Halloween Fun

For Halloween this year, I really wanted to put Jaden and Cody in coordinating costumes. I'm not sure how many more years they'll allow me to "match" their costumes, so I'm taking advantage while I can. After scouring Pinterest for ideas, I landed upon a Curious George and Man with the Yellow Hat duo. Winner! Cody and Jaden absolutely adore Curious George! For the past many months, it's really been the only video that holds their attention. When I mentioned the costume idea to the boys, they were thrilled. Surprisingly (and thankfully!), the boys didn't argue at all about who would be which character. Right away Cody volunteered himself to be Curious George, and Jaden piped up with, "And I can be the man with the yellow hat!"

Now it was time to make the costumes! The only clothing item we had on hand was a pair of brown pants, so my work was cut out for me. I ended up visiting quite a few thrift stores, craft stores, and clothing stores to assemble all the pieces. Because I started the costume-making process so early, I actually enjoyed the process and the challenge of finding and creating the costume pieces. The greatest find was the yellow pants-- Sponge Bob pajama pants from my nephew Ian's drawer! Perfect! :) I was pleased with how the final costumes turned out.

Of course, the costumes look way cuter with two little boys inside! :) Cody is making his "ooh-ooh-aah-aah" monkey sounds in the picture below.

Here's a decent smiling pic (rare!) of both boys.

We had quite a few opportunities to dress up throughout the month of October, so we got some good use out of the outfits. The boys' costume-debut occasion was a Halloween playdate. In early fall, Kim invited me to join her twice-monthly themed playgroup she has with friends. Because Kim models her playgroup similarly to what I had done with friends back in Montana, this group has been a big blessing for the boys and me. For their Halloween playdate, the pic below was the only one I got of the kids in costume. By the time our other two little friends arrived, most of these guys had taken off their costumes already! Ah, the roller coaster of being three! :) The playdate was a big hit-- complete with a monster mask craft, Halloween trail mix, pumpkin rolling, pumpkin hot potato, and Halloween storytelling. My sister and her friends are a creative crew!

Sammy, Ryan Cody, Jaden, Nathan

About a week before Halloween, our neighborhood subdivision was scheduled to have a hayride, but it was rescheduled due to heavy rains. Instead, our family went over to Matt and Kim's house and played some Halloween games there. First, we made a duct tape spider web, threw plastic bugs on it, and pretended we were spiders grabbing the bugs.

Then, we played a ghost-print musical game, an activity that had been a big hit from my Halloween parties from the last 2 years. Ian, Ryan, Jaden and Cody loved it too. Who wouldn't enjoy an excuse to run around the living room?!

When the music was on, we danced/ran/jumped around. When the music stopped, the kids had to listen to directions and then find a certain shape or color on a ghost print. We played quite a few rounds of this active game!

Even Nathan got into the dancing! :)

Our next Halloween dress-up occasion was the Trunk or Treat event at our church. Don't the boys look excited?! :)

Because Jason was involved in the event, I was very thankful that Grandma and Grandpa were visiting and could join us for Trunk or Treat. It was a very crowded night, so I really appreciated the extra hands!

Cody and Jaden were a bit overwhelmed by all the people, so they stayed close beside Grandma and Grandpa. I guess I had nothing to worry about with these 2 wandering off! :)

The trunks were all decorated so creatively, mostly by our church's high school youth group kids. Cody and Jaden got a nice stash of candy.

We met up with Matt, Kim, Jon, Chelsea and all our nephews there, too. Here is the cousin costume picture!

Ian, Jaden, Cody, Nathan, Isaiah, Ryan

And a close-up of the cutest lobster and lion ever! :) 

There was music playing in the background all evening, so Jaden and Cody got a little dance in with Grandma.

Jason was in charge of manning a trunk for the evening, so he costumed-up as a Lions' player.

At the end of the night, we gave Matt and Kim's family a ride back to their vehicle since it was so dark and their car was a long way off. 

Our neighborhood hayride was rescheduled for the night before Halloween. Good thing the boys weren't getting tired of their costumes yet! It always helped to remind them that they'd be getting candy once their costumes were on. :) Here they are, ready to walk down to our neighborhood park.

Ryan, Ian, and Nathan joined us for this event too. The boys all seemed to enjoy the ride around our neighborhood in this trailer bed. I didn't get any pics of the rest of the evening, but our neighbors in charge of the event had set up a few Halloween games and gave out quite quite a few treats. It was a cute little evening. We love our new family-friendly neighborhood! :)

Finally, our last costume day was Halloween itself. We went trick-or-treating in Matt and Kim's neighborhood. By this point, the boys were fairly trained with their "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" routine. We made quite the troop going up to people's doorsteps!

Jaden and Cody didn't last long out on the streets trick-or-treating. We probably only visited 15 houses or so before our family turned back. Once we returned to Matt and Kim's house, Cody and Jaden LOVED the task of handing out candy to other trick-or-treaters. It seemed a little strange to see tall, costumed teenagers accepting candy from energetic three-year-olds in their pjs. :) Before bed that evening, Cody, Ryan, and Jaden enjoyed some storytime with Grandma. 

And that's it for Halloween 2015!

Pumpkins!

The arrival of October means planning a visit to the pumpkin patch. It's still hard for us former-northerners to believe that this activity can be done in shorts here! At the pumpkin patch we visited, large piles of pre-harvested pumpkins adorned the field. These piles made festive photo backdrops.

