Halloween Festivities

So I know people have been wanting to see pics of the kids in their costumes, so I thought I'd better get this post up quick.  That way it will be semi up to date...

Here are the boys trying on their costumes one night.  It is actually the only time we got James to wear his mask, so I'm glad we got this one picture.

So Lucy ended up with a few costumes.  She was already wearing her lady bug outfit before the trunk or treat, so we decided to just add the hat.  She slept soundly through the trunk or treat, so I'm glad we got this picture beforehand.

Upon arrival at the trunk or treat, spiderman found that one of his best friends was also spiderman.   And they had a blast together.

What a crew!  These boys are best buds.

The youth were in charge of the trunk or treat.  I thought it was great.  They had all sorts of booths with little games that they were in charge of.  I wasn't sure if Alan would go for the face painting, but when he saw that his favorite babysitter Eryn was the one doing the painting, he was all for it.

Spiderman, have you flexed your muscles yet today?

Alan was a donut eating champ. He joined the competition late and still beat the girls he was competing against hands down.  Literally. 

The "parade" that was more like a mob.

We also met up with Sarah and Micah to do the spooky hay ride at Wilson Farms

The tunnel is always the favorite part!

James on the hayride

They had a little hay maze this year

When we went to go see the animals in the barn, this llama was just roaming around.  He would get way close to you too.  All of the kids were scared of him and loved him.  They would get closer and closer to him, and then he's step forward and they all ran away screaming.  We never saw any other animals, but the llama was the highlight of the trip.

Lucy in her pumpkin outfit, which she wore on Halloween.  I wasn't sure if I was going to get any pictures of her in it, so I snapped this one as she was sleeping.

But she decided to wear the pumpkin to our first trick or treating stop... Grandma and Grandpa's house!

It is so nice to have them close to us now.

Here are the kids before going out.  See...James wanted nothing to do with the mask.

And here are our jack-o-lanterns that greeted our trick or treaters.

Jello worms.  We made them with straws.  Alan has been begging to make them all month, and we finally got around to it on Halloween day. :) They turned out great though and were pretty fun. 

And here are a couple of pictures of little Lucy in her tu tu that Aunt Megan made for her.

She got to stay here with mom while the boys were out trick or treating.

And here they are returning!

Alan sorted all of his candy this morning (with vampire teeth).  

And then we graphed it and counted it as well.  He loved it. A total of 100 pieces.  There were actually 98 but then we remembered he ate two last night.  So there you go! A lot of sweets!

Of course I forgot my camera at the joy school party, so I'll have to get a few from that and put them up later. But all in all a very fun Halloween season. We have some pretty cute kids that had a LOT of fun.

Keene Pumpkin Festival

We finally made it up to the Keene Pumpkin Festival this year!  We'd heard about it in the past, but had always been busy.  Every year in Keene, NH they try to break the world record for carved pumpkins.  I guess Keene held the record until 2006, when Boston beat it with 30,128 pumpkins, and they haven't been able to beat it since.

They ask you to bring a carved pumpkin to donate... so we did.

It is really a fun festival.  The whole town kind of pulls together to put it on.  They shuttled us on school buses from the parking lot to the center of town.  The boys LOVED riding on the school bus for the first time.  I'll admit it was kind of scary.  I mean going from five point harness to just sitting there...and sometimes standing there... yeah, I think James is still too young.  But Alan will be riding these all too soon. Scary.

Speaking of scary... here is our pumpkin face

When you got there, you had to "sign in" your pumpkin so that it would be included in the official count.  Then you placed it somewhere along the streets.  Here is ours on the end.

We walked down this little side street and found the Robertson building

Though the boys were more interested in climbing on the concrete blocks

Here is the pumpkin tower at the center of town

And our cute boys in front of the pumpkins

The pumpkin bowling was their favorite part!

James loved it too...though he will need a little practice before next year,

All in all it was a pretty fun event.  We didn't stay terribly long as our boys were not in the happiest moods and we were trying to get to see the second half of the BYU football game.  So we missed the food court. Bummer. And in the evening, they light all of the jack-o-lanterns.  It would be really cool to see them all lit up. I guess we'll just have to go back another year.

And we didn't get to hear the final count before we left either.  But later we found out that they did break the record!  This year there were 30,581 lit pumpkins!

Anyway, it was a fun little family trip and we're excited to go back again.

Harvest Time

Well, as promised, here is an update on our gardening efforts.  Overall, we were pretty satisfied with our results.

Here is a picture of our garden toward the end of the season.  Some of the plants are already gone, but most are still there.  Our fence held up nicely and we were able to keep out the creatures.

And here is Alan with one of our pickings.  As far as yields went, we got something from everything that we planted.  We got TONS of tomatoes and beans, probably about 5-6 zucchini, 4-5 peppers, 2 ears of corn, a few peas, and one pumpkin.  Next time we will give the squash and pumpkin a bit more room!  They were crazy!  We are excited to expand next year and try some new things.

The boys are quite proud of their home grown pumpkin... even if it is on the smallish side

In addition to our garden harvesting, we couldn't welcome in the fall without apple picking.  Scott came with us this year.  He hadn't been before!

And we got to go with the whole Robertson clan!  How fun!  It is so nice to have family around.

Happy Birthday Megan

Ok, no, we didn't get to celebrate Megan's birthday with her- though we have celebrated her birthday in Boston in the past.  We just knew she likes seeing pictures of her nephews and niece and we've been slow at putting them up.  So for her birthday present, we thought we'd get our acts together and post a few pictures. :)  

We all love having a baby sister around and it is hard to believe how quickly she is growing!  Here are a ton of pictures of us just hanging out with our little Lucy. 

The day that I got home from the hospital, Alan found this bag of various binks that we've had around. He and James each chose one so that they could be like Lucy. :)

Another picture from our first day home from the hospital.  James wanted to lay with his little sister.

Holding Lucy

And again

And again

And again!  Can you tell they like to hold her.  (At least for the camera anyway!)

Tub time! She loves it.

And Alan loves to take pictures almost as much as he loves being in them.

Sleepy baby

Tummy time with one brother

And then with both!

Lucy with her cute bow made by Megan

She's a very good and happy baby

With her happy brothers.  Don't worry.  There really is a fair amount of screaming and crying too.  From all three. Maybe I should take pictures of those times too. :)

She's all focus these days.

I don't know what's up with the lighting here, but it made for a total diva pic.

And more loves

A lot of the time she looks like Scott.  But sometimes she looks like me... like in this pic.

Sporting one of her new flower headbands

And she just wanted to leave you with one of her cute smiles.