my gym halloween party

last friday after school we went to the kids' gym for their annual halloween party. Q was really tickled about wearing his costume to the gym. we certainly got our money's worth out of the costumes this year!

waiting to go in

spiderman, checking out the giant green spider.

enjoying the place before most other kids got there spiderman shows off his awesome climbing abilities

sliding into the ball pit

pretty princess peacock fairies also enjoy the ball pit

hiding under the tree house

contemplating

taking a break

a much needed break

spidey scales the climbing wall

hanging around

caroline enjoyed the "make your mommy a mummy" game even though her mummy didn't participate

superhero strength

the kids had fun, though Q later questioned why there wasn't any candy. because halloween is all about the candy.

fire drill

the kids' daycare is in the same building as my office. last week we had an ill-timed fire drill - smack in the middle of nap time. poor kids all had to be forced up and out of the building and most never got back to sleep. Q was particularly traumatized by this fire drill. that day he was repeatedly taking off his shoes and actually had them off when the alarm rang. his teacher scolded him for not having his shoes on and reminded him that they need to stay on his feet in case of an emergency. he had a bit of a panic attack. i think he may have been afraid that miss megan was going to leave him behind in a burning building because he wasn't wearing shoes. he's talked about it non-stop. he even asks permission to remove his shoes at home now because he's scared of an emergency. i have to keep reminding him that mommy and daddy only have two kids to worry about at home and can help him get his shoes on whereas miss megan has 16 or so to herd out of the building. after i ran through this explanation for the billionth time this week, quentin looked pensive and then sighed in relief, saying, "we had an emergency and miss megan saved me."

ginny's party

every since Q's birthday, all caroline and quentin could talk about was ginny's party. because her birthday was next. Q is already planning for mine (and inviting people) despite the fact that there are like 5 family members with birthdays before mine (though not in this house) and that it is 3 months away. and i don't really have a party. Q refused to have his picture taken, hence the pickle-palooza. also this batch of photos cemented the fact that i need a better camera because i took a ton and almost none came out even remotely well.

pumpkin farm - take two

since the first pumpkin farm we went to this year was a little too commercial and not "farmy" enough, we took a trek to the same farm we went to last year. the same crew from the museum party the night before joined us. you know it's a real farm when you smell manure. ahhh that's what i'm talking about.

ready for adventure

futile attempt of getting a good group shot of 5 children.

this time we opted out of the harder corn maze and did the much easier straw bale maze instead it was so much easy that Q alone navigated us out of it in like 2 minutes

more wagon... the only way to roll

hugging a pumpkin

goose gourd

weird pumpkin!

overloaded hay ride to the pumpkin patch. we briefly got stuck in a muddy hole.

the barren pumpkin patch. seriously every pumpkin remaining was rotten or deformed.

back on the hay ride, pumpkinless.

funnel cake face

Q's halloween story

Q's class colored a haunted house picture then dictated a story to go with it. clearly coloring does not interest him, nor should i bank on him becoming an award-winning author.

please touch the monster mash

last night we went to the members-only halloween party at the please touch children's museum. it served as a good dry run on costumes and was wicked fun. the kids had a great time exploring the museum and trick or treating throughout for all kinds of goodies. i must warn you. i took a lot of pictures. almost 700. but fortunately for you most of them suck because our camera is lame. there are also a disproportionate number of pics of pickle, because i was assigned pickle duty (it was one adult per kid to ensure we didn't lose anyone in the madness.) also, Q objected to me repeatedly taking his photo.

getting ready before

surprisingly not bad group shots

oh boy. cheese face.

attempting to get a nice one of my kids. not so much.

the peacock fairy and ladybug girl

don't make me use this awesomely powerful peacock wand.

gin bug, the prettiest pirate in all the land

another attempt at group shots with our scarecrows. also not too successful.

even spiderman must ride safe. aside, i am so impressed he wanted to wear the mask. i figured he would refuse to wear it. instead, he didn't want to take it off.

let's get this party started!

from the back

dancing in the atrium

trick or treating for water bottles

musical, skipping spiderman

captain ginny steers the ship while spiderman and peacock fairy check out their loot

pickle was obsessed with the alice in wonderland section where even the little kids feel "huge"

stop. pretzel time.

peacock fairies - they're just like is. they grocery shop too.

baby fight! fortunately another shopping cart was freed up at just the right time.

hey look! spiderman is buying fish and bread!

it was all over once we found the kitchen

but driving the mail truck is cool too

throughout the museum they have vintage toys in glass cases. it's pretty cool because i remember having a lot of the stuff. here in the pretend mcdonalds caroline admires happy meal toys through the ages and the kick-ass barbie mcdonald's set that we totallt had.

lilly and caroline practices for when they turn 15

hope she's hungry

end of the night, waiting in line for a carousel ride. someone's tired... and caroline is on the floor.

caroline channels her inner billy joel. she impressed her audience (me) with the ABCs, mary had a little lamb, row row row your boat, and her signature tune, sweet caroline