halloween roundup

this year our halloween consisted of the following:

picking our pumpkins

we ventured out to the local pumpkin patch for some hayrides, animal time and pumpkin picking. violet spent all of her time trying to give all the animals hugs. she managed to wrangle in a few goats- but could never catch the cute, little piglets. she sure does love her animals!

in this picture, violet is "smiling."

carving our pumpkins

violet was a little too young to appreciate this tradition last year, so i was excited to get her into the action this time around. she wasn't really too fond of the pumpkin guts at first. it took some time...but she came around eventually.

ivy was content to get some love from her nana while the carving party raged on.

in the end, we had some great pumpkins!

parties

we had some really fun parties to attend this year as we led up to the big day. the ross family had us over for our annual chili and pumpkin party. violet ran wild with the other little girls while we dined on yummy treats and carved some more.

the neighborhood hosted an awesome trunk or treat. this was vi's first experience trick or treating- and she picked up on it right away. all she needed to do was say, "trick or treat" and "thank you" and she would magically get candy. this. was. heaven. she ran from car to car and timidly asked for her candy. ivy, the fabulous baby that she is, slept through the party all comfy and cozy.

next was the hobbs' party. they had a fabulous spread, a great crowd and some fun prizes.

violet and cade each won "best costume" award for their respective age groups and vi was thrilled to pick her fairy pez prize and candy. admittedly, she is one cute pirate.

facial hair

halloween conveniently fell into cade's shaving schedule as he went from having a full beard and long locks back to his normal self. it really did work out well for his various costumes...

the big day

when halloween finally came, violet was ready! we all got into costume and headed to nana and gramps' house for a fun party.

everyone was in costume- even my dad! that is a rarity, but he didn't want to disappoint the grandkids. if you can't tell from the picture what owen is dressed as, i'll tell you: he is a SHARK VAMPIRE. the kind of shark that "eats blood." he was having a hard time just picking one costume but i think he pulled off the hybrid in the cutest way possible.

before going out for candy, we ate a yummy dinner. violet spent most of her time huddled around the root beer brew. she just kept drinking and drinking and drinking... i thought about stopping this- but it was halloween. you are supposed to get filled up with sugar, right? plus look how cute she is.

i did, however, draw the line when she kept trying to eat the dry ice...

next, we went out to trick or treat. it wasn't as cold as it has been in previous years but i still bundled ivy up before we headed out. her pirate costume wasn't quite warm enough...

but she makes for a pretty cute pumpkin too!

violet was loving life as she literally ran from house to house with her cousins. she was smaller, so she had to run the whole time to keep up- but she didn't seem to mind!

after a while, however, she realized she couldn't keep the pace. she quickly found a solution by holding on to two people and lifting her legs while they carried her. she really needed to conserve that energy. she would lift her legs up until it was time to run to the next porch and then she would hurry and let go and run to the door. quite the system.

ivy, as usual, was perfectly content to watch all the action from the stroller. she didn't make a peep the entire time! love that baby.

after we had gathered as much candy as possible, we headed back so the kids could play and we could all chat together. it really did make for a great halloween.

loving on ivy

finally, i should mention that we sure did spend a lot of our time loving on this baby during halloween. we can't get enough.