halloween

 On Halloween, the teachers always dress up for class!  This year, Jacque made an awesome "Corgi" skirt & Stu was Perry the Platypus. :)

 We forgot to get a group shot before Stu left, so here we are without him.

Dorise, Jacque, Tamy, Angie M, Becca & me (I'm dressed as a preschooler)  ;)

 That evening, we took the kids trick or treating at our friends' & families' homes. 

At Mummi & Pappa's house.

Sadie suggested I add a backpack to my costume to be an authentic preschooler.  Good idea!  :)

 Next was Stu & Jacque's house.

 Barney was dressed as a hot dog & was quite nervous about Finn's sword & shield.  :P

 We trick or treated at Carolyn & Jesse's home.

 We took a break at Memaw & Papa's house & ate a quick hot dog dinner.

Sadie was dressed as Smurfette, Cohen was a vampire & Tyler was an Enderman from a game called Minecraft.

 The almost birthday boys.

I wanted to take a picture for their party invitation.  :P

 Samurai Ronan & Dracula Griffin

 Adorable Rooster Tate!  :P

After dinner, we went out with the Ruddick family to trick or treat some more.  We got WAY more candy than we needed & have been trying to share with anyone & everyone that comes over.  :)

Happy Halloween!

a shower for carolyn

 On Saturday, October 29th, Jacque & I hosted a shower for Carolyn & her step-mom, Deena's house.  We had a lot of fun making decorations for the special event & coming up with fun games!

Jacque made the wreath above & I made the "Welcome Baby" banner.

 A mix of tie-dyed onesies for the baby & some of my boys' old baby clothes for the clothes line.

 Jacque made ruffled streamers & a chart for guests to guess the birth-date & gender of the new baby.

 Some dot garland (I got the idea from here) & more ruffled streamers.

 We asked guests to write down their "wishes for baby" to give to Carolyn.  You can find the free printable here.

 The guest of honor & her husband:

Carolyn & Jesse.

 Carolyn's mother-in-law, Maureen, & step-mom, Deena, setting up the food.  Deena made all of the food, with help from Maureen & Carolyn's mom, Debbie.  It was nice to share the jobs!  :)

 Guests.

 Gifts.

 Carolyn's college roomies, Mandy with baby Ava & Annie, traveled from Washington & California to be at the shower!

 Opening gifts.

 Jacque, Carolyn & me

 I followed this tutorial to make fabric alphabet refrigerator magnets for baby Williams to play with (or drool on for awhile).  ;)

Photo by Jesse

Close up.

Photo by Jesse

fall concert

Finley did such a great job singing out at the Grace Community Preschool Fall Concert!

He is in the Pre-kindergarten class & I couldn't believe how much bigger they seemed than the younger classes.  Except for the little girl next to Finn - she's tiny!  ;)

Miss Janelle & Finley

A quick video for those who couldn't be there.  :)

barn party

On Saturday, October 22nd, we all got dressed up & went to our church's annual Barn Party!

Dracula-Griffin, Knight-Finley, Samurai-Ronan

One of the highlights of this event is to ride the school bus out to the party!

Superman-Cedar

He still talks about riding the school bus to the Barn Party.  :)

James Bond-Josh, Astrid-Gretchen (from How to Train Your Dragon), Dragon-Tate

Our family

The Green kids

Playing darts - Finn hit two balloons with the darts!

Up in the hay loft.

Hermione-Stephanie  :)

Face painting

Shooting star!

Cedar could hardly wait for his turn.

He chose a monster!  :)

Such fun!  We love the Barn Party!  :)

papa's birthday

 We started Papa's birthday celebration at Oakshire Brewing, where he had teamed up with a band called Dirty Spoon to make some music.

 The boys enjoyed checking out the band & Cedar really got into grooving to the music!

 There's our Papa!  On the harmonica!  :)

 Afterwards, we met at their house for dessert & presents.

 A new harmonica from the Chases & us!

 Making more music for Tate & Cedar.

Always plenty of helpers around when it comes to tricky things like opening gifts or blowing out candles.  ;)

Happy birthday, Papa!  And great job playing your harmonica!  We love you.  :)

apple daze

 We were so excited that we didn't miss Detering Orchard's Apple Daze celebration.  We didn't have time on the first Saturday in October but, luckily, Apple Daze happens every weekend in October!  So we made it on the second Saturday.  :)

Our kids are always entertained by the hay maze!

 They loved the free balloons too!

 It has become a tradition to go to Apple Daze with Carolyn & Jesse!  What's not to love about free apple cider, apple crisp, hay rides through the orchard, pumpkins for the kids & balloons too! 

 We were thankful for the cloudy, cool, DRY weather.  :)

 On the hay ride.

 The ride was extra long this year!  They drove through all the orchards & gardens.  It was great!

 Our family.

 Silly boy!

Almost our whole family!  Sorry Cedar.  :P