Halloween carnival and Halloween

Our ward had a Halloween carnival and trunk or treat party. We all dressed up for the party. Vance was a dinosaur-dragon (he called himself that), Caleb was a monster, Daddy was The Cat in the Hat's younger brother Hank, and I was a rodeo clown. Vance had a blast playing all the carnival games and came home with a bunch of candy. We forgot to bring a trick or treat bag for Vance, hence the grocery sack.



Here's a picture of Caleb after trick or treating door to door on Halloween.

Vance was so excited that he was able to celebrate two Halloweens. He kept asking if we could visit another house that we hadn't been to before. Caleb liked all the lights and the sucker we let him eat while we walked around.

Vance's favorite day

Vance recently told me that Halloween was his favorite day. (He says it's even better than Christmas, but he likes it the same as his birthday). He has been playing with pumpkins, painting pumpkins, carving pumpkins, and drawing pumpkins (and other scary things) all month long. He likes his pumpkins. Caleb likes pumpkins too, but he just rolls them around the house and tries to throw them.

Here are some pictures from our family pumpkin carving night:

Vance and Caleb helped Daddy draw the face on the pumpkin.

Daddy got to use a big knife.
Vance wanted to help clean out the pumpkin, but soon decided that Daddy could have that job.

Caleb was very impressed with the finished product. This is the face he makes whenever he is really excited about something. (Just imagine him saying "Ooooooo" in the background).


Here's our jack o'lantern. Isn't he scary? Vance wanted a scary one that was nice.

A walk in the garden

We went for a walk at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The kids enjoyed being outside and playing with sticks.

Food samples at Costco

My kids favorite part about shopping is the free food samples at Costco. They had freshly baked chocolate chip cookies during this particular visit. Caleb took his time eating it and then fell asleep on the way home. I think that he was one satisfied customer.

A visit to the pumpkin patch

We had a fun time visiting the pumpkin patch in Hayden. We took a hayride to the pumpkin field.

They had a hay maze just the right size for Vance and his friend.
So many pumpkins, so little time.

Vance picked out a nice white pumpkin. Caleb had fun rolling around every pumpkin he came near.

Vance insisted on painting his pumpkin as soon as possible. He picked out a face he liked, had me outline it for him, and then he painted the rest. I was impressed with how well he did.

Caleb's First Birthday!

We had a fun birthday party for Caleb. Vance helped pick out some balloons and we ordered pizza. We had some friends over for cake and ice cream. The kids had fun playing together and with Caleb's new toys. Caleb had fun playing with the wrapping paper.

Here is Caleb's cake:

Daddy helped Caleb blow out his candle.
Caleb had the turtle part of the cake all to himself. This is before the destruction:
This is after:

He didn't actually get that messy. Shortly after this picture was taken, he started to cry. He has never been one that liked to be dirty.

Birmingham Zoo

Vance had a lot of fun at the zoo. He followed his friend Brooks around the entire time. My favorite part was when he saw a white tiger and said, "Look! A zebra!" He says he liked the zebras the best. (I don't know if that was the real zebras or the white tiger). Caleb liked the giraffes.

Vance asked for the map as soon as we went into the zoo. He carried it the whole time, telling us where we needed to go.

Here are Vance and Caleb at the Australian mining exhibit.

Vance never quite got the 'only put your face through the hole' concept.

They had a water fountain area to play in. Vance was quickly soaked.

Between Caleb's splashing and Vance directing the water streams toward me, I was quickly soaked as well.