Halloween in our eyes

There are many ways to look at Halloween. Should we participate in the scary and spooky? Should we not participate at all? Every family has their own convictions. 

We do Halloween just for fun. No scary, no spooky, no push to go into anything that they don't want to. 

Our boys do enjoy dressing up. However, we are going for the scary or bloody costumes. Karson wanted to be a dirt bike rider because he has gotten into riding his dirt bike this summer. He has never been one to pick a costume that portrays himself as a character and that is ok with us.

Kipton our 2nd born loves dressing into character but we always help him with his choices. This year he chose an armor man like Goliath. He wanted to protect his new baby brother. :) 

In the picture above it was Kase's first time to be held standing up by his big brother. I was right near, but it made  Karson feel so good. Kase is 6 days old here.

Kevin took the boys to a safe trick or treat night at their school on this night. They had the best time and got to spend some time with just daddy and them.

I think God is ok with our type of Halloween. We aren't celebrating for the fact that it's spooky or devil like, but just fun for the kids. 

Halloween Fun!

We first kicked off Halloween a few weeks before, at Nana's Halloween Party. The boys had decided to be a green ninja and a WVU football player. So we were dressed and ready to attend our first party of the Halloween season :)

Aunt Amanda and Uncle Drew were pretty festive in their witch and Amish man. The boys loved it!!

We ate good food, had great desserts, sat by the fire, and enjoyed the evening outside. 

I also wanted to remember that when Karson mentioned a football player we wondered if Kevin's parents had any of his old football things. They did! So he has on Kevin's peewee football pants and helmet. I know that was so special to Kevin. He wore them in 1984, and now they are being worn by his son in 2014. I love when things happen like that.

Warm fire ready for Smores!

On Tuesday before Halloween, we enjoyed time at  Karson's school one evening. We had dinner in the cafeteria, and then did trick or treating all around the school. I volunteered to pass out candy and Kevin took the boys around. 

My favorite picture was this one below. I love how awesome Karson is to his little brother. Always helping him! 

I am thankful for another fun year with these boys. Our days of coordinating costumes are over, but I loved my ninja and football player all the same. 

Hope your Halloween with your family was super spooky!

Trick or Treat Night

To have all of my Halloween on record, I thought I would write about the boys trick or treat night. It had been raining all day long on Halloween night. We weren't sure if we would even get to go trick or treating with the weather. However, as it got closer to 6:00 we decided we should go ahead and make our way to Kevin's parents house and start getting ready in hopes that it would still be on. 

My boys were ready to go, but mom wanted a few pictures first! 

The boys had asked if they could go over to Kevin's parents and trick or treat with their cousin Dane. We originally had different plans, but after much pressure from Karson we thought they would have a good time together. The boys were so sweet holding hands and Karson reminded Kipton that he could get hit by a car to hold his hand. 

Shortly after meeting up with cousin Dane (football player) we were on our way to hunt for candy. We walked and walked. Towards the end of our 4th street the boys were getting slower and slower. We knew it was time to get back to Kevin's parents house where our van was and head back to our house.

Kevin was on patrol with the camera while I walked with the kids from door to door. 

We had a great night with family. The boys loved every second and we are loaded with candy. 

Karson's Halloween Party

Little shark doesn't seem to happy, but let me tell you he was THRILLED to get to go to Karson's preschool party. He thought he was being included in preschool and that just made his whole day. 

My fisherman and shark were ready for the party. 

Friends. Boys. 

Karson has enjoyed his preschool friends so much this year. They sang about 6 different songs, marched around the fellowship hall, and had the kids come up one by one and tell what costume they were wearing. It was so cute! Then they did a little trick or treating with the parents all lined up. Karson had the best time. 

The boys are already talking about what they want to be next year. Lord help us! Let's not rush life away boys. 

After our preschool party, we joined up with our favorite boy friends and went to the famous Pumpkin House in our town. It has over 2,000 pumpkins and ever one is carved a different way. They are all lit up at night but it is so crowded so we decided going during the day was better for our crew. 

