A Weeks Worth of Halloween...

(I may not blog often, but consider yourself warned, once I get started I can't stop...)

Somewhere along the way Halloween turned into a week long celebration.  It must be because these little kids look so cute in their costumes we have to dress them up everyday, and we did!  

On Monday it was exciting because it was the first day to get all dressed up in our costumes and go to the library for story time.  Although Preston was excited about being a frog, he wasn't at all interested in putting on  his costume.  I tried explaining that if he wore his costume they would give him candy, that turned out to be enough motivation.  Can you see our little frog playing at the library with all the other adorable costumes.  

The younger the cuter, I think no matter what you dressed Garrett up as he would be adorable.  He happens to make the most adorable chili pepper you've ever seen!  Ashlyn asked to be a puppy this year, unfortunately she didn't make any of the pics at the library.  Don't worry though, this is only day one of our Halloween festivities, many more pics to come....

Tuesday was a full day of fun starting with Ashlyn's party at school.  I got to go and help play the "Where's the Squirrel" game, sorry no pics, too busy rounding up preschoolers!  Then another trip to the pumpkin patch  after naps and finished by trick or treating at the junior high school!

It's not Halloween without a trip to the pumpkin patch, this would be our second trip this season!  We met up with Kayley, Cora and Rex at the pumpkin patch, its always fun with cousins.  Ashlyn thinks her cousins are the best ever, she gets more excited to see them then her friends.  I love this picture, they fit in so naturally!

 Preston loved using the diggers to get a hold of all that dirt.  He also found a baby goat on the loose, it was supposed to be in a cage, so he decided it must be safe enough to pet.  Every time Preston approached the goat tried to head butt him, Preston couldn't figure out what was going on.  Kayley, Cora, and Ashlyn are pumping water in a duck race.  It was so crazy windy the day we went, unbelievably windy! Garrett has been to this pumpkin patch twice, so he's sitting this one out in his stroller and sleeping through it all.  

Of course there is the hayride out to the patch to pick out your pumpkins.  It's so fun to watch these cousins together, they get so silly and start going crazy together.  Preston has decided Kayley is the most likely to wrestle and play tough with him, so he is always poking and pushing on her trying to get something started. Kayley doesn't seem to mind, she apparently likes it as much as he does.  Colton pointed out that if Cora touched Kayley, Kayley would  have a fit, but she lets Preston do whatever he wants.

Preston and Kayley (bottom left) are taking Nick for a ride on their tractor.  Preston (bottom, middle) is having tons of fun in the grain silo moving corn kernels with the dump trucks.  They are all posing perfectly for us on stage, after we got them to stop running around like crazy.  

It's Wednesday now and the fun times just keep coming...We've started a tradition of having our play group's Halloween party at our house every year, I think we squeeze more and more people in every year.  This year we had 15 adults and at least 30 kids, I lost count!  The pic above is all the kids we crammed into the dining room...then below is the overflow of parents and kids that made room on the kitchen floor!  I didn't get pics of all the people in the living room and basement, it was great fun with games, music and food!

So, by now we've had to get into our costumes for three days straight..  Preston was really starting to complain, and he didn't even wear a costume to our party, but every time I reminded him that he had to have a costume on to get candy.  His comment was I'll just watch them eat candy!  We took a break from the never ending Halloween and didn't dress up or party on Thursday.  

Then comes Friday and its time to start the fun all over again.  Kendall and I never dress up, its not that we are unwilling, just not creative enough to get in on the fun.  We figure dressing our kids up so people can oooh and aaaah at them gets us off the hook.  So Friday night we made a quick stop over at Kendall's work party to show off our cute puppy, frog and pepper.  Of course they were a hit, who could resist! Then off to our church Halloween party which was out on a farm with bonfires, hayrides and all kinds of fun.  Sorry too dark to get any pics, I could barely recognize any of the people we were there to party with.

Finally the day we've been building up to all week, Halloween!  It's time to take a walk around the neighborhood, visit all our neighbors (its the only time of year we actually visit with most of them) and of course get candy.  Although reluctant once again to put on his frog costume, once we got him in it he was ready to go and running from door to door.  First stop of course is Grandpa and Grandma Walker's house, they give out a whole lot more then candy, to their favorite grand kids of course.  That's what sealed the deal for Preston when he discovered wearing that costume one more time wasn't so bad:)

One cute little Garrett pepper, 6 months old this week, smiling so big and he doesn't even get candy out of wearing his suit.  Luckily it's nice and cozy warm as he followed his 

Sister and Brother around the neighborhood!

Candy, Candy and more Candy!  This is getting easier every year, we just set back and watch them do their thing!  Another Halloween tradition is for Ashlyn's friend Anna and her sister Adiline to come over and trick or treat with us.  It's always more fun with friends.  Except for everyone in their family dresses up and once again farmer Matt and Micah show us up again:)