Trick or Treat 2015

Trick or Treating on South Green St. is one of our favorite family traditions.  I can't believe this is the third year I've gotten to coordinate costumes for these two.  Cat and mouse, Alice in Wonderland and the White Rabbit, and now, Dorothy and The Scarecrow.  Is Canaan's brown nose not too much?!

Even though she's not a brunette Dorothy, like the original, she's awfully cute if I do say so myself.  We found this Toto in a basket accessory at Gymboree of all places.  She loved carrying it around all night.

Granna and Grandad tagged along with us, as they have for the past few years and we absolutely love this tradition with them!

Ok, so this was a new treat this year and we will be making this part of our annual stop from now on!  I had heard about this side street, off of South Green, that really goes all out for Halloween, but due to kids being overly tired or bad weather conditions, we hadn't made it that far before.  But this year was another story!  We made it to Frankenstein's house, where they transform the entire outside of their house to look like Frankenstein's Castle.  

I'm telling you that it was amazing.  So much fun for kids and adults alike!

This creepy guy was at another house on the street.  Yikes.  I don't know which is scarier, though, him or the rats.  Yuck.

We couldn't have asked for a better Halloween 2016.  It was one to remember!  After gathering lots of candy, we headed back to the warm house for soups, pimento cheese sandwiches, and hot chocolate.  Ah, how I love this time of year!!

Trunk or Treat

Trunk or Treats have been around for so long in our part of the world, but this was our very first one to get to attend at our church.  Justin always has basketball practice this time of the year, so I took the kids myself this year, because I wanted them to get to go so badly.  First of all, let me introduce you to Dorothy and The Scarecrow.  I know I'm biased, but are they not the cutest?  

So Canaan's hat was a little small for his head, so I'm glad we had this "trial run" night before Halloween, because I ended up attaching some elastic to help hold it on his head.

Mr. Michael and his wife, Ms. Heather, are Hadley's sunday school teachers.  Mr. Michael is udderly silly.  We love her teachers so much!

Ms. Jessica and Mr. Ricky are Canaan's sunday school teachers but he wasn't quite sure what to think about them in their outfits.  They are so stinkin' cute and great with our boy, though.

Ms. Vicki helps Justin and I with our 4 year old Sunday School class and we just love her to death.  She dressed her puppy dog up as one of the dogs from Paw Patrol.  Canaan just happens to love Paw Patrol.

After filling our buckets with tons of loot, we headed inside the church for supper.  We also changed clothes because inflatables awaited and I didn't figure the costumes would be much fun on those.

Our first Trunk or Treat at our church was, seriously, too much fun!  We appreciate all the hard work that goes in to making that such a fun night for our kiddos and their parents!

Tap Class Dress Up

Tap dancing is a new endeavor for Hadley this year.  Monday classes from 3:45-4:30 are perfect for us to zip over to Ms. A's studio and then have plenty of time to get home and complete homework and still fix supper and all those other fun night time, school year routines.  Hadley enjoyed ballet last year, but wanted to try something a little different and opted for the super cool sound of those beloved tap shoes.  When I was a kid, I took ballet, tap, and jazz all in one hour.  Now, each of those classes is offered separately so a girl has to choose which activity she wants to devote an entire school year to.  So I can see where one might want a change by the end of the year.

The week of Halloween, Miss Adrienne lets the girls dress up in costumes.  We used our Alice in Wonderland Halloween costume from last year.  Trying to get all the use out of that thing that I can while she can still wear it.  Parents got to come in class at the end and see some of the fancy foot work the girls have been working on.

Sorry for the blurry picture but one of the "dance moms" sent vampire doughnuts, which were so cute.

The girls passed around candy they brought for the other girls before we left.  We love all these fun Halloween activities!

Krafty Kids

One fun tidbit about Hadley is that she loves drawing, painting, and crafting of any kind.  She is constantly making everybody in our family some kind of card or picture.  I love that she enjoys expressing herself in this way, so when Glasgow High School's Art Club offered a Saturday of Krafty Kids, I immediately signed her up.

They painted and decorated their own tee shirt, which was a special souvenir to take home.  They created some super cool fall art pieces and even got to use shaving cream in the creation of these leaves.

