Halloween 2019

After one of the craziest and wildest Halloween afternoons I have encountered with the kids fighting, throwing tantrums, and getting in trouble, I somehow managed to get dinner made, feed everyone, get the children dressed in their costumes, and Emmett nursed before heading out the door for pictures on the porch by 6:15.  Feeyooh!  I think it was just too much sugar and too much excitement that caused our household to nearly self-destruct, but most of us managed to get in a good mood once we started trick-or-treating.  Although it has been quite cold, we have been blessed with some of the most beautiful, autumn weather this week with glorious sunshine every day.  As a result, no jackets or umbrellas were needed as we set out to knock on doors on our street.  Ron and Emmett tagged along with us for the first half of the route before throwing in the towel in order to get baby home and warmed up in our house.  However, I must say that Emmett did a great job the entire time that he was out with us.  He looked absolutely adorable in Logan's, old monkey costume and really didn't make a peep the entire time he was following his siblings around int the stroller.  The three older children and I finished off our street before returning home around 7:30 to eat candy, answer the door, pop popcorn, and watch our beloved, Disney's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow movie on the television while baby Emmett just cruised around on the floor.  We called it 'a night' around 9 p.m. after thoroughly enjoying a pleasant, Halloween evening after a very rocky and wild start!

Lia posing as a Southern Belle for the second time in a few days.  I can't get over how tall and grown up she looks in this picture!  Ahhhh!

Logan agreed to put on his awesome, Captain Jack Sparrow wig and hat for the pictures before throwing it off and replacing it with his simpler, pirate hat from last year.  I think he looks pretty awesome in this picture.

After flip flopping between half a dozen princess costumes, Ella settled on Cinderella after coming home from school today.  She then changed her mind to Ariel while I was getting her dressed to which I put the kibosh on since we had already dug through the massive dress-up box to find all of the parts and pieces of this costume.  This caused one of the many tantrums thrown this afternoon.  Luckily, Ella seemed to get over it once we hit the street.

Lia holding sweet, baby Emmett dressed as the cutest monkey in town.

Our annual, kids-on-the-steps picture before trick-or-treating.

A vertical, close-up of the kids.  Please notice Emmett laughing in this picture.  Sometimes he can produce the greatest smiles for pictures!

Mommy and the kiddos standing in front of our neighbor's driveway before knocking on the first door of the evening.

The kids standing in front of Donna's awesome, corn husk/pumpkin statue that she creates every year.

Ringing Donna's door who is the sweetest lady in her 80s who lives up the hill from us.

Ella posing with the 'skeleton tea party' (as she called it) in front of another neighbor's house who goes all out!

The kids posing for me in front of another door with fun decorations before getting some more candy.

Our Little Monkey

I have been wanting to get some solo shots of Emmett this week in his adorable, monkey outfit that he is wearing for Halloween.  After looking out of my kitchen window at the beautiful pile of autumn leaves in one corner of our backyard, I decided that this would be a great place for a few pictures.  Luckily, since we have been have some gorgeous, sunny weather this week, the leaves were totally dry for him to sit on without getting wet.  So, we went out this morning for a few pictures and Emmett behaved so well.  He was so fascinated with the leaves that he never once tried to get up or crawl away.  He just happily sat there playing with the leaves and smiling at me whenever I got him to look at the camera.  His pictures came out darling and I just love that I will have these to treasure forever as he grows up into a active, busy, and running toddler in a matter of months!  Sniff.

Painting Pumpkins!

Since Ron has had the craziest work schedule the past 2.5 weeks, he has not been home for the last several nights in a row (including this past weekend when he had two back-to-back conferences).  As a result, we didn't have time to sit down as a family to "carve" our pumpkins until last night.  When we were talking about doing this activity the night before, Ron suggested that we paint our pumpkins for the first time since it is quite the thing to do these days.  Since I have a large collection of acrylic paints and brushes from all of my crafting over the years and since I dread the amount of time and energy involved in helping three children cut, scoop out, and carve their pumpkins in addition to my own, I jumped at the idea.  We quickly ate and cleaned up dinner last night so that we were able to get the table all ready to go for our pumpkin painting at 7 p.m. when Ron hoped to come home from an evening obligation with the superintendent.  However, when he didn't show up, we just went ahead without him which was so much easier to do since we were painting instead of carving pumpkins!  I quickly painted my 'trip to the spa' pumpkin before helping Ella with her leopard pumpkin.  Both Lia and Logan just went ahead and painted their Harry Potter and pirate pumpkins by themselves without any help from me which was such blessing!  Everyone then went ahead and painted their little pumpkins by themselves (including Ella) while I worked on painting the ghost on Emmett's pumpkin.  It was during this time that Ron finally came home which was totally fine instead of a massive inconvenience since we were almost done.  Thank heavens for his fabulous idea!  We might have started a new tradition...

Ella painting a baby face on her little pumpkin.

Logan working on his large, pirate pumpkin.  It is missing an eye because we put an eye patch on the other side of the nose.

Lia working on painting the scarf on her Harry Potter pumpkin.

Our cutest pumpkin hung out happily in his saucer for a large period of time while we were painting which was such a help!

