This is Halloween

Choo, choo! The Halloween Express train is now leaving for a trip around the city. First stop: Grams and Gramps where we met up with the Smarts and the Verlos.
Nate thinks Merrick is SO COOL, here they are doing their "superhero/ninja" poses.

After additional stops at Nana's house and Ryan's work for a lunch party that I didnt take any photos of (whoops) we went home for Zach's nap, then a visit with Ryan's folks. After that, Caden and Jacob joined us to do a little trick-or-treating and a little passing out of candy.

We were totally rockin' the superhero theme.

After that we walked over to WOL for their Trunk or Treat. It was WAY crowded so we did a few bouncy things them we we got the heck out of there!

Pumpkin party

Saturday night was the Armstrongs Annual Pumpkin party and contest. I wish I would have taken more pictures of all the other people there, there were other people there, I promise. I was there too but not in the pictures either.

We had to get a new pumpkin knife this year and it came with designs so Nate wanted to do the pirate.

At the end of the night they put all the pumpkins on a hill and light them all up. It's a wonderful sight!

It was a fun time, even thou Nate got beat up and bloodied in the bounce house!

Pumpkin build

This Saturday we went to another build day at Lowes, this one was a pumpkin with interchangeable pieces for the face. It was just ok, not a great one but the kids liked it. 11/8 is a semi truck with a race car that goes in the back, if you want to pre-register, do it now https://www.lowesbuildandgrow.com/
Zach got a little crazy with the hammer so I think next time I'll bring him his own "special" hammer (the plastic kind) Look how cute he is in his little apron.
Here's the boys with the Kaitlyn & Kenzie and their finished pumpkins.

Camp Rock!

Well even thou it's taking me a week to finally post it (hey, I've been a little busy) I'm finally gonna tell you about our first camping trip in our tent trailer. It was... interesting... at first. We definitely learned alot, like the fact that we didnt need the electric brakes we had installed on our Kia because out trailer dosent have electric brakes. So we had planned to go with my parents as our "cushion" trailer. If everything failed, we could all go move in with them for the weekend if we had to. But my dad got stuck in New York so they didnt arrive until the middle of the first night!

So after we got to the site and almost rammed into their hook-ups Ryan discovered that our electrical plug didnt match theirs. So being the smart wife I am I told him that there was probably a converter he could buy at the campground store. So he went and looked, didnt see one and left WITHOUT ASKING! Men! So we were without power for hours that we could have had power. No power = no lights, no fridge (we're talking milk here people) and no dinner. So off to Carls Jr we went. Later when I realized he hadnt asked I sent him back and he got one.

So it wasnt a real relaxing weekend, Ryan and my dad spent alot of time trying to figure out what was best for our trailer, all the things we didnt know about like hoses and stuff. The campground itself was cool as always but it was extra cool this weekend, they had all these events going on like hayrides to a pumpkin patch where you got to pick a pumpkin, pumpkin crafts for the kids, costume parade, lollypop hunt at night w/flashlights, pancake breakfast, bounce house, and they had decorated the campground everywhere with bales of straw and scarecrows and stuff. Alot of the campers there come every year for this and decorate their trailers so there was fun stuff for the kids to see everywhere. We were thinkin about trying to go back next year, you all should too!

Here are my boys playing in what Nate used to call the "stinky slide" and I used to call "the cement slide of death" but they took out that awful slide so now it's just the stinky tunnels. If you've been trailer camping before then you can probably figure out what it's located near that gives it it's nicknames!

This was my first camping meal: Chicken n pasta with cream cheese/bacon mashed potatoes (my mom did the salad and the bread) I tried to make it easy on myself, I pre cooked and shredded the chicken and used instant potatoes and a pasta meal from target - viola! It was super yummy!

And here's Ryan on my dad's laptop wasting valuable camping time checking on his fantasy football team - Nerd!

Saturday we went to Sea World in the late afternoon/night cuz we really wanted to see the night shows that we usually miss cuz we have to drive home. Nana, Papa and Seth came too. This time there were 2 pilot whales in the dolphin show - sweet! This was the first time the manatee exhibit was open while were were there and Nate really liked the manatees. I got all these cool double image shots in there and this was my favorite one.

Mom and dad got the boys all swords, then when it was dark, Sea World busted out cooler light up swords that put the other swords to shame and since my parents rock, they got the boys those swords too! Thanks Mom and Dad!

The pre-show to "Shamu Rocks" was so fun. It was crowded since that is the only thing to do there at 7pm so we were in the last 2 rows but it was cool cuz the boys got to stand up and dance and see everything. All the light up swords were so cool!

Away we go!

We are heading out on our first camping trip in our new trailer this weekend! Check out the cool flame decal we got printed up at my brother's work (of course the guy at the trailer store said it wont stick - bummer.) Well it looks cool now!

Stay tuned for more camping posts!

School days

Today I got to volunteer in Nate's preschool class. It was alot of fun and it was neat seeing what he does there. He's pretty quiet in class but it's nice to know he's not the kid that needs to be separated from other kids all the time.

I didn't take too many pictures because I don't think I'm supposed to photograph the other kids but here is Nate matching some shapes and dressing up as a cop (how do I explain to him what the baton is for?)

Here is some of his projects that were up on the wall. The funny thing is that the flower one is his family and if you look close, there's Mommy, Daddy, Nate, Zach and "Stephie." Who is this long lost sibling you may wonder... well I'm 99% sure when they were asking him who was in his family, he included Seth and since Nate usually calls him "Sethy" this was probably the closest real sounding name they could make of it. It makes me smile.

Bouncin buddies

This Saturday we had fun at Caden's 3rd Birthday Party. I got some great shots of the boys having fun in the bounce house.

Lane Boys:

D Boys:

There was a B-ball hoop in the corner so I started "dunking" the kids. Nate really liked it!