Trunk or Treat

Tonight was the Big Rapids Branch annual Trunk or Treat. They had games inside for the kids, like a cookie walk, pumpkin toss, face painting, doughnut eating contest, and fishing. They also had a haunted house, that surprisingly, my kids weren't afraid of. The strobe light sure gave me a headache though. They also had a costume contest and everyone got a prize. They had the scariest costume, funniest costume, best superhero costume, etc. Who do you think got the best Princess costume? Brooke of course!! Charlotte was a mouse and got the award for the best girl costume. I'm not sure how they came up with that one but oh well. After the prizes were handed out, it was time to go outside to get the candy!! I can't believe how much candy we got! We left as soon as we got to all the cars, because it is a school night after all!
Here we are next to the scary skeleton pirate who sang and danced

Brooke getting her face painted. It's one of her favorite things. She wanted a fairy.

Charlotte loves doughnuts. I think she'll do just about anything for one. Including standing on a chair and pulling it off the string.
Here's the real doughnut eating contest. The guy in the sunglasses is a missionary. I think he won.

These two "cats" are so darn cute I just had to take their pictures. The one on the left just babysat for the girls on Saturday.

Here's one car that was decked out. Lot and lots of candy.


So our apartments have designated Thursday as Trick or Treating. It really ticks me off. I was really looking forward to the weekend and not having to worry about staying out too late. I guess their main concern is that many people that live in our apartments go home on the weekend and so they wanted to give them an opportunity to go around here or pass out candy if they want. So I guess we'll go around here on Thursday and maybe around a friend's neighborhood on Friday and then we have a party at our friend's house. When did Halloween become a week long event? I'm already tired....Till next time.

Pumpkin Carving

We finally carved our pumpkin today. We found a stencil online that Brooke picked out. It's a spider, can you tell? Brooke has actually been sick today, that's why her hair isn't brushed and the place is a mess.

Just for Fun

These pictures were taken a few days ago. Charlotte wasn't feeling too well. She's eating an ice cream cone, no ice cream, just the cone. A few minutes later, she threw it all up. After that she felt better. Nice.

Pumpkin cake

Brooke has homework every week. They have a book of the week about a certain subject and the homework centers around that. This week it was pumpkins. One of the things you could do was to make something with pumpkin in it. Well, I don't like much anything with pumpkin, including pumpkin pie (shock and awe) but there is a pumpkin cake that I can tolerate and I've been wanting to make. So this is Brooke helping me and the finished product with a few helpings taken.

Fall Festival in Big Rapids

The kids waiting for the parade to start


It's a real live policeman on horseback! I thought that was only in the movies!!
It's a giant pumpkin!


This weekend Big Rapids had a Fall Festival. Unfortunately it was cold and raining most of the time. But we tried to enjoy as much as we could. Friday night there was a Treasure Hunt through the stores of downtown. You got a clue at each place that would give you a hint as to where to go next. When we first started it was raining, and since our kids already have colds, we kept them in the car and one of us would go place to place. Once it stopped raining we got out and walked around. There was no treasure to be found though. I guess they're having a drawing to decide who wins, so it wasn't even a race. Oh well, it was something fun for our kids.

Today they had a parade through downtown. You could dress up if you wanted to. We just decided to watch. People dressed up their pets too. That was interesting. Then they had carnival games to play, inflatables to jump in, hot chocolate, and a giant pumpkin carving demonstration. We didn't stay very long since the kids were cold and it kept raining off and on. But here are some of our pictures.

Lunch with Brooke

Today was Grandparent/VIP day at Brooke's school. Since all of her grandparents were unable to make it, I went as her VIP. I didn't want her to not have someone there for her. But then I found out they had "extra" honorary grandparents for those children didn't have anyone. I guess they found people from the community to come. One grandparent was the librarian's dad. So that was nice that they did that. The lunch left much to be desired. They said it was going to be a turkey dinner so I was thinking turkey, mashed potatoes, a roll maybe. Nope, it was turkey, stuffing, corn, and apple crisp for dessert. I was excited for the apple crisp but it really wasn't very good either. Oh well, I wasn't going for the lunch, I was going for the company. I love being at Brooke's school so I can get a feel for what they do. I volunteer on Tuesdays so I have some sort of idea. They have lockers that they put their coats in when they first get to school. She just got the green hand put up because she can zip her own coat and can help others so I guess that's pretty exciting for kindergartners.

After lunch we were able to go outside on the playground with them. Brooke showed me her favorite places to play. It's a big playground. I didn't get a picture of her in the sandbox. I'm pretty sure that's where she plays a lot because she'll come home and you have dump all the sand out of her tennis shoes!! And yesterday I dumped some out of her coat!! One time when I talked to her about it she said, "do you want me to stop playing in the sandbox?" I said that it would be great, but I don't think she listened.
This is another little girl in her class. Her name is Lisa. They have the same pair of tennis shoes. Brooke is pretty excited about that.



And here is Charlotte with her pink eye. She really doesn't look that bad. I was just trying to get a close up picture and get her to close her eyes but it didn't really work. She woke up a couple days ago and her left eye especially was swollen and puss coming out. So I took her to the doctor and sure enough it was pink eye.

Roasting hot dogs by the campfire

Last night we roasted hot dogs by the campfire at the Thompson Farm. Here are some cute pics of it.

Charlotte had her ears covered because someone was using the chainsaw and she thought it was too loud.

This if Charlotte and her friend Whitney.

And the fall colors. I just love fall!

Trip to Indy

We had to take a quick trip to Indianapolis this weekend. We have renter's moving into our house November 1st who will hopefully buy it in a few months so we needed to clean out the garage. It ended up being a beautiful weekend and we went to Southeastway Park for a cook out. Robin and her kids came too. We had a fun time playing frisbee, gathering firewood, playing on the playground and being together.










And then, as we drove into Big Rapids, this is what we saw. Isn't it beautiful? I don't think a picture can do it justice.

Field Trip to the Apple Orchard

Brooke and I had a great time on her field trip today. We went with her class to an apple orchard. Unfortunately it rained most of the time. So my pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have liked and many of the animals were hiding so we didn't get to see them. They had goats, reindeer, ducks, a wallaby, zebras, miniature ponies, and more. We got to feed the goats, tour the cider mill, go on a wagon ride to pick apples and gourdes and play on all the fun toys. Everyone in Brooke's class has a "name shirt" which is handy for volunteers and field trips so that's what everyone is wearing over their coats in the pictures.


On the wagon ride to the apple orchard, before it started raining
Picking apples, now it's raining

Two of the boys in our group, Xavier and Brendan (Sorry it's a bad picture)
This was in the Cider Mill. They were showing us how they make apple cider.




All the cider is being squeezed out. Can you see it? Look closely.

Someone feeding a goat. (Not Brooke, she was afraid)


The goats




This was a fun game. It had a cup attached to it and pulled on the strings to make the cup go up or down. There was like a tree house up top where the goats could walk to, so I think you could put food in there for them and send it up to them.

Just playing

Can you tell it was raining?

This was everyone's favorite part. They just wanted to play!


This was a slide the kids could slide down. And it was perfect since it was raining because it was enclosed. I wasn't trying to get a picture of the mom, she just kept standing there. I guess she was waiting for her child to come down.

The whole class!