Hadley really seemed to enjoy experimenting with modeling clay to create some fun artwork.  Hadley said the "big girls" added color to the clay to make it look pretty.  Apparently the clay was all white when she formed it, so I thought it was neat the way they added color after the fact.  Talk about one excited girl when I picked her up that afternoon.  She loved Krafty Kids and cannot wait for the art club to offer another super Saturday activity! 

Jackson's Orchard

One of our Fall bucket list activities is always Jackson's Orchard and we try to hit it up the week we are off for Fall Break.  If you have to head to Jackson's on a Saturday, be ready for insane crowds of people.  But if you go during the week, it's sooooo nice. We were so glad we were able to make it during the week.

We've been trying to get Granna and Grandad to go with us the past few years, but it seems like something would always come up to where it didn't work out.  But not this year!  We were so excited they got to come along, too.

Ah, the Cider Slider is a perennial hit with the kids....old and young.  This is also where it pays to come on a weekday.  Kids can go down the slide as many times as they could possibly want during the week, but when it's so super busy on Saturdays, the lines get extremely long.  Hadley and Grandad raced Granna and Canaan down the slide.  Not sure who won all the different races, but I know they had a ball.

I got out of the slide this year since I'm pregnant.  Believe it or not, the Cider Slider can be rather bumpy and I'm not sure the baby would've appreciated that too much.

Feeding the animals is another bonus of coming to Jackson's on a weekday.  They aren't stuffed from the hundreds of people trying to force feed them, so they are actually hungry and more than willing to interact with the kids. 

The tire climbing wall was a new addition to the Orchard this year, but it was super fun, too.  

And I how I love these pictures of Granna and Grandad on the rope swing.  Now are they cool grands or what?

I always get a slight gerbil in an exercise wheel feeling when I see these things, but kids seem to love being pushed and rolling and flopping around in these things.  They seem painful to me, though.

Granna had to work hard to keep Canaan inside.  Somehow he kept almost falling out.

After snacking on some delicious fried apple pies and apple cider slushes, we took a tour of the apple barn area and watched the assembly line of apples coming through after they had been picked.  Granna got a big bag of apples to make some of her fabulous homemade apple pies, which we enjoy as our winter dessert when we visit at their house.  Well, it was another wonderful day full of fun times at Jackson's Orchard.  Hadley gets to head back here in another week or so for a field trip, which will even include a hayride trip down to the pumpkin patch.  Thanks for a great day, Jackson's!

Gatlinburg 2015

Our annual Gatlinburg trip with my family was a much anticipated event in our house.  Staying in a cabin with my whole family and having cousin camp in the mountains is just too much fun.  All five of the big cousins slept together in pallets on the floor, just as they did last year.  It won't be long until Lawson and Jude join their bigs and make that pallet even bigger and wilder.  Trying to get that many kids to sleep at one time is no easy feat, I can assure you.

Most of our meals are eaten at the cabin, which is a great money saver and it's hard to get seating for as many people as we have in our crew now anyway.  So we usually hit the strip after supper for some fun times with the whole gang.

My Uncle Mark's family was able to come at the same time as us this year, as they have been doing the past several years.  So he and Aunt Susan's two grand babies were with them.  We absolutely love having Nana and Grandaddy with us and they love getting to watch their greats and spend time with them.

There is no shortage of food in the cabin, as my mom starts making food days before our trip.  We have soups, nachos, enormous breakfasts, and desserts galore. 

We affectionately called this the stroller mafia.  When my cousins, Matt and Robbie, joined us with their kiddos in strollers, things got really crazy.  My how things have changed for us!

The highlight of my Saturday was an awesome hike in the park.  It was gorgeous and it was so nice to just be outside, walking alongside an amazing creek, and breathing in all that mountain air.

I even got to wear my special Halloween shirt this year.  The kids got the biggest kick out of seeing the little baby skeleton.  

Next year on our trip, our 3rd little Stinson baby will get to join us and I can hardly wait for that!  In the meantime, though, I am soaking up wonderful memories with my sweet family of four!  Already looking forward to our Gatlinburg trip next year!