The boys had fun deciding what pumpkin they liked best. 

Thankful for friends!

Halloween PJ Link-Up

I love seasonal pajamas and clothes so this link-up is awesome for me! It's so fun to see everyone dressed up in their Halloween pajamas. Join the link if you'd like to tag along. 

2013

A bit fuzzy but my boys are 4 and 3. They love to have seasonal pajamas on as well. We may or may not have already broke out our Christmas pajamas as well, but we'll keep those a secret a little longer. 

2012

A better quality picture with my big camera from last year. 

Happy Wednesday!

Halloween Finale

To end the longest Halloween week ever...we ended it the best way. Serving to others with our church. We participated in Trunk or Treat with our group of friends from small group. We didn't do it at our church, we actually went to a very low income housing and did it for those kids. It was wonderful! Brought tears to my eyes multiple times.

 

 

One of the proudest moments as parents we have had is our boys not wanting any of our candy we were handing out but willingly giving it to others. They sat for 1 whole hour giving out candy to kids. Never ate a piece until we were done. Karson of course was making huge conversation with each child about what their costume was and how he liked it. He is very good about giving people compliments.

 

 

This was the best family picture I got. It is so blurry but anyway we were all hunters and Kipton was our little deer. It was pretty cute! He is so precious and such a loving child.

 

 

Tonight we had our reschedule trick or treat but I didn't take any pictures. I totally forgot my camera while trying to get the boys ready and out by myself. Kevin had to work so my dad went with us. It was fun and the boys had a blast "actual" trick or treating. Kipton kept saying

"Hey guys wait up for me" because Karson was walking so fast.

 

The boys love different costumes and telling them they like them. They really liked looking for scary guys and Karson even hugged an older guy that had a scary mask on.

 

After 30 minutes of trick or treating Karson said he had to pee and was done. He was happy with his little bit of candy and was ready to go. We headed back to Nana's & Pappaws and ate some candy and before too long it was time to head home and get baths, stories, and bedtime.

 

I am so happy Halloween is over :) Now to enjoy this candy. HAHA!

 

 

 

Halloween Eve

Yep...your eyes are not deceiving that is SNOW!

It is October and it snowed almost 4 inches here in West Virginia. The cold front came in from Hurricane Sandy and pushed wind and snow our way. When the boys woke up they couldn't stop looking out the window. Thankfully Kevin was off work and we could get out that morning for a little sledding and fun!

 

 

 

 

 

They loved being pulled by the 4-wheeler. Something that I did when we were growing up and it is so fun to watch the boys have fun with it too!!

 

 

We came back in for some hot chocolate! The boys love it, but use up alot of marshmallows. Probably not the healthiest snack but it is so good on snow days.

 

 

We stayed home on this day because of the snow and we really didn't have any plans anyway. After our sledding and lunch we all took naps. Well besides me...I did laundry :) But the boys and Kevin took naps and woke up in time for dinner.

 

We had spaghetti and then decided to carve some pumpkins with Kevin's help.

 

 

 

Of course just a simple knife wouldn't be ok...you have to break out the power tools with Kevin. The boys loved drilling holes in the pumpkin. They could have cared less about the goop inside or making a funny face. It was all about the power tools.

 

 

Kevin wanted to create this great pumpkin creation and it turned out to be really bad. So he cut a hole and put it on his head! HA Seriously? The boys and I were dying laughing.

 

 

We had a fun Halloween Eve at home with the snow and pumpkin carving.

 

On the 31st we had a preschool morning and here is Karson before we headed out.

 

 

He is still very picky about his clothes but agreed to wear this last Halloween shirt for mommy. I had him another fun glow in the dark skelton shirt that he down right refused to wear so we agreed he would wear this ghost shirt. I tell you....boys are high maintence about their clothes.

