Happy Halloween

Somehow we have made it to the end of October already!  A good majority of our leaves have fallen and been raked up, mostly by the kids.

Ezri discovered a huge leaf in our front yard!

This week, Sadie has taken to climbing on the table, for some unknown reason... 

In preparation for Halloween, we lit the pumpkins for a few nights, and enjoyed the kids' hard work carving them.

Friday night, we headed off to Jenison for some Trunk-or-Treat fun with Henry for his birthday, and followed that up with some birthday gifts and treats.

Saturday we spent more time helping rake leaves at Kathy's last weekend.  The kids had a ton of fun chopping down some dead trees and gathering branches to keep the fire going, and just fun playing together in general.

After dark, we headed to the New Salem Corn Maze for a chilly ride through their new Halloween light show.

Sunday evening, we got to join Ezri at a youth group event where there was food, games, a haunted trail with a scavenger hunt and even a maze.  The kids had a lot of fun together.

Monday brought Halloween.  The weather was just about perfect.  Any rain that was falling stopped for the full time we were out gathering candy!  This year, Ezri was a cowgirl, Alora was a clown, Tierney was a princess and Elam was a pumpkin.

We started out the night with our friends Travis and Emmett trick-or-treating with us. 

Our first stop was out to Aunt Nancy and Uncle Ryan's where we left some get well cards for Uncle Ryan who had just had knee surgery.  We also stopped by Uncle Fred's house and Charles' house at the farm.

Back in Hopkins, it was off to Pamaw's and then on down the road and into the rest of the village.

A while later, we were joined by my cousin Jen, her husband Jared and their kids Mason, Cooper and Mya.  The kids had so much fun trick-or-treating together!

We also ran into Payten while we were out!

We had a great night out, came home to many houses a little after 7 to find all 500 pieces of our candy gone as well as 100 bouncy balls and 100 slap bracelets, so there were a lot of kids out in town that night!  We enjoyed a taco dinner together before tucking our sugared up kids into bed with a farewell to October and talk of the events to come in November.

Enjoying Fall

 The true signs of fall are upon us, with leaves raining all around.  We have begun raking our yard, and helping our friend Kathy with hers as well.  The kids are always such great helpers with this task, at either location, and it makes the job a lot more fun.

We have enjoyed some fun with our own leaf piles in our yard as well!

Around home, we are slowly adjusting to life without Tobi.  Everyone in our house has felt the loss, even the animals, maybe Lucky most of all.  His normal seclusive temperament has changed to be more in tune to what we are doing, wanting to be pet more often and more intentional about being close to people.

The kids and I spent one afternoon last week dropping off some donations and also returning the pop cans they have been collecting to raise money they will use to purchase some gifts from the World Vision catalog for Christmas.  I love their heart and their efforts so much!

Last Sunday, we had such a wonderful and beautiful afternoon, spent at my Aunt and Uncle's farm.  What began as an open invitation to all of my aunts, uncles and cousins found us spending the day with my Uncle Don, Aunt Peggy, and Cousins Rod, Jen and Randy and their families, and it was so much fun!  We enjoyed a picnic lunch outside and then the kids played around the farm, built forts and just had a great time together.  Later, the kids each got to carve a big pumpkin from Aunt Peggy's garden and then we all went on a hay ride with Uncle Don.  It was so pretty with all of the changing colors and the weather was so warm and perfect for the day.  It was hard to go home that evening, after having had so much fun together with family.