Keeping Up With The Smuckers: Halloween Weekend

It has been a packed Halloween weekend. It started with Heidi's Fall party at school on Friday. They wore their costumes to school and ended the day with the party. They had yummy Halloween snacks, heard a Halloween story, made Halloween necklaces and then played Halloween Bingo. Jason was off on Friday, so he was able to join in the festivities too!

Then after Emma got home from school, it was off to a pumpkin patch.

Rachel LOVED the baskets of little pumpkins. Just her size! She would pick them up one at a time and put them on the ground - then after a handful were on the ground, she'd start putting them back in the basket. At one point, she emptied almost a whole basket into our wagon - one at a time.

Many pumpkins were in and out of our wagon, but this is the one we came home with - along with 3 little ones (they are behind Rachel in the wagon).

Saturday morning we took a break from Halloween festivities and met another family from church at a park called Arabia Mountain. It's a granite outcrop much smaller than Stone Mountain. But it is a great hike for the kids and it was a beautiful day to enjoy.

There were these rock/granite mounds all along the way marking the path to the top. I think Heidi climbed almost every one on the way up.

Emma on top of the world!

Thankfully they didn't push each other in. :-) There were lots of shallow ponds at the top - washed out areas in the stone where water collects when it rains.

Jason carried Rachel up and most of the way down.

And I carried her the last part of the way down.

It really was a fun outing. We'll have to do it again sometime.

Then Saturday night our neighborhood had their annual Halloween Party. This year it was in our cul-de-sac - which was very convenient. We helped host it, but that just means putting out tables for food to be put on and providing the paper products - pretty easy. :-) It was a fun time. It's amazing to see how many kids there are in our neighborhood - and lots of young ones! It was also neat to see neighbors who have lived here for a long time connecting for the first time.

With it not actually being Halloween, it was a little confusing as to whether or not the kids should trick-or-treat after the party or wait 'til Halloween - or go both nights!!! We ended up doing a little both nights. And as a result, we have way more candy than we need. But the girls enjoyed it. Heidi especially enjoyed it. Tonight Emma and Rachel were fading quickly, but Heidi wanted to keep going. So Jason drove Emma and Rachel home and Heidi and I walked home trick-or-treating along the way. She did say she was tired as we were turning on to our street. :-)

And here they are...

Emma - Thumper