Trick or Treating on Halloween

Travis was out of town on Halloween Day, which kind of stunk for us...or me, really.  Thankfully, we'd done boo at the zoo, so we did get to trick or treat as a family, but that still isn't Halloween.  However, Craig and Nichole did come trick or treat with us, which was a help to me.  I don't know if I could have handled the stroller plus my kids running up the big yards by myself. So it was nice to have the company and the help.  The weather was AMAZING on Halloween night.  You could really wear anything and be comfortable.  I was really thankful for that because of Sage's costume.  I thought for sure that it wouldn't even be seen because it's not warm in any way, but it worked out perfectly.
 

Here's a picture of our crew, minus Craig.

Then I decided I'd try to work to get my kids to all look for a picture.

These days I'm really okay with 2 out of 3.

Then our Halloween miracle happened.

Pretty girl.

Jaggar and Paisley

Had to get a pic of Jaggar's tail.

We had a great night.

My Precious Pumpkin

I wanted to get some pictures of Costner by our pumpkins on his first Halloween.  I had to WORK to get these, but it was so worth the effort because they are some of my favorites.  He is the cutest thing, I know. And see our finished pumpkins?  Or let me correct myself, TRAVIS' and the KIDS pumpkins.  I did nothing. 

I love him so much.

 Hmmm....think I need to further investigate this thing beside me.  It appears to have a handle.

 And who needs the handle when it has open access right in front?

 Annnd I think he may need a tooth pulled.

 Precious smile

 Such a precious boy

Jaggar's Fall Festival

Jaggar had a fall festival at his school on Halloween, and the parents were invited to come.  I was more than happy to do so.  It began at 10, and I had a meeting at 9, so I just walked over after that.  I remember doing these things with Sage for many of her preschool years, but this was Jaggar's first one so it was cool.  Costner got to share in the day, too.

This first pic wasn't the actual fall fest day, but they had dress up days before Halloween.  This was "farmer day."

The first stop for Jaggar's class at the fall fest was the pumpkin patch.  Jaggar immediately went to that huge pumpkin pictured, rolled it, and found a huge worm underneath.  He was SO excited about that and was more than ready to take it with him before I stopped him.  He also wanted that pumpkin, which I'm pretty sure I couldn't have even lifted.

He did sit down for a second for me to take his picture.

Jaggar and Paisley

Then Gracin wanted in on a pic.

Next stop was the gym where they had many different stations.  All Jaggar saw were the inflatables, as any boy would.  The first table was the cookie decorating table.  Icing and many different sprinkles lined the table.  Jaggar had to have very specific sprinkles for his.  I ate the cookie.  :)  Only because he didn't want it when he was done.

Candice came in with her kids, including Mia, who is just two weeks younger than Bleu.  Although, she has been blowing him away with milestones:  talking, standing, walking...weight :) for their lives thus far, we got her on one thing:  hair.  We have WAY more hair and teeth too, now that I think of it.

It was SO cute watching them check each other out.

I think she's such a cutie.

Kent with Paisley and Hadley

While they were waiting to go to the arts and crafts table, Jaggar got to jump.  He had a blast.

He got to decorate a pumpkin picture at the art table.  We wrote his name in glitter, and all he wanted to do was dump more and more glitter out.

Ms Mirian, his teacher, helping him.  He's so cute.

Look who found a container of crayons under the table and dumped them out.

Nichole put Cosnter into the jumpy too.

My boy and me

Kisha painting Jaggar's face at the face painting table.  He chose a pumpkin.

Finished product

His favorite:  the big slide.  He said he was on "the boys' side." 

Then we got to eat lunch with them in the classroom.  This boy ate anyone and everyone's unfinished food.  As usual, he was the first and last one eating.  Pizza, fruit, chips:  he ate it all.  Look at him sitting there like a big boy.

At the very end, Jaggar got to go back out to the pumpkin patch and choose a small pumpkin.  Of course, he wanted that huge one, but we settled for this.

Baby Bleu checking it out.

We had a wonderful day with Jaggar, and he's still talking about this day. He wants to do it again.

Pumpkin Carving

I'm trying my best to catch this up before the holidays and someone's first BIRTHDAY hits me.  I've added a few more things to my plate lately that take up more time, so I'm behind and I hate it.  We carved our pumpkin, which turned into pumpkinS, last Tuesday and Wednesday.  I know, not a moment too soon. I'd always intended to get more than one, but the week of Halloween, they were sold out at Walmart.  So Travis got another HUGE one on Wednesday from a local seller.  I wasn't there for that one, but I did get a few shots of the first night.  Travis says I never do anything anyways but take a few pics in the beginning and then walk away.  So...I made good on that this year.  lol...he's literally been gone so much that when he IS home, I'm scrambling to get some things done that I can't do alone.

