Halloween 2009

Before you go looking for PHOTOS, there are none. (have not splurged for a camera yet...but we did capture some great video footage!)


Since I have ZERO time to blog...here is a list of things we enjoyed over Halloween weekend.

1. Eight hour trip from Merriam, KS to Johnson City, Kansas...three kids in a mini van! I love it!

2. Arrived at Grandma Sara's at midnight on Friday.

3. We played musical beds...

Starting out on the bed...Luke and Judd...
Starting out on the floor...David, Savannah and me

1st switch = Me, Judd and Luke on the bed...Savannah and David on the floor
2nd switch = Me and Judd on the bed...Three kids on the floor.
3rd switch = Me, David and Judd on the bed...Luke and Savannah on the floor
4th round = David and I on the bed...Judd, Luke and Savannah on the floor.

Seriously.

4. Raked the leaves in my mom's front yard and let the kids PLAY!! Judd took a great photograph of Savannah in mid air about to hit the leaves.

5. Pumpkin patch! Just three miles north of Johnson. AND it was FREE! I love SW Kansas. We found a tiny wagon just the right size for David and just the right size for Savannah to pull around. (Very cute! Refer to the photos on Gma Sara's computer.) At the Pumpkin Patch, we found a toddler/preschooler hay bale maze. The bales came up to my elbow and just above the kids heads. We had the maze to ourselves, so that was pretty fun. I got some great photos of Savannah with the wonderful Kansas landscape as a background. FLAT land and endless skies!

6. Ate my mom's delicious home cooking...YUM!!

7. Drove to Ulysses for some Trick or Treats! Savannah chose to be Sleeping Beauty. Being the awesome mom that I am, I packed her original Ladybug Girl and bride costumes. A three year old bride?!?! She likes to wear the flower girl dress from my wedding and call herself a bride, it's TOO cute to say no to. I highly dislike Disney...by the way.

The whole week Luke attended his Halloween parties in a Halloween tee becaused he refused to wear his Transformers costume. I really didn't want to pin him down or force him into an outfit that he didn't like or want to wear. (I'm a good mom.) We loaded up two costumes for him, the Transformers and Savannah's ol' Spitfire costume. Of course, he refused again once we got to Ulysses. My mom then steps in and says, "Okay, Luke, I know you don't like this darn thing. Just wear it to get some candy and then we'll take it off and get rid of it." Very casually and calm, he's says, "OK." My mom is brilliant! Why didn't we think of that?!

8. We stopped by Toni Hernandez's house and got some amazing homemade cookies!! I'll have to get the recipe from Donna.

9. We took the kids down my old route. No pics, just video. Luke warmed up to this bizarre process by about the third house. HE WAS SO CUTE! He'd hold his bag up and open and say thank you to every person who gave him candy. Savannah was darling, too. How cute is a 2 and 3 year old in costume! I think we hit about 20 houses. David came along in his stroller wearing Savannah's ladybug girl antennae. I didn't want to put him in his Bear outfit. He was sleeping to start out and the antennae were just too easy.

10. Yes, I let them eat candy for breakfast. It's Halloween, people! Judd and I ate 50% of their candy. I'll be sure to let Savannah and Luke know they can eat their kids' Halloween candy when the time comes. (I'm a good mom.)

11. The kids and I pieced together a haunted gingerbread house. Luke gobbled up the pumpkin gum balls that were set aside to line the trim of the house, oh well! The house turned out rather quirky but it kept us busy. I iced and the kids added the jellybeans, candy corns and gumballs.

12. Judd and the kids painted pumpkins. Judd and I carved pumpkins a few years ago and swore we wouldn't conjure up that headache again. Maybe next year...
This year we decided on paint. In Johnson, there is ONE store to get "googley eyes" and they were out. The manager said that a woman had bought all of the googley they had for a craft project and were waiting on her to bring back the extras. I love a small town!

13. We bagged Grandma's leaves in HUGe Jack O Lantern sacks and placed them at the end of her driveway.

14. Judd and Mike grilled the best burgers EVER on Sunday. BIG BURGERS, fellas!

15. My mom treated us to Mexican food at Garcia's in Ulysses for our last Hoorah on Monday.

16. We drove through Greensburg, KS, the small town that was entirely flattened by a tornado. I was able to meet up with Andy Kooken, proud owner of Kook's Meat. We graduated from the same high school. He's got a great little place. Greensburg is busy with construction and the trees have a story to tell. I don't know if they'll ever look like "normal" trees again, only time will tell.

17. We stopped in to visit Wamoth and Carl in St. John. Wamoth let us tag along with her to feed her many cats and a horse. Savannah and Luke were thrilled to see a live horse up close. They were both thrilled about petting the horse. Wamoth and Carl treated us to "Humble Pie Pizza". Humble Pie Pizza was once called Gambino's while Judd was growing up in SJ. He was dismayed at the name change, but the pizza was delish!!

18. Judd hit a coyote on the way home, in the minivan! It was at the exact moment when I took off my seatbelt and was outstretched towards the back of the van to hand Luke a drink. Thanks to Judd's driving, there was no swerving or slamming of the breaks involved. That coyote did take a chunk out of our fender though...

19. Pulled into sweet little home in Merriam, at midnight!!