Trick-or-treating

We got together with a lot of our neighbors for an early dinner & then put the kiddos in costumes & went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood once it got dark. Here are a few snaps of them all in costume & in action. William was Buzz Lightyear from the Disney Toy Story movie and Daniel was Nemo from Finding Nemo. Be sure to click for more!

Trick or Treat

Classroom parties

After their trick-or-treating was done, they retired to their classrooms for a little Halloween party. William got to play "pin the cross on the Pumpkin" (well, it IS a Methodist pre-school!) and frost Oreo cookies, and Daniel got to eat a very large, frosted pumpkin cookie. Apparently, he didn't want to get his hands all yucky, so he made the teachers FEED it to him! My little aristocrat!

Halloween Parade

Halloween party

The kids did a Halloween parade at their school where they got to trick-or-treat through all the offices. Daniel's class made pumpkin masks (which he HATED & refused to wear beyond the first two minutes) and William's made pumpkin hats. They only painted one side of them, though, so in some of the pics he looks a bit like a little pilgrim! The last picture is of William & his good friend, Stephen. Be sure to click the picture for the rest of them.

Blinkin with one eye

 

So, Summer and Kaitlynn were over here the other night & I was teasing Kaitlynn and winking at her with alternating eyes. She was giggling & trying to do it back. In true William fashion, he didn't seem to be paying much attention to either of us. Then, a couple of days later, he's having lunch & says, "Look, Mommy. I can blink with one eye." Needless to say, I was pretty impressed. Check out his effort!

Punkin Pickin'

The boys took a field trip to Eckert's Farm in Millstadt, IL with their school to do some pumpkin (or "punkin", as Daniel says) picking. It was originally supposed to be a week ago, but got rained out, so they rescheduled for today & it ended up being in the 40's, of course. It was pretty pleasant in the sun if you were appropriate bundled, but downright freezing in the shade. The rule is that the kiddos must be able to carry their own pumpkins out of the field in order to take them home. Daniel really took this to heart & we had a couple of meltdowns as he tried unsuccessfully to pick up & carry some of the large ones. We finally found one that was semi-orange that he could actually carry & everyone was happy! William is the one in the red coat & Daniel is in blue with a grey hat on--the one with the pom-pom on top & the ear flaps. The picture of him on the ground with the other blue-coated boy is him & his friend, Will, who are making dirt angels with their feet in the parking lot. Boys!!! They had a blast & that's all that matters, tho, right?

Finally.....McQueen slippers!

 
 

So, most of the boys' friends have these slippers. They're Lightning McQueen from the Disney Cars movie. Who'd have thought they'd be so hard to find in the correct sizes???? I guess every little boy (and maybe girl?) in the Belleville area needed a pair because our Wal-Mart was consistently out of them. We finally found a couple of pairs & the boys were so excited. Here they are showing them off!

Bowl-a-rama

One of my friends here is also currently missing a husband (maybe we should put a listing on a milk carton?!?!?), so we've been trying to get together on weekends since that tends to be family-time for most people and our families are one short. Her little girl, Kaitlyn, is in William's class at school, & she and the boys get along really well. This weekend, we decided to take advantage of our weekly free bowling at the bowling center on base. One of the perks of having a deployed hubbie is that a lot of the facilities on base give you a discount and sometimes outright free stuff! The bowling center has this little metal "ramp" (for lack of a better term) that the kids place their balls on & then they push it down the ramp & it rolls down the alley. The kids did great with taking turns and keeping track of whose turn it was. I think Summer and I could have left them there alone, they were so proficient. Hmmmmmmm.......
**Be sure to click the pic**

bowling