I met my good friend Annie in grad school. We worked on a project together at the start of that school year and since that time we have been amazing friends! I'm so thankful for her! We were nervous the first time we got our husbands together because we were hoping they would hit it off and they did! It is such a blessing to have a great couple friend in them. We have gone through grad school together, worked together, had our first kids 5 months apart and had our 2nd babies 10 days apart! We have helped each other move, babysat for each other, helped each other train for a half marathon and been there through the good and not so good parts of life for each other!
Fall always makes me value their friendship because there are a ton of memories! Annie loves Halloween and for that reason I have done many things from haunted houses to corn mazes with her! One of my favorite traditions we do is carve pumpkins together! I think we started carving pumpkins together in 2008 and missed one year after our boys were first born...that's a long time pumpkin carving tradition!
This was 2009 (the first year I started my blog)!
Pumpkin carving was much simpler then without all the kids running around, but it is so fun to keep the tradition going with our crazy herd!
Last year we added another couple to the mix!
Kristin and Matt have become really good friends over the last year and we love getting together with them also!
This year we had 5 kids running around, with one on the way!
We had so much fun!
We laughed, ate, talked, broke up toddler fights and carved pumpkins until almost 10:00 at night...that's late for the kiddos!
All in all the year was a success!
Pumpkins this year included a design I'm not sure of, a smiley shark (Landon's), a happy face (Jared's), Mickey Mouse, a pirate, a monster, a toothy grin and a silly face!
Unfortunately Jared was the picture taker, so he didn't make the group pic!
What a fun tradition we can't wait to continue for years and years!
On Halloween Landon had a party at his preschool. It was fun to see everyone dressed up, play games, do crafts, eat food, and watch Landon have the best time!
On Halloween we went trick or treating with good friends and then ended the night at our church's Harvest Party!
It was a great day and a great night. Landon was really excited about the activities and both boys did so great! No meltdowns, no fussing, no whining...just a great time as a family!
My nephew was a lion last year for Halloween so my sister in law passed on the costume for Blake this year. I am all about coordinating costumes as long as the boys will let me, so I started thinking about what would go with a lion. I thought of another jungle animal, zoo keeper and finally of a lion tamer! I wasn't sure if I could find a costume but I found a DIY lion tamer costume on line. I shopped thrift stores for about 3 weeks before Halloween finding all the bits and pieces I needed and then my mother in law helped me make the jacket and cummerbund. I was able to put together the rest of the costume and I LOVED it!
The boys were so cute together and their costumes made me smile every time I saw them!
Thankfully, I dressed the boys up on the Tuesday before Halloween and took pictures of them that afternoon. I got some super cute pics of them and then on Halloween I wasn't worried about taking pictures of them and we could all enjoy the night!
We got home and there were still some trick-or-treaters coming to our house but I didn't really buy much candy this year. Thankfully Landon was more than willing to give up his candy and we ended up with very little (which these robbers helped themselves too :)!
What a great way to wrap up this season and move into Thanksgiving!
On Halloween Landon had a party at his preschool. It was fun to see everyone dressed up, play games, do crafts, eat food, and watch Landon have the best time!
On Halloween we went trick or treating with good friends and then ended the night at our church's Harvest Party!
It was a great day and a great night. Landon was really excited about the activities and both boys did so great! No meltdowns, no fussing, no whining...just a great time as a family!
My nephew was a lion last year for Halloween so my sister in law passed on the costume for Blake this year. I am all about coordinating costumes as long as the boys will let me, so I started thinking about what would go with a lion. I thought of another jungle animal, zoo keeper and finally of a lion tamer! I wasn't sure if I could find a costume but I found a DIY lion tamer costume on line. I shopped thrift stores for about 3 weeks before Halloween finding all the bits and pieces I needed and then my mother in law helped me make the jacket and cummerbund. I was able to put together the rest of the costume and I LOVED it!
The boys were so cute together and their costumes made me smile every time I saw them!
Thankfully, I dressed the boys up on the Tuesday before Halloween and took pictures of them that afternoon. I got some super cute pics of them and then on Halloween I wasn't worried about taking pictures of them and we could all enjoy the night!
We got home and there were still some trick-or-treaters coming to our house but I didn't really buy much candy this year. Thankfully Landon was more than willing to give up his candy and we ended up with very little (which these robbers helped themselves too :)!
What a great way to wrap up this season and move into Thanksgiving!
