Halloween

Ahh, Halloween night is here at last. Miles has been looking forward to this night for several months. So the kids got dressed up in their costumes

and out we went into our neighborhood. This hat had no chin strap, and it was windy tonight, so the hat spent more time being carried than worn.

I'm not sure Quincy really knew what to make of it all, he just kept looking around at everything and everyone, he didn't say much or make many noises at all.

Miles was excited, he loved seeing all of the decorations, especially at night with everything lit up, and some of the things moving and making noises. He was a bit nervous though and couldn't manage to say "trick or treat" at any of the houses, but he did remember to say thank you to everyone, so at least he remembered his manners!

After we got home, I resumed handing out candy, with Quincy right by my side for every trick-or-treater until it was his bedtime. Quincy loved seeing all the kids coming up to our door. Once Miles finished his treat, he joined us at the door and soon took over handing out candy. After Quincy went to bed, Miles and I sat out on the front steps and Miles was even more excited then he had been when he was out getting candy. He loved having trick-or-treaters come to his house, and he loved giving them candy. He got so excited for each and every set of trick-or-treaters that he thought were coming. It was just so unbelievably adorable.

A bib hat

The other day Quincy got ahold of one of his bibs, and he was trying to put it on as a bib. His bibs have a bottom section that snaps up to form a large pocket. This particular bib was snapped up on one side at the time he got it. He quickly realized that when he tried to put it on it was going on more like a hat, and he was a getting a great reaction from Miles and me, so he kept doing it for a while, and was having quite a bit of fun, from a bib!


Then, of course, Miles had to try, in his own way:

First day of pre-school

I just got back from dropping Miles off for his first day of pre-school. sniff, sniff. It is just two hours a day, three days a week. I thought I would be fine, since this is just pre-school and not regular school or all day or anything like that, but I have to admit, I teared up after I walked out the door of the school. He barely turned his head to say goodbye to me, he was already involved in something with his friend. My little guy is growing up so quick. Before I know it he will be graduating.

He is still saying he doesn't want to learn at pre-school. This morning he said that he will want to learn at school when he is Tyler's age. Tyler is his 12 year old cousin. I do hope that Miles decides to start learning in school before he is 12!

Hopefully today goes well, we will see in a couple of hours.

Another pumpkin patch trip

Yesterday my cousin Rachel came out from the city to visit us for the day, so we took her to one of our local farms that has lots of the fun fall activities: a corn maze, a hay maze, a milo maze, a spooky maze, a hay tunnel, a hay pyramid, potato races (with onion sacks?!), sand boxes with dried corn kernals instead of sand, and lots and lots of other fun activities. And yes, this is a different one than the last two farms we went to this week. The boys had lots of fun, Miles adored Rachel and stuck by her the entire day, well, dragged her along everywhere he went would be a more accurate description. Oh, and you will notice Miles with his hood up and jacket zipped all the way to his chin. It was not actually cold, just a bit chilly, so I put light jackets on the boys, but the jacket had a zipper and a hood, so Miles feels if the jacket has those things, then they must be used at all times.

There were several different types of mazes at this farm. This one here was called a Milo maze, I'm no corn or farm expert, but I would guess Milo is a small type of corn, at least the stalks were small. Miles again took the lead and worked hard to find the right path through the maze. Quincy was excited to be following close behind.

And a rare occurance here, Quincy in the lead!

Here is Miles, he thought the hole was in the pumpkin so you could put your face in and make it a jack-o-lantern. So here is his best jack-o-lantern face:

Some little rocking horses, the kids had fun racing on them:

Yep, all of the kids!!!

A hay tunnel, Miles and Rachel went through a few times, even Miles had to crawl to get through:

Quincy went through once, no crawling necessary for him:

Again, a very fun day, The kids were worn out, but happy. It was great to see Rachel again, we are just so happy she took the time to come all the way out here to our neck of the woods. We had a great visit and are looking forward to the next time we get to see her!

Apple Orchard

We've had a busy couple of days! Yesterday I ran an errand that took me up near a small family run farm, so after we were done with errands, the kids and I decided to go to the farm, had a picnic lunch, then we picked apples and pumkins. We were pretty much the only ones there, it was a real working fruit farm, and the boys loved having the freedom to run around and help pick the apples. Quincy didn't really help pick the apples, he just wanted to pick up the mushiest nastiest looking apples he could find on the ground, then mush them in his fingers. Ewww. Then he picked up an apple or two out of the bucket, and was so very happy that he found an apple. Miles picked two apples. But even though he didn't pick many apples, he loved that we were picking apples from apple trees.

Since I didn't really plan to well, I had no blanket or anything for the kids to sit on to eat. For Miles this was no problem, however Quincy didn't want to sit still, so we improvised with a wagon.

Miles was pretty excited to have this bucket, until he got tired of carrying it:

And here is Miles picking his first apple from a tree:

Surprisingly there was a bit of teamwork involving the wagon, in this picture Miles is pulling and Quincy is pushing, and they are working together, and happy. A little later they both were helping to push the wagon together.

