Pumpkin Carving 2013

On the Monday before Halloween we carved pumpkins.The kids were so excited!  It was so sweet, one of the elder gentlemen in our ward brought over pumpkins for my kids a week ago.  Before we even started carving, we had each of the kids draw a picture of what they would like their pumpkin to look like. 

I helped the kids carve the tops off of their pumpkin and helped them clean out the goop in the inside. I loved how happy my kids were while doing this. It was fun to know that we were creating fun traditions and memories with our little family.

 I was surprised that Lucy loved every minute of cleaning out her pumpkin. She didn't really want any help at all and was bugged at Ben that he would even think about touching her little pumpkin.

 

Brandon was a trooper and the carver. He helped the kids carve their pumpkins based on the drawings they drew and did a great job. He went above and beyond.  Emmy's pumpkin even had a bow in it!  Ben's pumpkin had crazy hair and Hyrum's pumpkin had vampire teeth!

Overall it was a great night of laughing happy kids doing fun gross things!

Small Town Celebrations-Part 2

Just a few days after the first small town celebration, another town had theirs.

Saturday morning started off with a bang! Ben and I ran the 5k together.  I was so proud of him. Running the race was his choice and he rocked it! He took third place in his age group. 

Next, we went to the parade. The floats in this parade were amazing for a small town.

 Brandon's work even had a float in the parade.  He was a natural in the parade!

Then we went to the carnival. It was so much fun! The kids loved every minute of going on the fun rides with their friends.

Lucy particularly enjoyed a train ride with jungle animals.   Lucy also enjoyed riding in the car ride.

 Hyrum was very brave and went on some scary rides that I was surprised that he went on.

  We went home for  lunch and for Lucy to take a nap. It was a great choice for our family to have some time to just relax! Our family then went back to ride the rides some more and watch the fireworks!

It was a fun day!

Small Town Celebration- Part 1

In the middle of July, all the small towns around us have their celebrations! Everyone comes and goes to the celebrations! We loved going to all of them.  The first town, to start off the afternoon, had lots of bubbles and chalk for the kids to play with.  The kids were able to make some very large bubbles with some sticks and ropes.  Lucy was in absolute heaven with the bubbles. She would try to help the other kids by holding on to the sticks!

Next, came the relay races.  Each child was divided up into a group based on their age. Emmy took first in her age group and won a pop.  Ben took a close second.  Hyrum did well too.

Then came three legged races and the egg toss.

To end the afternoon, the fire truck was there to squirt everyone! My kids were pretty soaked!

Did I mention that during this Ben went around with some cousin of a friend to sale pop!  Leave it to Ben to do something like that! 

Later that night, we went to the family dance. It was so much fun! Lucy really got into it and danced her little heart out! The boys were brave and asked some girls to dance after I showed them how to.  They also were encouraged by five minutes of Wii time for every girl they asked.

Emmy had fun dancing with Brandon. Lucy didn't like it if I danced with other people.

It was such a great day and we had so much fun as a family.