Halloween Activities...

I love celebrating holidays by doing fun holiday things with the kids.  So far we've...

                 decorated pumpkin and apple sugar cookies with the Goetschs

decorated cookies with our neighbors, the Highfills

                                                        made old fashioned pumpkin cookies

                                                         had jack-o-lantern bagels for lunch

                                                          made and decorated our "haunted house"

                                         made lots of different jack-o-lantern faces on our felt pumpkin

                                                        and made oreo-pretzel spiders.

Balloon Walk #2

We went on our second "balloon walk" around the neighborhood. The kids LOVED it and got some great exercise. The only bad part? Austin got quite upset when his balloon popped!

Teacher Appreciation

We had a bounty of apples after apple picking, so each of the kids brought one to their teacher to thank them for teaching.

Stade's Farm and Pumpkin Patch

Two weekends ago, we took the kids to Stade's farm and pumpkin patch in Spring Grove, IL. It was awesome! Despite being windy and a little cold, the kids had so much fun.

Here are Caroline and Austin having a blast in the giant sandboxes filled with corn.

Climbing on a giant spider web.

 Running and jumping through a hay bale maze. Behind her is a cow tractor (or whatever you call it) that they turned into a maze. You climb up and down and go around tight corners this way and that. All 3 loved it so much they wanted to do it again and again.

 Tractor barrel rides

 Frank, the combine

 Giant slide

We ran out of time and didn't even make it to the pumpkin patch! We will definitely be back next year!

Clayton

invents a paper towel holder...

 goofs around...

 and is all smiles with his little brother.

Apple Picking at Oriole Springs

We took our annual trip to Twin Lakes, Wisconsin to go apple picking at Oriole Springs. It was a beautiful afternoon in the seventies. (Pretty amazing for October!) All of the kids had a great time picking apples, running through the orchard, and eating fresh doughnuts.  I LOVE this tradition and look forward to it every fall. :)

I love my sister!