 

He said "Mom can't I just wear a baseball shirt or something?" lol it was kind of funny but I told him just 1 more time with a Halloween shirt.

 

Here is another Halloween shirt that I made for them and had their name monogrammed. I wanted to add it so that I remembered. I am a total junky for seasonal clothes for the boys. I LOVE them!

 

 

 

Tonight is our actual trick or treat night. It got changed to Nov 1 because of the snow storm. We would have been trick or treating in the snow if they kept the original date of Oct 30.

 

The boys are excited to "knock on peoples door". Kevin has to work this evening so we are taking Papaw Brad along with us. I feel like Halloween has been going on for weeks!

 I am ready for it to be over :)

 

Halloween Parties Continued...

Our friend Brandy and Lola hosted the Mother's Club Halloween Party. It was the best time with over 20 kids and lots of mommas. She had everything you could think of to do with Halloween. Lots of good food, Halloween music, spooky decorations, crafts for the kids, games, and prizes.

 

 

The mommas were asked to dress like their children's costumes so a Hunter Girl was super easy because I already had the camo. The boys loved it too!

 

 

Here is Brandi the host at the cupcake decorating table. It was so nice and the kids loved it but I am pretty sure Karson was sneaking too many worms and sprinkles throughout the party and not enough actual food for lunch :)

 

 

Ready for the Pinata....loads of candy. The moms were laughing that Halloween has seemed to go on forever and forever. It has seriously been like Halloween for the past week and it is still going on because Trick or Treat has been changed because of the big storm Sandy.

 

 

 

I didn't get many pictures of Kipton. He was off playing with his friends and not interested in taking pictures! Brandi did such a great job hosting the Halloween Party. It was all so fun!

 

 

Karson says this is his best friend Luke! He LOVED his costume :)

Preschool Halloween Party

Last Friday was Karson's 1st ever "school" party! They had from 9:00 - 10:45 of their regular day and then the parents were invited back to dress their child into their costume and enjoy a Halloween Party complete with a little program from the kids.

 

 

Our Big 3 year old boy wanted to be a Deer Hunter just like daddy is. So that's what he was :)

I was a little bummed that he didn't want a cute little costume but those days are over for our "big boy" I have to say he's a pretty cute hunter complete with his bow, arrows, deer call, and binoculars all ready for his party.

 

 

Here are a few pictures from his morning at school. Showing off his costume for friend Cooper the Captain Hook

 

 

Marching into the program

 

 

Marching to the music in with his friends. Such a proud moment as his momma :)

 

 

I was very nervous and excited for the program. When we had Karson at VBS over the summer the end of the week program didn't go so great. It is hard to sit still as a 3 year old BUT.....he did perfect! I was SO proud and he so proud to show me just how much he'd learned so far at preschool and all of his friends. They sang about 5 songs and came up one by one to the teacher in the middle and said their name and what their costume was.

 

To say that I was proud of a great program and of my big boy would be an understatement. I couldn't stop smiling at him and giving him thumbs up! (yes...insert crazy mom here)

 

 

Here is Karson and his great friend Jonas as Spiderman

 

 

Jonas's mom and I were laughing at how neither of them really wanted to smile. I guess that's not cool to smile in their COOL BOY costumes :)

 

 

Karson and teacher Miss Rachel. He adores her and talks about her often!

 

 

Karson with his "Molly" girl that we have been hearing about all school year. She was a flamingo and her costume was gorgeous. He was super excited to let me meet Molly. I hope he is always happy to introduce me to his girl "friends". Praying hard already for a gentle, godly, character now and through those teenage years.

 

 

After the program and party at preschool Karson asked if we could visit the park nearby and so we did. We had a great time just the two of us. Kipton stayed home with daddy because he wasn't feeling well and we decided it would be good for Karson to have just mommy's attention for his special morning. After the park we picked up some lunch and visited the Pumpkin House in Kenova, WV.

 

We had a great morning together and really enjoyed his first "school" party.

 

Here's to MANY MANY more!