Fall Impressions and Happy Halloween!

Our cute carved pumpkins

In Missouri we didn't like not having ANY trees in our backyard. We missed the shade and playing in the leaves. I never realized how much less work I really had without trees. Here we have several really large mountain hemlock trees (which needle a BUNCH), a maple and oak tree and several other deciduous trees, not to mention the ones along our street. We try to sweep/rake up the leaves and needles at least once a week but don't seem to be able to catch up. The kids love to help sweeping them up and putting them into our city recyclable box, so we can throw them onto our leave compost in the backyard. Regardless of the work, the fall colors and smells sure are nice here.

A wonderful parent each in Luca's and Leea's class had planned Halloween parties. I got to help in Leea's class. I try to help out once a week, preferably in Leea's class, because they have toys Ava and Noa like. It was especially fun to join them for Halloween.

Noa and Ava had some coloring fun, while I was setting up things for the party.

Fun snacks- though I would have preferred ONLY fruit and protein, instead of more sugar treats and WHITE bread.

Doesn't Leea look so old in this picture?

One of Noa's funny faces...

Luca as an "Army of God Knight". He had been begging me for a knight costume and it was going to be his home made gift for Christmas (my goal is to only give homemade things for Christmas), but I gave in and made it for him last minute for Halloween. This hidious material was perfect for the chain armor.
CTR means "Choose The Right"
- a motto among LDS members that is taught to children and used by members of the church as a reminder to act righteously.

A while back we read one of the "Jack and the Beanstalk" books. This particular book had the funniest cat ever in it. Every time we read the book, Leea had to copy the look of the cat. Well, this is it! It's hilarious! Leea is really good at making all kinds of faces. Maybe she'll like acting later - like her auntie Allegra!


Leea is in princess mood every day, Cinderella is her favorite. Halloween was a perfect occasion to let the wear her costumes in public. For our church Halloween party & Trunk or Treat, she wore the princess dress Oma Sigrid had made, but for school she wanted to wear her Cinderella costume.

Back in Kirksville somebody had given me this dog costume at a yard sale for free. Leea already loved it tons and wore 'til she really couldn't fit in it anymore. Now Ava loves it. She's actually afraid of dogs, but loves them at the same time. She always wants to pet them, but then she starts crying. I told the kids we can have a dog when we move next summer and the twins are finally potty-trained. :)

This costume is perfect for Noa's little personality and it reminds me of Kieto, when he was 2. Kieto is the boy I watched, when I was an AuPair. He was so cute in it-I had to have a costume for my kids as well.

Lincoln was actually on call (notice the scrubs under his costume), but a fellow resident with no kids covered a couple of hours for him so he could go trick-or-treating with the kids just like her dad always did with her growing up! How nice of her! We decided to have spider pizza for dinner. The kids had a lot of fun making the spider.


Leea's spider creation. I don't want to meet this fellow in my basement! :)

Neither this one. The one with 8 legs!

When we got ready for our church party the week before Halloween, Linc and I had like 5 minutes to throw some costume together. I managed to get some pirate outfit together with my striped pj's and stuff from the kids dress up box and Lincoln wore a yellow hard hat, yellow work shirt and the little monkey in his pocket- "the man in the yellow hat" and Curious George. It was hilarious. Everyone knew what he was, but it looked so fake (sorry no pic). Then somebody at work told him that this fellow resident had a real Man in the Yellow Hat costume that Lincoln got to borrow. Can you tell we aren't in the possession of any adult costumes yet? :) Someday; we still have to budget for priorities for now. Anyway, Linc wore part of the costume (the yellow hat and then the monkey in his scrubs shirt pocket) the whole day and call night on inpatient pediatrics, and people liked that there. Poor kiddos who had to be in the hospital on Halloween.

Here they are, ready to go Trick or Treating. I actually hate the candy-part. It's fun to walk around and show off costumes and to receive candy, but the candy isn't even yummy, except for 2-3 kinds. The rest went into the box by our front door, and it had magically disappeared that same night. I wish it was all about healthy food. Imagine all the kids would be craving fresh and dried fruit and other healthy goodies!

Ok, I wasn't that mean. They were able to pick a few things and have them for dessert, but the rest went either outside or in a treat box for later, that will last months...

We're glad you could stay with us for a couple hours, Linc! :)