Pumpkins, Parties and Halloween

Okay, I seriously tried like . . .  everything to get Halloween to start with a P for the title, but my goal for an alliteration will just have to wait for another time. Oh well, anywho . . .

Let's start with this years pumpkin carving. Thank goodness Jeff is so good about remembering what makes the holidays special. He found the perfect pumpkin and then picked the perfect time to carve it. :-) Johnathan was very excited to dig in!






He was being very silly and goofy! I love it when he gets like this! He literally can't stop himself from laughing the really good, deep, belly laugh.


"Hey John, look at Mommy and make a funny face"


Tadaa!


Again with the laughing! :-)

Next up, we went to a very fun 3rd birthday party for John's friend Bridget. It was a costume party and I was thrilled! This year Grandma Bert made John's Dinosaur costume, it was and is perfect, with a little tail, a hat with spikes and even little spats to put on over his sneakers. Adorable! Unfortunately John was just not up for wearing a costume to the party. Okay, I thought, no need to push it, he will definitely want to wear it for Halloween right?

Here's John with Bailey playing with some play-doh a real treat! He was very serious about it!




The birthday girl is Snow White, John's friend Sammy is the pumpkin and John is apparently a fish with that face!


They had trick-or-treat all set-up in their upstairs bedrooms and John was super excited to knock on doors and get candy! He didn't understand it, but he loved it!


And then to make it one of the coolest parties ever . . . they had a bounce house! John was in heaven!




"I see you Mommy!"




Next up . . Swamp Buggy Races. Last year John was a little too young to really get into watching the big trucks, err Swamp Buggies, run through the water, err mud, and the loud noise kinda scared him, but this year . . . he LOVED it! For some time now John has loved the noise of motorcycles and big trucks so I wasn't surprised that he would love watching the races. Oh and the local weatherman teased us into thinking that there was a cold front coming in this weekend, um not so much. It was freaking hot, like there were two paramedics walking around to make sure people weren't fainting from the heat, yeah that hot!

Day One just a few minutes before Mama called it a day.


Day Two, here's John waiting for more trucks to come. He would get so excited and start yelling "GO GO GOOOO trucks!" "Big trucks Mommy BIIIIG trucks!!!"




And seriously, how cute is he in this hat? I mean really!


Finally, the fun Halloween parties! It's become our tradition to spend time with some of our friends on this candy filled holiday. Saturday night we were over at Keri and Joe's and it was wonderful. We were able to catch up and all of the kids got to play together. And, one of the things I look most forward to, chef Joe makes a delicious soup every year. Its always a little different, and always lips smaking good!

Kiddie playground with all of the adults running interference and taking photos!
 

John with Yaya Cindy and Emma reading a fun story.


And here's the famous Emma, John's best buddy at school and all he can ever talk about. I think the feeling is mutual because they played so well together! They literally sat in that chair together for 20 minutes, which in 2 year old time is like 5 hours right?, and no fighting, in fact they were giggling and having fun the whole time!


Halloween Day came and I was very excited to get John into his home-made costume. After a complete and total meltdown, John not me, I decided to give in and not make him wear it. I have to say I was a little dissapointed and a bit worried since I didn't have a back up plan, so I had to raid John's closet to find something "Halloween-ish".  So instead of a dinosaur, John was a buckeye football player. Hey it works! :-)

Here's John with Emily and Nikki "Mingy"


And here he is with Auntie Karen, Grandma Doris, and Grandma Lolus . . . all smiles!


We then went over to our friend's Lindsey and Ty's house for some trick-or-treating fun. Jeff was able to join us there and I was so happy to see that he came as a referee, he and John matched perfectly!


John's meltdown didn't end with the costume, it seemed to kinda linger on through the night . . . here's our attempt to get a photo of all of the kids together. John's all the way on the side far away from everyone else!


And then we were all set to go trick-or-treating . . . it lasted all of one house! See how he's heading straight for the garage instead of the man, yeah he wanted to just keep on going. Fun stuff!


In the end it was a very fun day. I'm thinking that next year we are going to start prepping and talking about Halloween for weeks before the big day to prepare for the festivities. Oh and I'm still determined to get John into the dinosaur costume for a photo. Here's hoping!

I also have to update about the other little pumpkin in my life. Here I am at 16 weeks pregnant, check out that baby bump!

I just went for my 16 week check-up and everything is great! The baby's heart beat was 150 bpm and even though I asked the doctor to predict boy or girl he said he was only ever 50% accurate, what a joker! Other than the fact that my pants are getting tighter and that I have to pee every 30 seconds, I'm feeling great! Even though it was only 3 years ago that I was pregnant with John, it seems like forever ago and this time around seems so different. I'm realizing that our whole lives are so completely different than what they were back then and that might be why I'm having a hard time comparing these pregnancies. Since I'm working at an elementary school I'm constantly moving and walking around, which has actually helped a lot with the aches and pains. We are also eating a lot healthier, well for the most part, and that might also be why I'm not gaining as much weight as I did last time. Of course I'm still loving every minute of being pregnant and very much looking forward to feeling the little peanut move around. Every now and then, at night when I'm laying down, I will think that I feel the slightest little hint of movement, it's the best. We are all very excited about my next appointment when we get to find out if we're having a boy or girl, I can't wait!

I can't believe it's already November! Time is flying by, but I guess that means we are all having fun. :-)