cider mill 2014

cidermill2014_14

Well, what do you do on Halloween during the day with a two year old? You go to a cider mill. It was absolutely gorgeous there. It was about 70 degrees with a little breeze. Not quite cold enough to sport the infinity scarf I had brought, but enough to wear a sweater. It was such a lazy afternoon feel because there weren’t many people there at noon, so there was plenty of room to let the kids play and the lady behind the donut counter was so sweet. She asked Zac, Emily and Ray to say “trick or treat” and they all did, so she gave them 6 mini donuts each! They loved it. It was so cute to see each one saunter away with a little bag of donuts, stuffing one in their mouths and getting cinnamon and sugar everywhere. beautiful.

cidermill2014_2

cidermill2014_1

cidermill2014_3
Can you see Ray holding his bag of donuts and the huge grin on his face?

cidermill2014_4
We saw a woodpecker. It was captivating. That’s what Ray was looking at.

cidermill2014_5

cidermill2014_6

cidermill2014_7
See??! There’s fall in southern California!

cidermill2014_8

cidermill2014_9
Zacky got a stomach ache because he ate all 6 of his donuts in under ten minutes. #smallpeopleproblems.

cidermill2014_10
Then Ray, Emily and I went on a walk.

cidermill2014_11

cidermill2014_12

cidermill2014_13
Good Halloween Day! Now I’m thinking of carving Ray’s and my pumpkins (the boys did theirs last night), eating dinner, getting dressed up and going trick or treating! Happy Halloween!

pumpkin patch

pumpkinpatch2014_1
Even in Southern California, where the fall season consists of 80 degree weather, there are fun fall-ish things to do – the pumpkin patch being one of them! There’s even a cider mill in the mountains that we went to last year that I plan on visiting in November when it cools down around here a little :)

We had never been to this pumpkin patch and it was super cool, but waaaaaaayy overpriced. Still. We let the boys pick one ting they wanted to do and they picked the zip line. It was awesome. Check out the pictures to see their little overjoyed faces. We had fresh squeezed strawberry lemonade, climbed and jumped all over a hay castle, listened to a live band, the boys did the zip line and we got Ray a tiny pumpkin. Ray is wild about pumpkins. He has been carrying his pumpkin around everywhere for the past 24 hours … until it finally busted open last night. Ray even took it to church yesterday. He would just hold it in one hand and sometimes give it a little hug. hilarious.

pumpkinpatch2014_13

pumpkinpatch2014_12

pumpkinpatch2014_11

pumpkinpatch2014_4

pumpkinpatch2014_5

pumpkinpatch2014_3

pumpkinpatch2014_2

pumpkinpatch2014_6

pumpkinpatch2014_7

pumpkinpatch2014_8

pumpkinpatch2014_9

Little side note: at the end of the ride I asked the boys how it was and Noah said, “It was so crazy that at the end I almost yelled ‘Holy s-word’!” I asked him what’s the s-word and then he said the four letter word I was hoping he didn’t know. It was a growing moment. I realized that he wasn’t as naïve as I had hoped. He knows and hears things I wish he didn’t, but at the same moment I thought, “well, he knew it, he thought it and then decided not to say it.” Tiny victory I guess. Wow, my boys are so big. It’s scary. I wanted to protect them a little longer. It feels like times up.

pumpkinpatch2014_10

This is right after the ride. Look at their glowing little boy faces. Just awesome. They were super pumped about it.

Trunk or Treat 2014!!

I looooooooooooove Halloween. It’s really my favorite holiday … I think even more than Christmas. Anyway, usually we do an adult Halloween party that is totally ridiculous. I go all out for it. But this year we decided to put all our energies into the trunk or treat ward event. So I used all of my past Halloween party paraphernalia and constructed a theme for this year: Egyptian tomb. We decorated our trunk like a pyramid and tomb and then I dressed up like Cleopatra, Ray was King Tut and Daniel was a mummy.

I love that Daniel does all of this with me. Some husbands wouldn’t participate or support such craziness, but he does and I love him for that. Anyhow, here are the pictures from the evening. Oh and I need to explain one last thing – Noah always likes to pick a totally obscure individual to dress up as for Halloween. This year he went through several random people, starting with Martian Manhunter?? (Google image that one) and he landed on ….. Vitruvius, from the Lego movie. I made his whole outfit from scratch. Had to. Nobody makes a Vitruvius costume. shocker. Liam was Ironman and we even did the facial hair of Tony Stark on him and surprisingly, Liam really kind of resembles Robert Downey Jr. More pictures will be posted for Halloween night.

Not to be outdone, Christina decorated her car beautifully as well. They did a witch’s haunted house. Complete with a working, bubbling cauldron, a crystal ball with floating head inside (hard to see in the pictures) and amazing detail all together. Here it all is:

trunkortreat2014_1

trunkortreat2014_2

trunkortreat2014_3

trunkortreat2014_4

trunkortreat2014_5

trunkortreat2014_6

trunkortreat2014_7

trunkortreat2014_8

trunkortreat2014_9

trunkortreat2014_10