A close-up of our cutie.

Ella, Emmett, and me posing with our pumpkins.

The kids and the pumpkin line-up!

Logan's pirate, my 'trip to the spa' pumpkin, and Ella's leopard.  She painted all of the spots by herself.

Lia's Harry Potter pumpkin and Ron's Day of the Dead inspired, skeleton pumpkin.

Church Halloween Party

We attended our church's Halloween party last night and had a great time.  Luckily, the primary president who I served with last fall is still in the same calling this year, so she initiated a ward Halloween party for the second year in a row like we did last year as a presidency.  I am so grateful for this as having the chance to eat dinner and play some games inside the church for 1.5 hours is so much better than just trunk-or-treating in the parking lot for a whoppin' five minutes!  Since Ron had a work conference in Sea Tac, I had to make a homemade soup, get all four kids dressed in their costumes, nurse Emmett, and load up everything and drive everyone to the church all by myself.  It was a bit much, but we managed to get there only a few minutes late.  After some quick pictures outside under the beautiful, autumn trees, we went into the church for some dinner and games before heading back outside for the annual, trunk-or-treat.  Ron came directly from his work conference and was able to meet up with us half way through dinner.  I was grateful for his help as he ended up pushing Emmett in his stroller for the rest of the party which allowed me to chase the other kids around as they participated in the evening's activities.  The older three had a great time playing games and trunk-or-treating and baby Emmett was a trooper sitting happily in his monkey costume in his stroller for the remainder of the evening.

The four, Hartland kids posing under one of the many pretty trees on the church grounds.

A close-up of our cute kiddos.  Lia was dressed as a Southern Belle, Logan was a pirate (for the third year in a row), Ella was Little Red Riding Hood, and baby Emmett was a monkey.  Just some fun facts:  Lia was wearing a costume my mom made for me in the 7th grade that I wore in a regional, dance festival for church and Ella was wearing my Little Red Riding Hood cape that I also wore for a Halloween as a little girl.  Emmett also was wearing the same costume that Logan wore for his first Halloween when he was almost the same age.

The kids and me before heading into church.

Ella, Logan, Lia, and Emmett eating dinner.  Since I was in charge of the food last year, I made sure that hot dogs and fruit and veggie platters were on the menu so that my kids would have something healthy to eat (since homemade soups and chilis are not really their thing).  However, since I had nothing to do with the party planning this year, only soups, salads, and rolls showed up.  As a result, please notice that Ella's dinner consisted of a roll, some shredded cheese, and dessert.  Luckily, both Lia and Logan decided to eat some soup and got some protein and vegetables in their bodies before gorging themselves on desserts and candy.

After dinner, the kids and I participated in a costume parade around the gym.

Ella didn't want to participate in the costume parade and stayed with Ron, so here are the older kids with Emmett and me finishing up our second walk around the gym.

After the costume parade, we headed out to several classrooms in the church to play some games.  Here is Logan throwing a pumpkin, bowling ball at some ghost pins.

Ella and Logan playing a tic-tac-toe game on the floor.

And Lia doing the same with her friend, Isabel.

Baby Emmett hanging in there like a champ in his stroller while we trunk-or-treated outside the church at the end of the party.

Logan giving me a smile after getting some candy from a thoroughly decked out trunk.

Lia getting some candy from another family in the ward.

And, lastly, 'Little Red' getting some of her own candy before moving down the lane!

Family Trip to the Pumpkin Patches

Since Ron has to work all next Saturday, we decided that today needed to be the day to make our annual trip to the pumpkin patch even with less than stellar weather predicted.  We bundled up in our jackets and rain boots and headed out this morning before baby Emmett's late, morning nap to make a visit to our favorite Spooner Farms down in the valley.  Luckily, it was only sprinkling when we got there and it stopped raining soon after we arrived.  The kids and I met Ron there and had a fun time picking out pumpkins (both large and small), eating some yummy treats from the little store, and taking our annual family picture in the pumpkin patch.  We decided to pass on visiting the animals in the barn or doing the duck races after an hour since we needed to get Emmett home for his nap, but I promised the kids that we could make a separate trip back one day after school before Halloween to do these things.  So, hopefully, we will make it back before the Halloween season wraps up!

A very happy and smiling baby Emmett poses with his older siblings among the bins of small pumpkins and gourds.  The three older kids all got to pick out one of these to take home in addition to their carving pumpkins.

The cutest, little pumpkin giving me a huge smile thanks to Lia's help who was standing behind me.

One more sibling shot.

Darling Ella posing in among the mini pumpkins and rain puddles.

The annual, Hartland fam photo in the pumpkin house.  We have one of these for every year since 2010!

A close-up of our crew.  I still can't believe that there are six of us now.

The three big kiddos posing in the photo cut-out.

Mama and baby standing in the rows of pumpkins.

The kids standing next to one of the giant, hay bale spiders in the very muddy pumpkin patch.

Papa and Logan looking for Logan's perfect pumpkin.

Another cute picture of our darling, 5-year old.

They found it!  Papa carrying Logan's chosen pumpkin back to the wheel barrow.