Costume Parade

Today Peyton had a Halloween party in her Kindergarten class and after the party the school had a costume parade with all the grades. Houston and I went to her school to watch. There was a lot of cute and creative costumes and the parade ran really well. I have been really impressed with Peyton's school so far. They seem really organized and if Peyton's future teachers are anything like her Kindergarten teacher then she will be in good hands.


Houston waiting for the parade to start


Peyton wouldn't stop for pictures so I didn't get very good ones.

Carving Pumpkins

Last night we finally carved our pumpkins. Peyton had been so excited waiting for the day and had her design picked out for a week.

But first I have to tell you about a little incident we had with the pumpkins before the carving began. While waiting for Bradyn to get home from work, I had brought the pumpkins in the house to warm up a bit and had them sitting by the front door. All the sudden I heard a thump, thump, thump and I knew. I went running over to the stairs to find Peyton's pumpkin at the bottom of the stairs broke in half. Houston had rolled it down the stairs. Luckily, Bradyn was at the store picking me up some other stuff so I had him grab another pumpkin for Peyton.

Peyton loved the digging out all the seeds and did all of her own carving. Houston wasn't really sure what to think. I put his hands in a little bit and then was off to play.



Houston didn't know what to think





This was the joke for the night. Peyton started carving Houston's pumpkin for him and this is what it looked like before Bradyn fixed it.


The finished products (Bradyn's - traditional, Cindy's - monster peaking through blinds, Peyton's - alien, and Houston's - traditional)

Pumpkin Patch

We have made it a tradition the last few years to go to the same pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. The kids love it there because there are all sorts of tractors for them to climb on, a little corn maze to go through, and lots of pumpkins to choose from.

This year we kind of waited until the last minute to go and had a hard time finding some good ones since they were picked over and quite a few were spoiled since it had been so warm the beginning of October. But we did find 4 for carving, some smaller ones in really cool colors and shapes for a crate on my porch, and a bale of straw for my porch for decoration and then to keep our dogs warm in the winter :).

California Trip :)

We have been wanting to go to Disneyland during Halloween time for the past 3 years. We heard it is so much fun with all the Halloween decorations and the parties that go on there. So this year we finally did it. WARNING: This is going to be a really long post.




We flew out to Orange County on Monday, October 11th where we my mom was flying into from Albuquerque. We met her at the airport, picked up our rental car, checked into our hotel and dropped off our luggage, and then headed to Huntington Beach. By the time we got there it was starting to get dark and cold but the kids still loved it.






That night we went swimming and sat in the tub. Actually Peyton was the only one that really went swimming. The rest of us thought the water was too cold.




After swimming we got ready for bed so that we could get some rest for a busy day at Dineyland.


On Tuesday, we got up early and spent the day at Disneyland visiting Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Micky's Toontown.












That night we had tickets to Mickey's Halloween Party so we want back to the hotel and got cleaned up and the kids in their Halloween costumes and then headed back to Disneyland.


Houston the future Jockey for W/G Racing Stables and Peyton the future Champion Barrel Racer

The Halloween Party was so much fun. When we got their we watched the parade that is put on daily, we went on rides in Adventureland, New Orleans Square, Critter Country, and Tomorrowland while the lines were short, then we went trick or treating and loaded up on tons of candy, watched the parade with the characters dressed in Halloween costumes, and ended the night with an awesome fireworks display.


















On Wednesday we spent the day at California Adventures and made it through most of the park.









While in California we also really wanted to take our animal loving kids to Seaworld. So on Thursday morning we drove to San Diego and spent the day at Seaworld and drove back that night. The kids loved it and it was nice to have a change of scenery and do something a little different on our trip.















On Friday we spent the day at both California Adventures and Disneyland riding rides and seeing things we hadn't already.




And on Saturday it was a sad morning because we knew we had to come home. Before we went to the airport we drove down to Newport Beach because Peyton was begging to go to the beach again. It was rainy that day so neither trip to the beach was very good. And I wasn't super impressed with Huntington or Newport Beach. Hopefully our next trip we will be able to beach around San Diego and it is warm so the kids can play in the water more.




We had such a fun time!!! It was a much needed vacation. Thanks so much mom and for going with us! We loved every minute of it!!!