Jaden and Cody at their first TX pumpkin patch

We purposely planned our pumpkin patch trip with cousins Ian, Ryan, Nathan...

...and Grandpa and Grandma who had just arrived in town for a visit!

One of the first activities we did was to ride the train. We waited in line on these hay bale paths.

Can you pick out Cody hiding between Ian and Jaden?
 Kinda looks like a phantom set of arms and legs! :)

This train ride was a first for Nathan, I believe, and a highlight for the other little boys!

Then, thanks to Grandpa and Grandma's ticket purchases, the 3-year-old boys rode down the inflatable slides.

We used up our final tickets by riding on this hayride. Thankfully, we all made it through without any little guys falling off the nearby edge! :)

Grandpa's wagon rides were just as fun as the hayride! :)

At the very end, we fed hay to some goats...

...and climbed a bit more on the pumpkin piles! On the way home, Jaden and Cody said that the pumpkin climbing was their favorite part of the entire trip.

About a week before Halloween, our family did some pumpkin carving. Cody and Jaden remembered (most likely from some books we had read recently) that the inside of the pumpkins contained "yucky pulp and seeds." They were curious to get a glimpse of (but NOT to touch) what was inside.

Then, they directed Mommy and Daddy to design one happy face and one sad face on our pumpkins.

After that, the boys pretty much lost interest in the activity. :) The rest of our family pumpkin carving fun consisted of Mommy and Daddy doing all the work and Cody and Jaden playing with their toys in the driveway. We did draw them back for a short time to help Daddy carve the sad face pumpkin.

Jaden was even willing to try out the carving knife for one or two cuts.

In the end, the boys were quite pleased with our completed pumpkins. So pleased, in fact, that they wanted to pose just like their pumpkin faces. :)

Letters P & B

During the month of October, Jaden and Cody explored the letters P and B. Thanks to Aunt Kim's creative planning, we even wove in some Halloween pumpkin activities for the letter P. We started off our P week by making a tactile letter page with colorful pom poms.

Later that day, Jaden and Cody pulled out pennies from a jar of change. We then used these pennies for a pumpkin toss activity.

Another day we threw pieces of popped popcorn in the driveway. First, I asked the boys to predict how far they thought they could throw it. I nearly laughed out loud when I saw how far Cody thought his popcorn could go! Jaden's prediction was much more conservative. :) We marked their prediction spots with small stickers.

Then, it was time to chuck some popcorn! Be sure to notice the popcorn piece flying above Cody's head in the picture below. He didn't quite throw to his own expectations... :)

Jaden carefully analyzes his toss.

After throwing a few more popcorn pieces, the boys thought it would be much more fun to simply place stickers on the driveway and then put the popcorn directly on top.

October was a perfect month to learn about P. Of course, we had to do some pumpkin crafts! We started with some crayon melt pumpkins.

I think my hair dryer must be slowly dying because the crayons took a loooong time to melt! Cody and Jaden lost interest after a short while, so Mommy had to take over.

When the crayons finally started melting, the boys' interest rekindled. In the end, we all loved our abstract pumpkin!

Then, we painted some tape-resist pumpkins. The pumpkins were probably a bit too small for this activity, but the boys still enjoyed the process.

Our last pumpkin craft was easily the boys' favorite-- hammering nails into pumpkins!

After using up a couple dozen nails, the boys helped me weave some yarn around the nails. Another fun looking pumpkin! We enjoyed having all of these pumpkins adorn our mantel during the Halloween season.

For the letter B, we explored a bit with balloons. Jaden and Cody were pretty "wowed" to watch the balloon blow up all by itself with this fun science experiment.

Here's the video of them watching the balloon right after Cody dumped in the baking soda.

Jaden and Cody absolutely loved sending these balloon rockets back and forth across the kitchen. (Thanks, Aunt Sarah, for this great idea from Abby's birthday party!)

This was a perfect activity for two boys! Cody and Jaden just giggled and giggled when they would send the balloon back and forth to each other.

This video is the wrong direction (sorry!), but it gives you an idea of their enthusiasm.

Another day, we did "B is for bear" color sorting with gummy bears. Cody and Jaden were quite excited to have this tasty treat for a morning snack.

Probably the B activity that captured the boys interest for the longest period of time was playing with bubbles and blocks. This bowl was simply full of water, dish soap, and Duplo blocks. It was a delightful sensory playtime for Jaden and Cody. We started out on a table...

...then quickly realized it was easier to play on the floor.

The boys soon got up to their elbows in bubbles!

After quite a while, Mommy finally realized that having two bowls would probably be even easier! Oh, the obvious things that so frequently pass me by.... :) 

 

Our bead-stringing activity interested the boys for quite some time, too. They each asked to make two bracelets. Jaden even wore one of his on his ankle for a short period of time that afternoon. They were very proud to show their completed projects to Daddy when he came home.

One of our last B activities was done with ping pong balls. We numbered twelve balls from 1-12 and placed them all into this water-filled bowl. The boys took turns fishing the balls out in consecutive order.

Then, the boys took out whichever ball they wanted and identified the numbers for me. At the end, they just stirred the balls around the bowl like crazy. :)

We're continuing to enjoy our letter fun each month!