October and Halloween

The month of October started off with a sugar-free diet for the whole family.  Green smoothies became a regular breakfast in the house.

The girls made these pumpkins with Grandma and Grandpa when Dusty and I were away in Denver for a few days on a work trip.  While Dusty was away at a conference by day, I spent the first day in my hotel room watching movies and the second day eating out and window shopping.  We were able to hang out together in the evenings and we went to an improv theater the last night.  We are so thankful to be able to get away here and there and to know that the girls are in good hands.

We went to a pumpkin farm with our new friends that we met at school.  Their family has 5 girls.

A good picnic lunch.

The whole crew minus the B. baby.  Sabrina was not happy about walking through the pumpkin patch!

We had a quick photo shoot before the pumpkin patch:

We went to Grand Junction in the middle of October for my Grandma Kathy's surprise 80th birthday party.  It was a fast weekend in which I sadly have no pictures to share (I hope other people who took pics will send them to me).  We had a wonderful time seeing my grandma, Aunt Pamy and Uncle Steve, Brandon and Heidi, Lori and Becky, and our good friends Kim and Cory.  I took this pic of Mags at Kim and Cory's house while she was watching a movie--the only pic I took the whole weekend. *sigh*

Funny girl wearing Mommy's boots.

The weekend before Halloween we went to the fall festivities at the Gardens.  It was awesome because they didn't give away any candy.  The girls got to pick non-edible prizes at every game such as stamps, stencils, stickers, rings, etc.  They had pumpkin bowling.  The girls made bracelets out of colored corn kernels.  Created colorful wands from a stick wrapped with beads they had strung.  Listened to stories.  Ate bicycle-powered pumpkin smoothies.  We had a beautifully warm day in October.

Natalie held this giant African millipede and the bug handler told us that she was the only kid who didn't freak out when the millipede started to move around.  Brave girl!  A little too gross for me.

It was a fun outing and gave us another opportunity to wear our Halloween costumes.

Carving our pumpkins that we got at the pumpkin farm (and the one Natalie picked out on her school field trip to the Farm.)  Maggie doesn't like the "pumpkin goo" and Sabrina lost interest pretty quick too.  Natalie was eager to help using the power tools (a great idea from a friend to make it easier for young kids to help without using knives).  

On Halloween Day, Natalie had a school party and got to dress up in her costume for it.  Here she is with one of her dear friends, Shawna (Dorothy on the right), and her other friend, Chloe.

All of the princesses standing up for show n tell.

Here is the jack-o-lantern I made for the class party that I got off of pinterest.  You couldn't really tell what it was except from an "aerial" view but the kids gobbled it up.

We trick or treated at Whole Foods in the afternoon--greatest place to trick or treat ever!  They had marked stations throughout the store.  The girls got a chocolate covered strawberry, cheese stick, pepperoni,  dirt (pudding with gummy worms), a juice box, and they had pizza slices for them at the end.

Finally we ended the day with $3 burritos at Chipotle if you dressed up:  The King and Queen with their three princesses.  After dinner we trick or treated on our street with Shawna' family also.  I'd say it was a pretty great Halloween.

Oh yeah.  Halloween marked the end of the month long sugar fast.  The kids happily picked two candies to enjoy before bed and then picked out 10 pieces of candy to have one each day until it was gone.  The rest of their stash we gave away.  Here's to another year with candy content kids.