Halloween Parties

Oh my, have we been busy party-ing it up all over the place!

Josie had her first "big kid" school event!

A scavenger hunt through a corn maze . . .

AT NIGHT!

She was thrilled!

It was a family event and we went with some of our

friends who also attend the same school as Josie. 

There were lots of yummy snacks and a hay ride to and from the corn maze.

We had a blast trecking through the maze with our flashlights and

we found all of our stamping stations for the hunt!

The next day we went to our YMCA's annual Halloween Party.

Their outfits pretty much reflect their personalities!

Clara Rose is Bat Man-- a superhero!

Josie is a beautiful Goddess! 

We again linked with our friends for this party and had

a great time!

There was a hayride through the woods. 

A few healthier snacks.

Lots of games! 

And creepy, crawly, slimy, stations where

you had to guess what was in the pumpkin.

Clara Rose, always the comedian, managed to come up

with answers that got a roaring laugh from her audience. 

We've had a great festive season leading up to Halloween!

The Ghourls are super excited to go Trick-or-Treating!

Spooktacular Season is upon us

Playing a bit of catch-up . . .

The ghourls and I made our annual visit to the Jack-o-lantern Spooktacular Patch!

This cute display was set-up near the beginning of the pumpkin trail.

Much to pink and prissy for Clara Rose.

Josie loved it!

As expected, the pumpkin trail was engulfed with hundreds--

Thousands (yes, seriously) of jack-ol-lanterns 

Traditional faces, happy, sad, scary, silly . . .

Magnificent carvings--  

The ghourls always like the few that have a green light inside. 

I like the super big ones!

If you look closely, you can see there is another jack-o-lantern

in the big one's mouth! 

At the end there is a small forest area filled with

a few super sized jack-o-lanterns as shown above

as well as assorted sizes all throughout the trees. 

Moving backward--

Clara Rose went to a birthday party--

she was invited by the birthday boy. 

We've enjoyed some nature walks during

to take in the pretty colors of Fall. 

Explored new playground equipment.

Made fun new discoveries stomping around

familar hiking grounds. 

September

September is over and I don't think I posted once to the blog.

We did take the girls on a camping trip with their beloved cousins (and parents)

over Labor Day weekend, but I think those pictures got mixed in with August.

I had to make an unexpected trip back to my hometown mid-month for a funeral.

It was a sad reason for a trip that provided me an extra opportunity to visit with my Uncle and one of my cousins whom I have not physically seen since she was about 11 years old!

Now a grown beautiful woman- who just got married.

School is going well for both the girls.

Clara Rose is enjoying Kindergarten and is reading easy books. 

Josie setteled in quickly to her new school routine.

All worries of a new school and riding the bus etc., are long gone and she is flourishing in First Grade.

She loves her school, teacher, friends, and riding the bus.

Not to mention that she is doing fabulously in all her classes!

With all the excitiment of school starting and mommy going away abruptly,

we did still manage to celebrate the Autumn Moon festival- albeit a bit late.

This year we tried something new to celebrate and I think we are going to make it

our tradition for this special holiday.

We loaded up ourselves and some of our friends after school on a Friday and

headed to the coast for an evening dinner picnic on the beach. 

The girls were ecstatic to say the least to go on this fun excursion.

They had a blast playing in the sand,

climbing on the jetties, 

I brought our camping stove and heated some soup to couple with sandwiches followed

by hot cocoa later in the evening. 

It was a great afternoone and evening!

All the girls had a fun time laughing, eating, and playing. 

More beach combing after eating dinner. 

Later in the evening the big, bright moon rose over the ocean.

It was a spectacular sight!

We had some yummy cream filled chocolate cupcakes for dessert!

The girls were giddy with the day and night by this point. 

We capped off the evening with a little bit of wave chasing before

calling it a night. 

Definitely a tradition in the making!