Happy Halloween

So we're not big into the Halloween thing and the Van Dam house, but we do head out to the church event and to the grandparents' houses.  Already last year I saw some really adorable costumes in the PBK catolog and wanted to have them for my boys.  Well, I tried to find the costumes on ebay this year, the prices were way toooo expense for my taste, so I headed to the local JoAnn's  for some felt fabric, which just happened to be on sale.  I really had no clue as to how much to get, because I had no patterns for the costumes.  I must say I'm pretty proud of myself, and pretty much got the right amount of fabric in only two trips to the store.

So without further ado here's the pictures of our handmade costumes.

Oh, I pretty geek-ed we won the BEST DRESSED FAMILY at the church event.  I guess that means I can slack off next year and I won't have to talk the boys into the costumes they will be wearing. :)


I'm linked up to

Pumpkin Carving

Last weekend, the boys finally convinced Mike and I that they NEEDED to carve pumpkins.  I was so glad the weather was mild out, so we could do it outside, much easier to clean up.  The boys did a wonderful job clean the guts and seeds out of their own pumpkins this year. 

Brendan designing his own pumpkin face;  he even carved it himself.

Mike carving Austin's pumpkin.

Connor's pumpkin, complete with guitars for eyes.

Lucas's pumpkin with a pig nose

Austin's pumpkin

Brendan's pumpkin

Now that the pumpkins are carved they are hanging out by the front door. 

POTD 10.26

POTD 10.21

a few of my favorite people

a small sampling of the pictures I took of the boys to use as their school pictures this year. 

Zebra, Onyx and Lemurs, Oh MY!!!!

This past Thursday, I went on another field trip with Connor's preschool class.  We went to a farm that was just around the corner from our house.  This wasn't no ordinary farm with cows, horse, or pigs; no this farm had zebra, onyx, and lemurs.  What a fun place to go!!

When we first got there, we got to see these amazing zebras.  I would have to say that's my favorite part of the farm.  The owner feed the zebra some apples and they LOVED them.

Then we got to see the newest addition to their farm, the macaques.

Then we got on a wagon and took a ride through the rest of the farm.  We saw lots of different animals.

After the wagon ride, we saw some peacocks, reptiles, two huge tortoises and some lemurs, Connor even got to feed the lemurs some fruit loops.

 Next the kids got to see and touch some ostrich and emu eggs, it was interesting to see how thick the shells were.

Cleaning their hands before snack.

What  a great fall day for another field trip!!!