Silver Dollar City

There is no better way to jumpstart the holiday season than to pack it up and head down to Silver Dollar City in Branson.  They are all decked out for Christmas starting in the beginning of November, complete with Christmas Parades and Santa Claus (not that we saw either one of those this time around...but they are there).  We did however ride plenty of rides, eat plenty of food, play plenty of games and ended the night with a train ride to see all of the awesome lights around the park.  You know the best part?  This year we did not have to leave at 3am because of puking kids.  Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!  It was also a little warmer this year than last so we didn't have to listen to a certain someone (MIKE) complain about being cold all day.  Double Bonus.  The only real bummer was one of the kid's favorite spots was closed for renovation.  Darn, I guess we will have to go again next year :).  

 

Halloween Night

We have finally made it to Halloween (as I sit here writing on New Years Eve), but don't fret this is NOT the last time you will be seeing Bennett in his Iron Man costume.  He tends to want to wear it all the time and sometimes I just go with it, I'm cool like that.  I can't lie to you, I was not excited at all about the costumes that the boys wanted this year.  You must know I grew up with homemade awesome costumes all my life.  I said what I wanted to be and then magically an Alice in Wonderland costume was right there, or a Care Bear or my personal favorite Pippy Longstocking.  Not my kids, all they wanted were store bought costumes.  Wah Wah.  And Nolan proceeded to pick out the most boring one there was (or so I thought).  I tell you what though, those boys LOVED their costumes and it turns out when they love their costumes they are in great moods and even let me take their pictures.  It might help that both of them have masks on so you can't even tell they are my children at all or if they are smiling, but I know and that's all that matters!  So I stand corrected on the costume situation this year, but that doesn't mean I won't try and convince them again next year to do something a little less main stream ;)  A girl can dream.

Bennett's First Field Trip

Bennett had his first field trip which just so happened to be at the Pumpkin Patch.  For those counting that was two Pumpkin Patches in two days.  But Bennett could not have been more excited, he thought it was pretty cool he got to go to two different Pumpkin Patches and if that makes the kid happy well I'm happy too.  Field trips at this age are kind of funny.  Every kid in the class (except two) had their parent there.  So I did not have the "pleasure" of watching any other kids at the patch.  So it basically turned into a date for Bennett and myself.  He wasn't too interested in playing with anyone else but me and I was A-Okay with that.  We enjoyed the slides, the corn boxes, the maze and he even picked a pumpkin on the way out.  His favorite thing was definitely running away from me in the maze, but he didn't realize I'm kind of like a ninja and could find him just about anywhere (one day he will learn that his squealing gives him away).  We had a nice little date and he even threw me a bone and smiled for a few pictures.  I think I'll keep him.

Pumpkin Carving

So we went over to our friend's house to carve pumpkins, I don't really even know if any of the pumpkins actually got carved if I'm being honest.  I have a few pictures that indicate the pumpkins were in fact gutted, but I have nothing that leads me to believe they were actually carved.  I've got to believe they were because magically on my porch a few days later there they were in all their glory.  I had one kid that thought gutting the pumpkins was pretty fun, I had another who thought it was totally disgusting.  Maybe Nolan is more like me than I thought.  Good thing we had Dad to carry our pumpkins to the finish line...again.

Pumpkin Patch Adventure

Yep, I'm still blogging about Halloween activities.  Stick with me, there are a few more posts to go!  Anyway, we were able to get in an annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch again this year.  I'm not sure we actually procured any pumpkins but we had fun doing all the activities nonetheless.  The boys painted yet another pumpkin and believe it or not (Aunt Amanda) I actually brought these ones home.  You see I have a tendency to "forget" some of their masterpieces at places because they are dripping with wet paint and sparkles and fluff balls and all kinds of stuff that I don't need smashed into my carpet.  These ones seemed pretty harmless as they were actually dry by the time we left so they found a home on our porch.  Another successful trip to the patch, I'll be sad the day they decide they are too big for this activity.  I fear that day is closer than I want to admit, but for now we embrace painted pumpkins and squeals on the teeter totter.