Witch Hunt

I promised the kids we'd do the witch scavenger hunt at Gardner Village while they are off track.  Time was running out, so today was the day.

We found the witches, got our cookies, and then bought a little candy at the candy store.

I am still sick, so the outing wore me out.  I'm off to nap.

It's Alive!

Today we made our mad scientist potion.  The kids were enthralled!  Josh was afraid of it though and kept saying "hot!"

Pumpkin Palooza

The WJ library held it's first annual pumpkin Palooza.  It sounded like fun.  

It was really mostly vendors with little carnival type games and treats.   Apparently there was a pumpkin decorating contest that had some good prizes.  We won't miss that next time!  We like prizes!

Trick or Treat

Friday was Kent's work Halloween event.   The kids (mostly McKinley) begged to go.  So we had to forgo toddler nap time to go downtown.  The kids got a decent haul of candy.  

Then we decorated cupcakes, made skeletons and sucker spiders, before we headed home in packed Friday evening/game night traffic.  

The zoo

Well, lucky for us, our scarecrow won first place in the library contest!  So we got to choose between tickets to the zoo or tickets to the symphony Halloween concert.  The kids chose....the zoo.  Unanimously.

Today was the perfect day for a zoo outing!  Nearly 70 degrees!

My favorite, the elephants.

The kids had a lot of fun!  Glad the temperatures were ideal.

The Polar Bear was up to his usual stellar performance and entertaining everyone.  Josh got very nervous when his body slid right up against the glass next to him, but he loved seeing the sea lions swim by.

McKinley's favorite, the giraffe.  I think they are a close tie for my favorite as well.  

This one kept doing some cool tongue twisting tricks.

When I was going through my pictures I couldn't get over just how beautiful this creature was...so I posted a few :)

Since I got in to the zoo for free, I felt justified in paying for the carousel ride.  Hayden really wanted to ride the panda, Sawyer chose the tiger, and McKinley chose a giraffe.  Josh was not happy to be forced to sit at first, but once we settled on some smallish bug creature with my arms tightly wrapped around him, he was giggling and smiling.

A good day for the zoo!

Mabey's Pumpkin Patch

My parents had a shindig at Mabey's pumpkin patch that they were invited to that included their kids and grandkids.  We were happy to tag-a-long and visit the pumpkin patch and see cousins.  After picking out a pumpkin for each of us, we had some little treats and hot chocolate.

Although we grew our own pumpkins in our garden this year, there is something about going to an actual pumpkin patch to celebrate the fall!

We own a zoo

I made the kids do some research while they are off track and before we go to the zoo.  They had to find a zoo animal book at the library and read up on it.  Then they made their animal masks and I came to visit them downstairs in our zoo.

The Lion

The Giraffe

The Tiger