Halloween & First Snow

Halloween was celebrated over the course of several days, since the school celebrates it the Friday before and this year it fell on a Wednesday.

I bounced around for an hour or so between 4 classrooms, helping with costume changes and setting up for parties.

When they made an announcement to head outside, I waited in my nice warm car for my little ones to pass.

Grace declined my jacket when I offered it to her on the outbound path, but accepted it when she was on the return trip. brrrr!

After the parade were class parties.  I spent more time bouncing around, then hurriedly collected my crew for a quick run home for homework & dinner.  Then it was back to the fall fest once Billy got home!

Inside was just to exciting to pose for a picture.  They enjoyed the trick or treating, trips to the book fair and dancing in the dark. = )

Grace and Juliet might be a bit small for the favors they got from their party. = )

Alice decorated her pumpkin with the wooden/metal stick pieces.  Emily took a more classic approach and carved hers out.

For Halloween, they each got a glow stick for trick or treating, some robux and a new toothbrush.  And of course some seasonal cereal!

By the time we were heading out, it was raining/snowing. In October. Ew.

We left Billy on the porch to pass out candy, while we braved the weather with Abby and her family.

About halfway through the night, everyone was cold, and wet, and miserable.  We started to head back through all the tears and puddles. = (

So here it is, the first snow of the year, on Halloween night.

At least it went away quickly.

later days

Viking Festival

After what feels like an eternity of winter, and spending the vast majority of our time indoors, we were all looking forward to venturing out to a local festival.

For months I've followed their updates, and with this being the 3rd year, we were very excited to see what the day would offer.

We tried to get McDonald's from the one near us, because our children are like many others, and think that McDonald's is some great treat, but they were not yet serving lunch.  So, we stopped at the same one we'd visited when we went to the County Mill last fall.  By the time we arrived at the festival, the kids had finished with their meals.

Full bellies, ready to go!

We took the free shuttle to the park, and stood in a short line to get in.  The vendor tents were heated and warm, and we quickly found the kids area.  Merida(?) was on stage singing and teaching the kids a jig.  Billy went on a food run to the BBQ stand.

Afterwards, they posed for pictures.

Once we'd finished our Viking food, we went over to the battle area.  Everyone wanted to take a turn, so even Daddy got into the ring!

Daddy lost.

Everyone was warmed up, so we watched the sled race, on a non-snowy hill.  It was pretty funny, and I'm pretty sure there was cheating going on.  We did a little bit of shopping in the other tent, then headed back to the kids area for face painting!

 

We went back out one last time for a few more sword battles, at least for William and Alice.  Emily, Grace, Juliet and I caught glimpses of the Belly Dancing Competition.  Grace and Juliet showed off their own moves:

The longer we stayed, the longer the lines became, so when Alice and William had their fill, we headed out.  We all smelled like a campfire when we loaded back into the car.

We found our traditional Christmas ornament, some sweet smelling candles, but our most surprising purchase was girl scout cookies. = )  I'd brought a backpack, now that we are stroller free, and it was  useful!  Next year, though, I need to pack some extra napkins.

It was quite fun, if a bit chilly.  We lucked out, because the next morning, it was so windy here that power lines were being blown down.  It would have been a miserable day to be outside.

We are already looking forward to going back to a bigger, better festival next year!

later days