Halloween Fun & Some Other Stuff

Let's see, I think this is going to be a random post, and I'm not sure where to start.  While Mike was out of town for his class last week, Zach and I carved a couple of pumpkins.  Zach wanted to use his Halloween placemat as our "map" (that's what he called it).  It has a bunch of different jack-o-lanterns on it, and Zach chose the one that he wanted his pumpkin to look like.  He enjoyed scooping out the seeds.  Later we washed the seeds and baked them, and they are so yummy.  Zach and I carved 2 pumpkins together, and then later I carved the other two.  I think we did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself!

Here are the final products.  I'm most proud of the Hawkeye pumpkin- I did a much better job carving a tigerhawk than I generally do just drawing one!

Later that day Zach spilled a little milk.  It hit the floor and he said, "Oh, it looks like a boy in a bathtub!"  I looked at it and thought that was a creative assessment.  I could see why he thought it looked like that, and it made me think of the children's book It Looked Like Spilt Milk.  

Thursday night was trick-or-treat night here, so we got the boys all dressed up and ready to go. 

Friday was Halloween, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so the boys and I took the dogs for a walk and stopped to watch the construction on the street one block over.  They're paving now, which is a good sign that that road might be open before long.  When we got back from the walk we played outside.  I blew bubbles for Foudy, and Drew thought that was so funny.  Here he is enjoying the bubbles.

That night Mike and Zach took further advantage of the nice weather and went out to Living History Farms for their Halloween fun.  Zach got to do some more trick-or-treating there, they roasted marshmallows, and rode on the hayride pulled by two big quarter horses.  They had a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, the line for the horses moved very slowly, so they ran out of time at the end to see the firetruck and talk to the firemen.  Zach's own words regarding this were, "I cried a lot, but then I was ok."  He was so excited to tell me about everything when they got home.  I asked if he roasted a marshmallow, and he said yes.  I said, "I can see it on your face," as he had a ring of sticky marshmallow residue all around his mouth.  He wiped a little bit of it onto his finger, held his finger out, and said, "Yeah, you wanna taste it?  It was really good."  Only a 3 year-old would scrape his marshmallow residue off his face for his mom to taste.  Gross, but sweet.  

Here's Zach with a weird smile next to a giant pumpkin at Living History Farms.  

Last night I had a bachelorette party for my friend Katrina.  Katrina went to Wartburg with me.  Three of our other college girlfriends were at the party, too.  It's been a long, long time since I've "gone out," so this was a fun treat.  It was definitely interesting watching the people out at the bars the night after Halloween.  I  felt like one of the oldest people out there, and also the most conservatively dressed.  The costumes that most of the young women were wearing were shocking.  They barely covered those girls' butts.  Zach did tell me before I left the house, "Mom, you look so stylish!"  I didn't realize he knew the word stylish, but Mike swore he didn't tell Zach to say that.  Anyway, we had a fun time, didn't drink too much, but also didn't get enough sleep.  It was so fun to be with my college girlfriends again.  It felt like the old days!

Here are Sandy, Britt, Katrina, Kristi, and me.

Since I stayed downtown with the girls, Mike and Zach decided to have a sleepover in Mom & Dad's bed.  It sounds like it went ok, though Mike said Zach had a hard time settling down to go to sleep at first and again at 2 a.m. after he got up to go potty.  He was too distracted by having someone else in the bed, as well as having Maggie on the bed.  Mike told Zach how Foudy usually sleeps on the dog pillow in the corner and how Maggie sleeps at the foot of the bed.  Zach said, "I never knew where you guys slept!"  At one point Mike woke up with feet in his face, and realized that Zach had turned himself a full 90 degrees and was lying sideways on the bed.  Though it sounds like they had a lot of fun, I've already decided that sleepovers can be a special Zach and Dad thing.  I'll pass on that one.

Today we had beautiful weather again, so after Drew's morning nap we packed up a lunch and the whole family, dogs and all, walked/pedaled (Zach rode his bike) over to a park for some playtime and a picnic. It seemed like the first time in a while that we just did something fun as a whole family, and it was so nice. Things have been so busy lately, so this really felt like slowing down and just having fun, quality time together. What a perfect end to a fun weekend.