So much FALL FUN! - Part 1

Fall is definitely my favorite time of year - so many fun things to do!
We try to partake in as many fun Fall activities as possible...pumpkin patches (always more than one!), the Pumpkin Walk in Ft. Thomas, Halloween parties, Trunk-R-Treat, carving pumpkins and of course trick-r-treating!

We went to the Halloween party at the Highland Heights city building - always a fun time! Alli & P were there this year with Grandma...and Aunt Nikki & Uncle Steven stopped by for a bit, too! Max decided to be Spider-man for Halloween this year and Lucy was super excited to be Wonder Woman. But when the day of the city building party came, Max decided not to wear the Spider-man costume...he didn't like the ski-mask style mask.

He wore it for a few minutes for a pic but that was about it. Pretty cool, if you ask me, but I can see why he didn't want to keep it on. He actually tricked me into buying a new mask that he said he'd wear...but no dice. We dug out a mailman costume Charlie had passed down and he was the cutest little letter carrier you ever did see!

Lucy was a gorgeous little Wonder Woman! One of the draws of the costume was the "lasso of truth" but of course the costume didn't come with it...my mom found this one at Sam's Club and picked it up for her and Lucy and I went to a Halloween store to find the lasso...it was a little harder a task than I expected and we ended up getting a whip that she was happy with.

We fastened a loop around to make it a lasso and she had endless fun lassoing her poor little brother. 

It was pretty cold and very windy that day but we didn't let that stop us from going on the hayride to the little pumpkin patch they had set up. The kids got to choose a little pumpkin to bring back inside to paint.

Pumpkin patchin' fun - Benton Family Farm with Auntie Ema, Lukey & Ellie:

In their matching Jack Skellington shirts!

The Stallkamps left earlier than us because Lukey wasn't feeling his best but we stuck around to eat giant pretzels for lunch, explore some more and destroy the white shorts with Kona ice!

Another patch - Neltner's Farm:

Cute cousin love

 

Lucy loves the corn maze...and I hate the corn maze! It makes me very anxious being trapped in one and GranJan knows this - so she partnered up with Lucy and the two of them headed deep into the maze while the rest of us lingered closer to the entrance. I was still in there with Max, Luke, Ellie & Ema longer than I preferred, but nowhere near as long as the two crazy girls!

Maxy was set on choosing out the largest pumpkin that he could actually pick up!

Carving pumpkins...Lucy and Max were both really into goop scoopin' this year.

Gotta love these goop-scoopin' faces!

 

Dave did most of the carving - he surprised us with the Marshall from Paw Patrol but Lucy asked me to carve a Jack Skellington and picked out the Boogie Man pattern from a book for Dave to carve and also asked him for a Wonder Woman once since that was her costume this year - all looked amazing!

Lucy's reading

I gotta say - my girl has some gorgeous hair! But it has gotten a little too long, causing it too look tangled and scraggly at the end. She can brush her own hair - and does sometimes - but can really only reach so far with the brush. I'd been telling her she needed a cut for a long time and Dave finally bribed her into going with him and Max for trims and got a few inches taken off - the before and after shots.

Lucy got picked to do a reading in church during a school-day mass! She practiced and had it down pat by the second time she read through it! 

She was pretty nervous but she did amazing! She did the very first reading (as she said, "I even talk before Father!") and my mom and I were there to see her do a great job. I wished I could take photos and videos but didn't think it would be appropriate. But just about every other mom / family took photos and videos of their kids! If only she hadn't been first so I could see everyone else doing it first...oh well, she was amazing and I was so proud!

I did record her very first read-through at home...

This guy! We were painting rocks one afternoon and I stuck a paintbrush behind my ear...he spotted it and had to do the same...too bad his was covered in paint and soon, so was his hair!

He can fall asleep at the drop of a hat! Lucy was never like that...and she never fell asleep watching tv - she still won't, no matter how sleepy she is. But this guy can be going strong one second, talking and everything, and the next thing you know, he can be fast asleep.

September memories

We love going to the zoo!  It's even more exciting when we meet up with friends there - one September day we met up with Luke & Ellie - such fun!

I decided to try no stroller for the first time...it went great but Max was happy to have the option to hop into Ellie's stroller with her!

Goofies! 

More cousin fun - lounging at GranJan's later

Happy 90th Birthday to Great Grandma!
We all had a great time celebrating her at Grandma & Troy's river camp!

Too sunny for an open-eyed photo!
Summer lovin'!

Just a pair of cuties being cute! Lucy is obsessed with her American Girl dolls and loves when she can be matchers with them! Too cute in their matching flamingo pajamas!
Max is just super-silly and loves making phone calls to Uncle Craig on the phone from his doctor kit.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa! Lucy and Max loved making Grandpa his birthday brownies and helping him blow out all of those candles!

Super sillies! 

Maxy is so obsessed with Paw Patrol! He loves the show and loves his Paw Patrol shirts and always wants to wear them to school - even though he only has a couple...luckily, he's very good at helping with the laundry! 

One cool thing about the whole rock painting and hiding craze - we've been exploring a lot of new parks. We discovered the Cold Spring park and saw a list of events including a city celebration that we went to - free bounce house, ice cream and FUN!

Totter's Otterville fun!

Lucy's favorite area has always been the baby doll / kitchen & grocery area and Max really loves it there, too, because he's always loved pushing the grocery carts. But his favorite area is the ball pit!

Of course, the dance area, block section and water table are always super fun too!

In kindergarten (and preschool), I was able to attend every classroom party and also got to visit when Lucy was the Star if the Week. Now that she's a first grader, it's time to get down to business and ease the parents out of in-class involvement. Only a handful of parents can go on field trips and be in the classroom for parties. Lucy and I were so excited when I got picked to chaperone her first 1st grade field trip - to the zoo!
I signed up and there was a letter that came home saying LOTS of parents volunteered so they'd have to do a random draw so we crossed our fingers.
Lucy was just as excited as I was when I got picked - she was all secretive about it and pulled something out of her folder and said, "The reason I am holding this piece of paper is...because you get to be a chaperone!!!"
She was screaming and jumping up and down with me...sooo sweet!

 The weather was perfect, I had a great group of girls and we had so much fun!!!