Argggh, Matey!

Happy Halloween! Emma really wanted to be a pirate this year. She loves the Disney channel show Jake and the Neverland Pirates. We found this girly outfit at Toys R Us in the girls' dress up clothes section. Scott and I had a few of our own accessories to be her mateys! Argggh! More than the candy, I think Emma enjoyed seeing the decorations and other kids in costume. The skeleton in the ground was quite perplexing. Emma wanted to know where his body was. We told her it was pretend, but her face says, what happened to that guy? One of our neighbors created a vending machine costume. He also built a huge X-Wing Fighter from Star Wars, which was on display in the front yard - so creative! After an hour, the temp dropped and we wanted to head home, but Emma was raring to go and kept asking for just one more house. This was a far cry from last year - she literally cried and didn't want dress up or go door to door at all.

Funny Faces

While Daddy carved the big pumpkin, Emma and I used the push-in facial pieces to make our own funny faces. She is such a character!

Decoupage Jack-o-lantern

This was a $1.00 art project from Michael's craft store. Emma thought it was neat to use a paintbrush and glue with the tissue paper squares.

Pickin' Pumpkins

The final picture says it all . . . dirty face, sweaty hair, glassy gaze . . . it was a fun, adventurous day!

Rader Farm 2011

Scott, Emma, and I visited Rader Farm last year and returned for more good times in 2011! We were surprised at how much it had changed since last October. I guess it gets bigger and better! We happened to go on Columbus Day, which was moms get in free day. Yeah! Since we arrived right as they opened, it wasn't very crowded. Look at some of the fun things we did. The bright sun affected a lot of our pictures, so here are the ones that look good.

Fire Truck Parade

A substitute teacher told me about the annual fire truck parade one day at lunch. And I thought, this is right up Emma's alley! Emma was the perfect little citizen with her hand over her heart as the American flag passed at the beginning. We were able to watch the 20+ vehicles from a variety of local departments along the route. Then they all parked at State Farm and allowed the public to tour and take pictures. It was quite a warm October day, so we had to get a DQ vanilla cone afterward!

October Cookies

Black cats, white ghosts, orange pumpkins, oh my! And don't you just love her adorable smiles! We may be a little messy, but we have a lot of fun making sweets in the kitchen!