Festive and fun fall frolicking

When we got back to Wisconsin the leaves were already past peak colors and it was chilly and I feel like we totally missed the arrival of fall. But we didn’t waste any time making the most of what is left of it!

I thought I’d throw a small Halloween party for the kids. Little did I know the day I held it all the kids had the day off school. So we had 25 kids! But it was great, and although it was chaos, it was mostly organized chaos. My favorite part was the donut on a string game. Hilarious. We also played a game and Laura did an adorable Frankenstein paper plate craft. It was a fun day. We had to hit up a pumpkin patch, of course, so we went to Jim’s Pumpkin Patch up in Germantown, super close and cheap and cute. We took a hay ride out to the patch and the girls chose their pumpkins. We had a great time…always so fun to make those traditional memories, although the only thing I standing out in my memory was how windy it was and how frozen my fingers were even though I was wearing gloves.

The girls had a great time carving pumpkins and pulling out the pumpkin brains. The looked forward to lighting them every night. 

I’m a room parent for Summer’s class and was in charge of helping with the class pumpkin party. Can’t call it a Halloween party, because not everyone celebrates Halloween. However, you could wear costumes to school that day, and everyone in her class did. LAME. All our activities and crafts had to be pumpkin based. LAME LAME LAME. But it was fun and the kids had a great time and I had fun meeting all of the kids I hear about from Summer. They are cute kids. And Summer ran to me and gave me a huge hug when she saw me, which I loved. I know those kinds of greetings won’t last forever!

And what may possibly be the last family costume for us, I present to you S’MORES! You can’t really tell what Tessa is, but she’s the fire, and I loved her little onesie I made out of felt. Too bad you can’t see it better. I made Summer’s costume out of a brown pillowcase, downloaded a Hershey’s font and cut out a stencil on my Cricut, then used my overhead projector that I scored at Goodwill for $10 last month to project it onto the pillowcase which I taped to the wall then painted it with acrylic paint. Got that? Then I just hot glued some silver fabric to the top and bottom.  Hannah’s is just two dec pillow inserts pinned together. Watching her walk around just made me laugh. I thought it turned out really cute. I’ve gotten so many comments about how clever and creative I am, and while I’d like to accept those compliments, I really can’t. I’m an excellent copier, that’s it. I found the idea online and just replicated it. Just like practically ever other “idea” I’ve ever had…

…like this one! The costumes I made for Derrick’s work Halloween party. We are Google Maps! Again, saw it online and copied it. I really, really, really wish I could come up with amazing ideas on my own.  Every once in awhile I do. But I can’t even think of one right now so that just shows you how often I DON’T.I love Halloween! I love seeing kids in cute costumes and adults in clever and funny ones. I love that it’s the kick off for the rest of the holiday season. It’s just a great time of year. And a great time to swipe all the Reese’s from my kids’ candy buckets. :)