for the kids since last year:

All four kids enjoyed feeding the goats!!

Both girls were super brave on the slide!

Check out Willow!

The best I could get:

This was fun for the kids AND adults who tried it: 

Owen also went to the pumpkin patch with his preschool class. Here are some pics his teachers shared: