Halloween from Start to Finish

WARNING..... VERY LONG POST WITH WAY TOO MANY PICTURES.

Halloween is a great time here in the Lawrence house. The month typically starts off gradually with a trip to a pumpkin farm or two, and by the end we have more candy than we know what to do with and we are pooped!!

Well this year proved to be no different if not more intense. We did start off with a visit to a pumpkin patch just north of here. It's my favorite one, and Tyler's class was the only chance we were going to have to head up there, so I packed up the other two little ones and we followed the bus up. Tyler was so excited about riding a big yellow bus. It was his first time and you would have thought it was cooler than a ride at Disneyland. Memo to me, next time I need a good bribe, offer a ride on a bus. But because I didn't officially go with Ty's class, I just followed them up, I was able to go with the flow and do what Tanner wanted to most of the time. His main focus was the animals. They had a great petting area, and I think we spent most of our time in there. He was in Heaven. And Austin really gets a kick out of the animals too. We did hop on the hay ride with the class to get our pumpkins. I love picking the pumpkins right off the vine. Some year I'll go up there early in the morning when the sun is just right and get some great shots. I offered to drive Ty home, but by the look on his face you would have thought I threatened his life! So he rode the bus home. Again, that was the highlight of his trip. Not the pumpkins, the train ride or the animals, but the bus.











Following our trip up to the big pumpkin farm, Tanner's classes hit the local farm here in town. He couldn't wait to see more 'doats.' Tanner loves animals, but he says their names all funny. Like 'doats'. You can sit there and have him say g, g, g, g, and it all sounds normal, but then you ask him to say goats and you get 'doats' every time. There are also 'shurkeys' and 'yions' and 'tows' and he loves them all. Eric even got to come with us to one of the two trips here in town, and it was fun to have him with us.






A funny story from that trip was at one point we all stopped at the haystack for the class photo. Around the haystack are tunnels and slides and things for the kids to do. I was taking pictures of Austin when I saw another little class sitting on the haystack singing Halloween songs for their parents. But as I looked again at the class, I noticed a little boy at the end of the row, with a huge grin on his face, listening to the music, that looked a lot like Tanner. Wait a minute I thought, THAT IS TANNER. I went and tried to pull him down because parents were trying to take pictures of the class and listen, but he wanted so badly to stay and sing. A few other parents said it would be fine to let him sit there, so he did. He would sing the songs he knew with them and sit and listen to the ones he didn't. Can you tell he is really shy??


One day we even just face painted using my make-up. Noticed I said one day, but it was still fun, just that once.

So with a week to go life got crazy. There was a costume dilemma. Tanner really wanted to be a T-Rex and Ty wanted to be a pterodactyl. Well, there are no pterodactyl costumes and all the T-Rex ones online looked ridiculous. So I pulled on my mom pants and went to work on making costumes this year. That lasted for about a week and the I gave up. Eric talked Ty into being optimus prime and megatron obviously went to Tanner. They seemed satisfied with the choices until Tanner realized that he actually really wanted to be a dinosaur. He's really into them right now, and it only seemed right to let him be one. So I found one on craigslist but it was in Elk Grove. I felt the trip would be worth it because it was what he really wanted. The next day when I gave him his costume he was elated. So worth it, I thought. I pulled our box of costumes out to find something for Austin and Ty found his bat costume from last year and begged to wear it. Ahhhh, what is the point of buying costumes. Tanner found a pirate costume in there too and he also changed his mind. And there goes the trip to Elk Grove. I decided since we literally had a weeks worth of trick or treating to do and various events to attend in costume, I wouldn't fight it too much and we would switch it up. We did everything from a few church party, a party at Oakmont High School with Grandpa, class parties, Old Town Roseville Halloween night and of course regular old around the neighborhood trick or treating. We actually skipped a few of the planned events simply due to overload. The boys switched and swapped costumes almost every time, and Austin was Squirt the turtle once, but his real winner of a costume was a Little Stinker. He was the perfect little skunk and I know I think he's always cute, but literally people would stop and ask if they could take his picture the costume was that cute. I think it was because he's almost the right size to be a skunk, and when he was walking around, it totally looked like it could be real. Halloween night while going door to door he actually was invited into some homes so other members of the family could see him. It was really cute.

Oakmont Party with Grandpa



Austin being a true little stinker at Tanner's class party

Tyler's Class Party

One of the many nights in costume

Random people would stop and watch him.

Austin stopped in the middle of the street and put his bottom up in the air. Just for the camera I think.





And now, we are exhausted. Hence the reason it took me so long to post about it. I am just now recovering!! But looking at all these pictures makes me want to do it all over again. Happy Halloween!!