Birthday in Hannibal

For my birthday this year, we took a little family day trip to Hannibal, Mo - hometown of Mark Twain.  We got to ride on the "Mark Twain" riverboat and soak up the gorgeous fall scenery!

We played for a while at the park while waiting for the boat, and Eli and Owen thought they were in HEAVEN to get an up close view of a real train going by!

The views from the river were stunning... and the weather was perfect!  I can't say enough how much I LOVE THE FALL!

Owen cried most of the boat ride unfortunately... best we can figure is that he was just overtired.  Both boys were fighting over sitting on Dad's lap by the end. 

We had a really nice captain to saved the day by letting Eli and Owen have turns "steering" the boat once it was docked. 

Oh, the views in Hannibal!  It wound up being such a beautiful place!  We've been meaning to visit for a while, and I'm glad it ended up being this time of year.

What's even better than a playground?  A LEAF FIGHT at sunset!

Happy October!

We were the "Gone Batty" family for Halloween!  I re-used the batwing idea from last year, but added straps so the boys could actually get them on and off themselves... and I made the hats from plain beanies.  Brad's has wings, the boys' just have eyes, ears and fangs since their wings are on their bodies.  They had a lot of fun playing bats this year, and wore their costumes for hours! Not to mention at the ward Trunk or Treat, Eli's school party, and even Gymnastics!  Trick or treating in our neighborhood was SO FUN.  Owen ran to every single house until he just couldn't move anymore, and made Brad carry him home.  Then we got to hand out candy to the later trick or treaters.  The weather was so GORGEOUS this year too!  We haven't had a warm Halloween since we left AZ!

Earlier in the month, in fact the DAY we had our ultrasound and found out baby#3 is a GIRL, we headed down to Hartsburg, MO for the annual pumpkin festival.  We enjoyed climbing around the big pumpkins, on the haybales, and through the haymaze.  The boys' got their first taste of cotton candy, and the hi-light of their day - a horseback ride!

 Eli has been enjoying pre-school SO MUCH this year.  For their first field trip this month, they went to Peachtree Farms just outside of Columbia.  Moms and little brothers got to come too, so that was nice.  We took a hayride, and each kiddo got to pick their very own pumpkin from the patch.  We fed goats, held baby bunnies, heard donkeys go "HE HAW," saw giant catfish and more!

 

                           
And I couldn't help snapping a pic of Eli and his best buddy Lydia... awwww aren't they cute?  Lydia's mom and I are good friends, and have been doing playgroup together for over two years.  Now these two get to go to pre-school together.  One day when I was picking Eli up from school, he was sad that they had to part from eachother.  He told me in his sad voice, "Mom, I MISS Lydia.  I LOVE Lydia.  I love the way she talks.  I love the way she sounds.  And........ I love the way she runs!"  Now if that's not true love... =)  Owen really likes her too, and even though he is nearly as tall as she is, she likes to be a cute little "Mom" to him.

All in all it was a great month, with great weather!  Gotta love October!

Bat Boys

 Halloween was a blast this year.  I didn't get the boys' costumes figured out until the last minute, the craft we made a couple of days before gave me the inspiration: bats!  These actually glowed in the dark after the paint dried.

 

The day before Halloween we went to a "trunk or treat" at church, where everyone lines up their cars in the parking lot, and the kids walk from car to car to get treats.  I ran to Kohls that morning for black sweatshirts, and JoAnn's for the faux leather to make batwings... I literally had a half an hour when we got home to make the wings before we had to leave for the trunk or treat!  I was hoping to come up with arm bands or something to fasten them on, but had to resort to good old fashioned safety pins... the boys were thrilled!

 One little bat missed his afternoon nap, and couldn't keep his eyes open on the ride home.

On Halloween night we went out for a little trick or treating in our neighborhood.  The weather was perfect - just the right amount of chill.  It was nice to meet a few of our neighbors, and see some of the other kids (and adults) in costumes.  One funny lady answered her door wearing a white puffy suit, puffy hat, and green face. She said she was an "Oompaloompa."  Eli has no idea what that is, but he was mesmerized... literally frozen in place staring at her!  He couldn't smile, or say trick or treat... he just looked at me and said, "She's an Oompaloompa!"  Otherwise he was speechless... we all had a good laugh about that. 

 The neighbors across the street had quite the scary display, and we got a picture with them.  The kids kept commenting that their house was "so scary" and yet their feet were so planted to the ground we had to tear them away to move to the next one. 

Peach Tree Farms

Now I've got to work my way backwards a little bit to catch up.  We visited Peach Tree Farms out here with the boys at the beginning of the season.  We went on a Monday night, and had the entire place to ourselves!  We enjoyed a hayride, checking out some farm animals (including a 75 pound catfish), and picking out some pumpkins.  I. LOVE. FALL!