Halloween

My adorable little Mickey and Minnie before we left for Fall Festival at church.  They were so excited they were beside themselves.  I think they really loved their costumes...whew...and they remember how fun Fall Festival is and all the candy they get!  I must admit the costumes turned out even cuter than I thought.  But like always I stress over making it just right and usually am adjusting up until we walk out the door.

If I could only explain how rare it is that I get two big smiles from M&M in the SAME picture.  So this one is rare...and super cute!

One of the fun things about this Halloween was that all the grandparents (and Andrew) were in town this year!  So fun for M&M to have so many people they love around for such fun.

This cute display was set up right in the middle of the treat street line.  See their baskets...they already had a ton of candy!

The animals are always a big hit with Michael and Mary Ellen.  They actually had horse rides this year.  They were both excited standing in the line to ride.  But when the time came Mary Ellen wouldn't do it.  Michael had a ball though.  Mary Ellen has always loved rabbits and loves to hold and pet them each year.

We saw several friends and even got a picture with their friend Emma!

It was all fun, but the best part for them was just the unfettered eating of all the candy they could stand!  They can have as much as they want for the night and then it magically disappears...wonder how long that will work?!

Such an amazing event our church does every year.  A way to give the community a fun and safe way to enjoy Halloween.  And as usual they made it over-the-top wonderful for all that attended!

Kingdom Kids Fall Festival

My cute little cowboys with their cute lego teachers!  What a fun day at school for the Kingdom Kids Fall Festival.  Michael and Mary Ellen's Mickey and Minnie costumes were waiting to be unveiled that night for Halloween, so M&M were cowboys for the morning.  I actually really love these costumes...YEEHAW!

We brought cupcakes to share for our yummy lunch at Kingdom Kids.  Dee and Daddy were also able to be there to see the parade and have lunch.

Here comes the amazing 3B class on parade!

Mary Ellen, a little shy at all the attention at the parade.

Michael loving all the attention at the parade...smiles and waves for everyone!

All the classes paraded around the entire sanctuary and then we all had a yummy lunch together.

After the parade there were games and fun in each classroom that we were able to enjoy.  Michael loved the "Go Fish" game and Mary Ellen had a tiger painted on her face!

Kingdom Kids did such an amazing job to make it a super fun day for all the kids!  Now on to get ready for the big night...

Aldersgate Pumpkin Patch

Aldersgate is a church in town that does a beautiful pumpkin patch every year.  All the proceeds goes to Missions.  I'm not sure where they get their pumpkins but they are huge and they have some really unique ones.  We spent one beautiful fall afternoon picking out a really special one.

And here it is!  One of the biggest ones they had.  It was so big and wouldn't stand up very well so M&M had to struggle to keep it up.  I told Michael to "put his hip into it" to make it stand straight for the picture.  He was working bless his heart!  Now we have another pumpkin to add to our collection on the front porch.

Funny Face Pumpkins

Well, we got out of carving pumpkins again!  M&M love to do the funny faces on their pumpkins.  They actually remembered doing it last year and asked to do it again.  The time is coming where they'll want to carve them but right now they're happy with these...and so am I.  Mary Ellen chose the kitty cat and Michael wanted a silly face.  They turned out cute and they're so proud of them!

Willard Farms Pumpkin Pickin'

It's October....so it's pumpkin pickin' time at Willard Farms.  We went again this year with my MOPS group.  It was a beautiful Fall day and M&M always love it!  They insisted on wearing their cowboy boots.  I guess they thought it was appropriate since we were going to a farm!

I was pleasantly surprised how much Mary Ellen did this year that she wouldn't last year.  She loved the big trampoline and last year she would only get on it with me holding on.  Michael loved going really high with Daddy.

The best way to get off the big trampoline...SLIDE!

This was the most fun of the day.  This big tunnel slide goes through a big mountain of dirt.  They wouldn't do it at all last year.  This year they could have done it for hours.  Mary Ellen was surprisingly fearless climbing up the big hill to get to the top of the slide.

Michael saw the dump truck right when we walked in and kept asking to go back to it. 

 My little Mary Ellen loves to swing!

The cow train is always fun and they love to do it all by themselves.  Mary Ellen always picks the last cow in the train.  Must be the best ride!

The big tractor pulled us over to the pumpkin patch where we spent lots of time discussing which would be the best pumpkin...the big yellow ones or a little orange one.  We finally decided on one of each.  The pumpkin variety was much better this year and some were pretty big.  We also went through the corn maze, but I think they need to be a bit older to really understand and enjoy that.  It was a fun family day and we added to our growing pumpkin collection on the front porch.

Kingdom Kids Birthday

We had the party, opened the presents, and smashed the pinata but it still wasn't M&M's birthday yet.  Very hard to explain to a toddler that yes, we had a party but it wasn't your actual birthday.  Well the 30th of September, which is their actual birthday, was a school day.  So we put up the sign again, got out the Mickey and Minnie shirts, and baked some more cupcakes for their Kingdom Kids class and off we went!

Ms. Kristina and Ms. Dawn are great at making birthday's special in their class.  They each got a crown and had "Happy Birthday" sung to them again.

Mickey and Minnie cupcakes for each friend in their class, and their wonderful teachers!

Not only did they get a special day at school, but Ms. Kristina and Ms. Dawn gave them each a beautiful book.  They loved them!  What special 4-year-olds that get 2 weeks of Birthday fun!

Meeska, Mooska, Mickey Mouse!

MEESKA, MOOSKA, MICKEY MOUSE! 

Lots of fun to be had at Michael and Mary Ellen's clubhouse!

It was a Mickey and Minnie party this year.  And since Papa and Daddy had worked so hard on the treehouse it was a special surprise kind of day for my loves 4th birthday party!

The pinata was a special request from Michael and Mary Ellen for their party this year.  The kids really seemed to enjoy it.  And since we had so many little ones at the party it was the pull-string kind instead of the bashing-it-with-a-stick kind...seemed to work out well!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU...times 2!

Great friends, lots of fun, and two very happy 4 year olds!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY M&M!!