Anyway, the kids were so excited.  Jaggar had been asking and counting down the days to Halloween since the beginning of October.

 The 2 big kids could not agree on a pumpkin.  Jaggar wanted a scary one; Sage wanted a happy one. So they agreed to do the scary one this night, and they'd do a happy one the next night.

 Getting ready to clean it out:  my favorite part.  I didn't bake the seeds this year like I normally do.  No one really seemed interested, so I didn't waste my time.  I did, however, take a huge whiff of fresh pumpkin.  I do love that smell and always have.

 They love it.

 Bleu's first time.  IT was so cute.  The moment he got a handful, he let the binky hit the table because he was going to give it a taste.  That's how I always know he's ready to eat something I have or that he sees:  the pacifier (if he has it) just falls.

 And Jaggar going for it.

Our pumpkins turned out really well, but being the winner I am, I didn't take a pic of the final product.  I do have them in our Halloween shots and with some pics of Bleu, so I'll post them there. 

Boo At the Zoo

We did not go to Ky for Fall Break this year like we usually do, and when we're there, we always go to the zoo.  Last year, I was not looking forward to Halloween at all with Sage and diabetes.  Last year, I wasn't looking forward to much of anything.  While it is still a burden we bear daily, I dang sure don't let it stop us or her from doing anything she would do if she didn't have it.  It's just there.  That is all.  I don't want a damn license plate.  I don't want a support group.  I don't want to talk about it and think about it anymore than I already do.  Thankfully, we are surrounded by good people that get that anyways.  SO, since we were here this year, I wanted to try Boo at the Zoo in Birmingham.  I looked online and it looked pretty fun.  I knew the kids would love it.  Travis is working a lot during football season. He's pretty much gone every weekend.  But he was off this past Friday. Sadly, my father-in-law's dad passed away and we had his funeral that afternoon, but Travis said that he wanted to go to the zoo after that.  It didn't start until 5.  I was SO excited.  I was.  Me.  The kids were, too, but I was just excited to be...I don't know...normal.  I get a lot of anxiety lately about...everything really, and it was so nice to just have fun.  All of us.  Away from this town and the norm and facebook and my house that's just never quite together enough.  And we were off.  So I said no spoilers about costumes, but I guess I have to now...I was SO excited about the boys' costumes.  I have to give credit to my friend, Nichole, who suggested it.  Jaggar loves Monsters Inc, and he's always wearing his hat with Mike on it to school (need to take a pic of that), so it was a no brainer for her.

I present....Sully and Mike.  Are they not the CUTEST?  Now Jaggar had just tried this on for the first time here, so he was unsure.  He said Sully was too scary.  In reality, he just didn't know what he wanted to be, and I was not giving him the option.  Obviously, Bleu didn't care one bit.

 So, OFF we went to the zoo and what happened but Mista T forgot his sunglasses?  And it was that time of the day where the sun is blinding.  So I GLADLY offered him a pair of mine.

And he wore them.  Without shame.

 While I sat and took pictures of myself in the passenger seat and texted this to friends with a caption of something like, "What a pretty friend you have." or something like that.

 So as soon as we got there, we dressed our Monsters Inc friends.

 And they were adorable.  I just love this picture.  This is Costner's first Halloween, too, by the way.  But I stupidly didn't bring a bag for him and act like he was getting candy and then eat it myself.

 And little Miss here...I actually got her costume first.  Last year, she wanted to be a flapper so badly, but they had none in her size.  THIS year, I found the PERFECT set complete with all accessories, even fishnets, at TJ Maxx and snagged it at the beginning of October.  It was SO her.  Doesn't she look fantastic?  Secretly, if I dressed for Halloween, I'd totally be a flapper myself.

 I have to say that the Birmingham Boo at the Zoo blew Louisville's away.  It was SO great.  Photo opps at every corner.  I was SHOCKED at all of the decorations.  They had so many lights and props that I really wondered how many people it took to set them all up. 

 Mike taking it all in.

