Happy Halloween!!!

We had one weekend between Disneyland and Halloween so we figured we'd go to the pumpkin patch then.  The only problem with that is it poured the whole weekend.  We were resigned to the fact that we would have to go to the grocery store to get our pumpkins this year.  Well Wednesday rolled around, it was a nice day and we had time so I asked Kayda if she wanted to go to the store to get her pumpkin.  She told me "No let's go to the pumpkin patch, not the one far away, the one closer."  So I called Daddy and he was fortunately able to take his lunch to go with us to the pumpkin patch just down the road from his office. 

 

 Ready?  LIFT!  Kayda had to have a "giant" pumpkin (she got the largest out of all of us) and Dillon was the exact opposite.  If he couldn't pick the pumpkin up, he didn't want it.

 We've come up with all kinds of excuses to wear our costumes this year.  Thursday both kids got to wear their costumes to their schools.  Friday we put them on again to go visit Daddy at work and then of course Halloween on Sunday.  Dillon chose Buzz Lightyear and of course we had to have the wings, Kayda chose a kitty cat.

 Here's our pumpkin carving.  Kayda was hands on, Dillon did NOT like the gooey insides at all.  I drew different types of eyes, noses and mouths for the kids and they each chose the pieces they wanted on their pumpkins, then Mommy drew it on and Daddy carved it out (both of them want Daddy to do everything right now).

 Going to visit Papa G.

 After Papa G we headed off for dinner with Grandma and Papa H.  Turns out Ella was a kitty cat too, Kayda thought it was fantastic to have someone to "meow" with.

 Here are all the costumes!

Found another cousin!  He's loving Dillon's Buzz wings!

 The eldest cousin, poor guys getting too old to costume up.  Unfortunately for Nathan he still has to be in the blog!

 About to take off for trick or treating!

 Kayda and Dillon's pumpkins. 

 Mommy and Daddy's pumpkins.  Kayda and Dillon chose our pumpkins for us this year, mine wouldn't stand up so I worked with what I had! 

On another note entirely.  IT has definitely been feeling like autumn and we had three days in a row we made a fire for the second half of the day.  We decided one day to make it a fire and a movie afternoon.  The kids loved laying out in front of the fire and watching a movie. 

 Daddy found Dillon and Kayda playing like this in the hall on Friday.  They played together for a couple hours having a grand old time!

Recent Events

Today I have to report that Kayda had her first ever "when I grow up I'm going to be..."  She told me today that she was going to grow up to be a teacher for her preschool.  She's never said anything like that before so I was very excited! 

Now since I'm posting I might as well add a few more things.  Here is a picture of all of Kayda's art from preschool thus far.

Here is a picture of the things we could bring home from Dillon's class. 

Last but not least, here are the kiddos playing "robots" today.  I had paper bags sitting out and decided to be creative.  They each have "jump", "walk" and "dance" buttons and the kids had a GREAT time literally pushing eachother's buttons!

Caaal-i-fornia LO-OVE dun da da da...

Well, our trip was 100% successful!  Lots of stories to share, hopefully I'll remember them.  The kids knew we were going to Disneyland (the count down chains) so they were pumped on Sunday when we were going to the airport.  Papa G dropped us off because Grandma G and Uncle Justin were going too.  

On the plane the kids did a great job!  They watched movies, played cards, colored etc.   

We stayed at Castle Inn and Suites which is just a 10-15 minute walk to Disneyland.  The entire outside and the lobby are castle themed with hints at the theme in the rooms.  Not the best hotel ever but it served it's purpose.

I love Dillon's new pose.  Check out the wink!  Kayda likes to flip her hair now, I'm sure you'll see that in some pictures too!

We spent 5 days at Disneyland which ended up being great, we had plenty of time to see and do everything we wanted to without feeling like we had to stay the whole day.  We actually went ahead and went to Disneyland Sunday evening after we arrived. 

Dancing with the soldiers!

We saw a kid with Bullseye (Woody's horse from Toy Story 2) so we were looking for it in the stores because of course that's the animal our kids wanted.  We could not find them in ANY of the stores.  Finally we found out you had to win him in a game.  We assumed this was Toy Story Mania so we were getting ready to stand in line for it when Uncle Justin managed to find another game you could play to win him.  After having to win the game twice, we got Bullseye!  Our kids were SO excited and wouldn't put them down for two days!

California Screamer... that ride ROCKS.

Hanging out while we wait for Kayda to ride Big Thunder Mountain!

Uncle Justin is in the bright orange shirt in the back, Daddy is in front of him and Kayda is sitting next to Daddy!

She loved it so much she had to ride again.  Too bad she was on the other side of Grandma!

Kayda's favorite ride was Big Thunder Mountain, Dillon's was the Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters!  The also both LOVED Autopia where you get to "drive".

 

Over the course of our 5 days we managed to track down quite a few characters!  Check it out!

Buzz lightyear was great because he saw Dillon's shoes and starting dancing around because of them!

 

 Wednesday we actually took the day off from Disneyland, we rented a van and headed over to Crescent Beach.  It was a blast, I don't remember ever seeing waves like these.  Daddy and Uncle Justin spent a good amount of time attempting to body surf, I took tons of pictures, the kids played in the sand, Dillon braved the water... It was a great day. 

Check out THAT wave! Yes that's Daddy and Uncle Justin in the water.

Random wave...

 The following must be viewed in the order they occurred....

1.)  Here it comes, swim away...swim away!

 2.)  Faster dang it!  It's here it's here!

 3.)  Crap! 

(notice the head on the left, just barely coming through)

 4.)  Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!

 5.)  Where'd they go?

 6.)  There's one!

 7.)  There's two!

 8.)  Sooo glad that's over!

 Mermaid Kayda.

 Daddy and Uncle Justin are in there somewhere.

 Great Grandma's tortoises.  The kids are FASCINATED!

  Playing at their 2nd cousin, Parker's, birthday party.  He was turning five!

 It was super hero themed so Bobby had capes and masks ready for the party goers.  It was a great party!

 Playing "freeze dance"

Freeze Hayley!

 Spiderman is the birthday boy!

 Aaron's helping Dillon with the scavenger hunt!

 Musical chairs!

 Bobby helped Kayda make it to second place!

After the party we headed over to Great Aunt Mary's for dinner with her family.  It was great seeing them all again, everyone grows up so fast!  I didn't manage to get pictures unfortunately. 

 Pictures of Great Grandma!  Four generations of women!

 Waiting at the airport to head home.  They did great travelling once again, especially considering both kids got carsick during the 2.5 hour drive from Bakersfield to LAX.  Travelling from 10:30 to 7:15 when we finally walked in our door... LONG day!