Halloween Fun and Fall Break

UPDATED: Pictures have been added!

We had a great weekend. The girls were out of school last Thursday and Friday for fall break. Thursday was Joe's birthday so Emma spent a good part of the entire day making him a book. She LOVES writing and drawing right now. She is a studious little thing. She is bringing home all that she is learning in art class and practicing her new skills at home. She is learning to read and write and she LOVES spelling new words and writing them down. After she reads a book at night she often takes time to copy down the new words she is learning into her drawing notebook. Yesterday I told her it was time to do her homework to which she replied, "As soon as I'm done with this self-portrait I'll come over." She was drawing herself in her notebook!

Last Thursday was absolutely the perfect day. We got up late, the girls ate waffles for breakfast, made a chocolate cake for Joe's birthday, the girls wrapped Joe's gifts for me, they made him a special birthday book, played outside with friends, made a lasagna for dinner, cleaned up the house a bit and celebrated Joe's birthday with Catherine and Rodney. We all hid from Joe when he came home from work (Carter, the girls and I) and yelled, "Happy Birthday!" when he walked in. The girls love to hide from Joe when he comes home and jump out to surprise him. They are still little and silly and I love that!

Birthday Pictures:

On Friday Joe was home with us. He replaced the light in our closet while the kids and I had brunch at Tracy's house with some of our friends and their children. Between the four women we had nine kids and we hired our middle school neighbor to help watch the kids while we ate way too much and visited. Isn't brunch food the best?! Friday afternoon Emma's best friend played over at our house with the girls and the neighborhood kids. Then Friday night we took our kids and our two middle school neighbors to the corn maze. We went on a hayride down to the maze and then went through the maze twice. It was a fun night.

Brunch:

This picture was taken of Emma as we walked up the street to Tracy's house. We were walking with Lori and the kids and Emma stopped to tie her shoe. Lori complimented her for what a great job of tying she did. Emma looks up at us with this huge grin with her vampire teeth in! I had no idea she had worn them. It cracked us up!

Our sweet host, Trent. I had to black and white his picture because his lips were showing up so red for some reason. I knew his daddy wouldn't want it to look like he was wearing lipstick. We love this little guy. Isn't he the cutest?

Girlfriends! Emma and Callie are best friends. They were in preschool together for four years. They started in the one day a week class when they were one and have been buddies ever since.

A common scene in our house. Carter with his girlfriend, Summer. Summer is our backdoor neighbor and she comes over most afternoons and helps with Carter. She loves him so much.

The grand finale! Cupcakes! Mrs. Tracy made some new best friends when she handed out yummy cupcakes to the kids.

Corn Maze:

Our hayride!

I'm not sure what Emma's expression is here, but I do know she didn't enjoy the maze as much as the other kids. She was a bit frightened. It was rather omnious at times when every which way you turned all you saw was corn!

Carter just chilled in the stroller. He loves going for rides!


Success! After we finished the maze it was getting dark. Hannah and the big kids wanted to go back through with flashlights. So, Joe and the older kids went through again in the dark. Carter, Emma and I played a game called Corn Hole where you toss bean bags through a hole. They had big bonfires going so if we had brought marshmallows we could have roasted some. We'll know what to bring with us next year!!

Saturday morning I got to leave the kids with Joe and have breakfast at Catherine's with Tracy and the family. We had a girls' morning out and went shopping at the Junkyard Dolls sale. Friends from church take "junk" and then recycle/refurbish/redesign it and turn it into fun new things for your home. After the sale we visited at Catherine's house until lunch. Joe brought the kids up so the family could see them too. We then headed down to our house for Joe's birthday lunch and gifts. Mom gave him a new iPod. It records videos so the girls and Carter pre-recorded the video below before the party. We wrapped his iPod box empty with a note that said come find me. While he was opening the box, Hannah ran back to the iPod that we had hidden in their room and began playing the video. He searched and found it and saw his birthday video. You might need to turn the volume down on your computer speakers before listening. Carter is soooo loud!

Joe's birthday song from Jenny Edgerton on Vimeo.

This was our first take on the video. We made a second one with better lighting and in hopes that Carter wouldn't scream, but he screamed even louder! I'll post it soon.

After the birthday party we cleaned up and got the kids ready for trick-or-treating. We have 21 children on our road that are 11 and under. It was so much fun trick-or-treating. All the kids came outside at just about the same time. Groups of families walked together and kids were running around our cul-de-sac all decked out in the costumes having so much fun. We trick-or-treated on our little street and then went to Catherine's house. From there we went to the neighborhood behind us where several of our friends live and visited their homes. It was a fun night!

Ta-da-da-Ta-da-DAH! The Edgerton's present The Wizard of Oz!

Dorothy and The Good Witch, Glenda

The Cowardly Lion! (It befits his sweet personality so well.) He is easily startled and gets shy when talking with you. He smiles and turns his head into my shoulder when talking to people. He even does it to Joe and I. He is a bit of a shy cowardly lion.

Farmer Trent

Farmer Trent's sweet chicken sister, Brooklyn.

Some of the neighborhood kids.

The cowardly lion says it's time to call it a night.

Sunday we RESTED! It was a fun, BUSY weekend. Today is house cleaning day because we got nothing done this weekend, but we did make some special memories!