 I had a lady take our pic. That's actually the "great pumpkin" from Charlie Brown, which we've been watching regularly.  Jaggar even said on the way there that he hoped he got a rock. He did the same thing last year, and Travis actually snuck a rock in Jaggar's bag.  It THRILLED him.   If you haven't seen the Charlie Brown Halloween, then that won't make sense.

Jaggar's costume was THE HIT.  EVERYONE loved it.  It even has a tail, which I didn't get a pic of, but I will on Halloween.

 It was the perfect fall weather, and once the sun went down, it was COLD.

 They had cardboard cut outs for photos everywhere.  At the Louisville zoo, you basically go through the entire zoo in a line and get a piece of candy at each stall.  Nasty candy too.  Like a pixie stick.  They weren't playing around here.  Snickers.  Butterfingers.  Reeses.  Skittles.  And they didn't skimp. They had all kinds of games like a carnival that you could play over and over and over and get as much candy as you wanted.  Jaggar was in heaven.  They also had a "dance party" with a room with disco lights and music like "Ghostbusters" and "Thriller" blasting.  Jaggar danced his heart out with no reservations.  It was so great.

 They also had extra things that you could pay extra for like the Sasquatch safari where you searched for Big Foot.  We got armbands so that we could do it all, and this was the line for that.  That was really fun.  They took you on a hayride way out in the back of the zoo in the dark shining a flashlight. Then a guy dressed as a foot ran by.  It was really funny, and then the actual "big foot" went by.  IT was cool, and then the "foot" came up and gave everyone candy.  My kids loved it.  All along every back path were lit up pumpkins and decorations.  It was really amazing all of the effort that they put in it.

 Then Travis saw this.

 The eyes in that skull were spinning.  There was literally SO much to look at.  Jaggar, at times, would just walk off to the next thing and then freak because he was losing me.

 I wanted Travis to take this because of all of the LIGHTS!  Oh my goodness.  None of my pics did it justice.

 Precious boy waiting in line for one of the kids' favorites:  the backwards carousel.  Because it was Halloween, it's "haunted" and goes backwards covered in spiderwebs and black lights.  The Louisville zoo used to make theirs go backwards but stopped.  The Bham zoo even turned the lights completely out when the ride was going, and the kids just loved it.

 Sage being a ghost in the black light.

 Behind the carousel, there were more lights galore with an Alice in Wonderland theme, one of my absolute favorite movies.  And behind THAT was another paid deal to see "the fortune teller." We walked a very, very, almost creepy path to get to her, and then...it just didn't look like simple fun to me.  There's just some things I'm not even playing with.  Can't describe it exactly, but I didn't like how the scene felt.  I have enough doors in my life I want shut for me to throw anymore open.  Sage asked why we weren't doing it, and we just told her it was one of the things about Halloween that we don't like and we're not doing it. Besides, I already know how beautiful and amazing I am.  Done and done.

 We finally made it to the OTHER side of the zoo, and there was this light show!  Jaggar would have stayed here indefinitely dancing and watching.  This song here is his favorite on their Just Dance game for the wii.



Then we came upon Despicable Me!  They had a show, but we missed it.

 We were making our way to the train and to the actual "trick or treating."

 This was the trick or treating part.  It was like a maze with LOTS of candy, and they let you go through more than once!  Not that we'd know :)

 Sage's costume wasn't for warmth, so she had a sweater on, but when she caught a glimpse of the Nutcracker ballerinas up ahead, she quickly took her sweater off so they could see her costume.  I totally got it and asked if they'd let me take a pic.  Sage was thrilled and told me she was so glad I did that. :)

 Waiting in line for the train.  It was a little after 9. The kids were saying they didn't want to because of the line, but we were riding.

 Baby could not hold out anymore.  He was down for the count.

 I didn't take pics on the train, but it was so great.  SO many decorations in the back. The conductor of the train was "scary," and the kids loved it.  They had a strobe light in the tunnel.  They had a ghost light sequence that seemed to "chase" us.  Holding Jaggar in my lap and sitting by Sage listening to them and watching them, I just soaked it all in thinking, "THIS is a moment.  This is a perfect moment I will hold forever.  Babies.  Appreciating such a fun time.  Looking at so many pretty lights and just being grateful."  Because in that moment, we were okay.  Sounds funny, but if you knew the panics I've had, it would make more sense...but in that moment, life was perfect and I grabbed it and kept it.  I SAW IT.  It did not pass me by is what I'm saying, like so many moments can.

 On the way out, we were all tired.  And cold.  But we'd had a great time, and Sage was wanting to capture every photo opportunity that she could.

 And I indulged her.