And a lack of teamwork in this picture, Miles is trying to put the bucket in the wagon while Quincy is pushing the wagon just out of Miles reach.

And we took a quick trip to the pumpkin patch to pick out a couple of more pumpkins, Quincy here is helping to push the wagon, while Miles is debating if he should stomp in the mud puddle he is looking at, eventually he chose to avoid the mud puddle and help Quincy push the wagon:

Pumpkin Patch

The kids and I went to a local farm yesterday with some of the other Moms and kids from our Mom's group. We took a hayride, got to pick pumpkins out of the pumpkin patch, fed goats, went through a cornfield maze, and the kids went through a hay maze. It was a beautiful sunny day and a really fun morning at the farm.

The kids and I on the hayride - I think this is the first picture of me with the kids, thanks Lori!

Picking out pumkins, what I didn't get a picture of is Quincy throwing the pumpkin, he seems to be under the impression that pumpkins are a type of ball, we now have to keep them all out of his reach at home.

Here we are in the corn maze. This is one of the only pictures I got in here, as my battery died after this picture and I forgot to bring along my spare battery. But I'm not sure any other picture would have been much different, Miles pretty much ran through the entire maze. Towards the end the running slowed down quite a bit, but he was still in front of me. Quincy kept trying to go in between the corn stalks, so he was in need of constant re-directing.
Here are the boys feeding the goats. Miles does great with this by now, Quincy liked it, but was a bit apprehensive.

Here is Quincy again with the pumpkin face.

Here is Miles going through the hay maze, he had this focused concentrated look on his face the whole time, and every time he went through the maze. He did the maze very well, and he was constantly looking at the maze around him to make sure he was going the right way.

Pre-school

Today was open house at Miles's pre-school. We all went to the school, met the teachers and other students, see the classroom and Miles got a preview of some of the things that will happen during a regular day. Miles was very excited about going to school today. Here is a short video clip of him in the car on the way to the open house:

He was even more excited when we got there and he saw the outdoor playground and then all the fun toys and playhouse inside. Here are a few pics of him playing inside the classroom.

He wasn't too thrilled about the 'circle' time, or, I think, the learning time, and apparently his favorite part was the snack time. He already thinks that he is smart and that he knows everything, so this should be interesting. He did tell us that he asked a teacher if there were any monsters at school and she said there were no monsters there. Overall he liked school and is looking forward to going back next week.

Halloween cookies

Miles had some friends over playing with him yesterday. They, of course, had lots of fun playing with every toy in the house. It was a very rainy, chilly day, so an indoor day. We took time out from playing to make some halloween cookies. The kids had lots of fun helping to make the dough, roll out the dough, cut out the different shapes, and, of course, the favorite part, decorating the cookies. The pictures below were taken towards the beginning of the cookie decorating. By the end of the cookies, the table and floor were covered in sprinkles. There was frosting left, but no sprinkles left in the containers. The frosting really was just a means to stick the sprinkles on the cookies, after they were decorated you really couldn't see the frosting at all.

Brandon was very focused on his decorating, and did not lose focus until all of the cookies had been finished.

Sienna and Miles had a slightly different approach. They knew just what they wanted for each cookie, but they were not very concerned about how long it took them. They mostly wanted to make sure that they had every last spot covered by sprinkles, and that the sprinkles were mounded as high as possible. I do believe they would have put an entire container of sprinkles on each cookie if they could have.
They also stopped to pose for pictures as soon as they saw the camera.

Quincy woke up from his nap halfway through the cookie making session. He was a bit too interested when he was down walking around. And he had no interest in being relegated to another room with his toys. He was actually happy sitting in his high chair watching the big kids decorate the cookies. I'm sure he would have been much happier at the table decorating/eating the cookies along with the big kids.

All in all a very fun day for the kids.

Halloween at the Zoo

Tonight we went to our local zoo for a night of halloween. The kids got dressed up in their costumes and got lots of candy. After several weeks of changing his mind, Miles finally decided to dress up as Woody from the Toy Story movies. Quincy was quite intrigued as Miles was getting his costume on, then got to see himself in the mirror and giggled at himself.

At the house getting ready, Miles was just a little bit excited:

Miles and Quincy were having fun checking out their costumes:

Quincy, our adorable little devil:

Even in the van, they could barely contain their excitement:

Quincy's hats

In the past month or so, Quincy has decided that he likes to put just about anything on his head that he thinks he might be able get onto his head. Except of course any hat that I put on his head to protect from sun or cold, those hats he tries to take off immediately. But I digress. I have put a few pictures up of him wearing his lovely pink fluffy hat. Here are a few other 'hat' pictures.

Trying to fit a random blue tin on his head:

The cowboy hat, which of course is supposed to be worn as a hat so that is not so cute or funny by itself, but Quincy insists on wearing it sideways, showing off his uber cute cowboy fashion sense.

And the drunk cowboy look, drool and all: