Halloween 2011

The kids have been looking forward to trick-or-treating for several weeks now.  Matt woke up this morning and laid out his costumes......yes that's plural, you'll see in a minute.  Our neighborhood always gets lots of traffic and the kids have as much fun handing out candy as they do going around getting candy.

Here's the official 2011 Halloween photo....

 Matt was Iron Man and McKenzie was, like, a totally awesome 80's girl.

Matt came up with the idea of being every super hero that he has a costume for.  That totaled five.  As you can see, he made the most of his Halloween!  Betty carried a bag full of costumes and he changed every half street or so.  He was a hoot!

 We had to go by and see our old neighbors, the Byrds.  They were so happy to see the kids and let them get all the candy they wanted!

Like I said, they loved handing out candy.  Whenever the door bell would ring they would both take off running for the door.  We had a wonderful time and the kids are already making plans for their costumes for next year!

Halloween Through the Years

A few weeks ago I read a post on a blog that I love, Clover Lane, on how she made a cute Halloween photo garland for her large kitchen window. It was made using old pictures through the years of her kids in their Halloween costumes. I plan on making one myself, so I got David to find our old pictures of McKenzie and Matt in their costumes. They brought back a lot of great memories. We celebrate big at Halloween at our house. It has been so much fun planning their costumes through the years.I believe my favorite costumes would have to be their "first" Halloween. McKenzie was a Hershey Kiss. I'll never forget how much fun my granny and I had with that one. She made it out of silver fabric and we stuffed it with tissue paper. I then painted a Hershey Kiss tag for it. Matt for his first was a little cowboy. I can remember his head was so big that his little cowboy hat wouldn't stay on but he was so cute! Hope you enjoy the pictures...

 2001 - McKenzie - Hershey's Kiss

 2002 - McKenzie - 50's Girl

 2003 - McKenzie - Snow White

 2004 - McKenzie - Minnie Mouse

 2005 - McKenzie - Diva

 2006 - McKenzie - American Idol

 2006 - Matt - Cowboy

2007 - McKenzie - Hannah Montana

2007 - Matt - Dog

2008 - McKenzie - Dr. McKenzie

2008 - Matt - Thomas the Train

2009 - McKenzie - Witch

2009 - Matt - Skeleton

2010 - McKenzie - 60's Girl

2010 - Matt - Batman

Showchoir Spectacular

McKenzie and her school showchoir, Pizzazz, participated in the MDCC Showchoir Spectacular at MDCC in Moorhead Friday and Saturday.  They learned four songs and choreography during practice all day Friday and half a day Saturday and then had their performance Saturday afternoon.  McKenzie did a great job and had a lot of fun, even though it was a lot of long, hard work crammed into those two days.  After the performance we went to eat at The Lost Pizza Company in Indianola.  It was great!  The kids each got an individual pizza and Betty and I tried to split a large.......or as they call it - a massive pizza.  We weren't up to the challenge and brought a few pieces home.  Here are a few pictures of McKenzie performing.

Bull Bottom Farms

Friday, Matt's class went on a field trip to Bull Bottom Farms.  I took off Friday and Betty and I went with the class and had a lot of fun.  McKenzie went to a Showchoir Spectacular workshop at Mississippi Delta Community College and we'll have some pics and a post about that later.

The first thing we did was go on a hay ride to the pumpkin patch.  The boy to Matt's left told him, "If you stay out in the sun too long you'll be black!".

After the hay ride we went to slide on the giant Magic Carpet Slide.  Matt was a little hesitant but he went anyway.

 It looked like so much fun that I had to take a turn.  I was very pleased that I made it to the bottom of the hill in one piece without any major injuries!

 We went back to the slide and Matt said he didn't want to go by himself, so I agreed to go down with him.  As you can see......it wasn't pretty.

 I promise, no kids were harmed in the taking of this picture.  The boy in the blue shirt escaped unharmed.  Matt emerged without a scratch also.  Amazingly, I was able to walk away as well.

They finished the trip playing on the hay bale maze.  This was Matt's favorite part of the farm.  He was so worn out after playing that he called it the "hell bays" instead of "hay bales".

Pumpkin Patch 2011

On Saturday, David and I took the kids to Cedar Hill Farms in Hernando. We love it there and it has become a tradition every fall to visit the farm. McKenzie and I have decided we might like to go back at Christmas where they have holiday activities. It was really a beautiful day and fun was had by all! We visited the animals first then went on a train ride. Next it was off to the pumpkin patch. This was Matt's favorite part riding on the hayride. We decided not to carry big heavy pumpkins back on the hayride, but to buy them at the pumpkin barn where we came in. The kids picked out their very own, McKenzie a white one, Matt, an orange pumpkin, and me, I picked out a blue, bumpy one. McKenzie and Matt also enjoyed doing the corn maze where they had to answer questions about the farm to lead you to the next stop. I sat this one out under a big shade tree, but they all made it out and had fun.
Next, it was time to eat lunch and after years of spending too much at the farm's snack bar, we decided to go to Southaven to eat at Logan's. We all were starving by the time we got there and ate too many peanuts and huge yeast rolls. After lunch, David took the kids to Books A Million, while I tried to find a few necessities for the kids. Our last stop was Target. They had the cutest things in there and we didn't have a lot of time left so I see another visit in the near future.

As soon as October arrived, I had fun decorating the house. I think we have a pumpkin of some sort in every room. Matt told me one day that he thought we needed more stuff! Oh I don't think so, we probably have too much. He has fun showing everyone that comes by the house all of his pumpkins. I will share a few pictures. One is of the mailbox that I talked about a few weeks ago. I really love how it turned out. You can't see it in the picture, but in the flower bed around it, I planted purple and yellow mums to go with the purple ribbon. I also added more mums to the front porch. I have a slight obsession with mums. I bought all different colors this year for the front sidewalk. I found the nicest lady here in town that bought them from a grower in Germantown, so they are really healthy and starting to show some color.

We already have our costumes lined up. McKenzie is now saying she wants to be an 80's valley girl. Well, I can help with that! Matt says he is going to be a different super hero for each street. We have six streets in our neighborhood, so lucky for Matt he has plenty of costumes. I plan on taking my big bag to hold all his stuff and just let him put them on over his clothes on each street. This should be very interesting, but it's what he wants to do.
Happy Halloween!!