Trick or Treat...

How cute is this?!?

Smell My Feet...

MMMmmmmmm... smells delicious!!! Ha!
The boys got a good laugh out of it!

Give Me Something Good to Eat...

Definitely their favorite part of Halloween!

If You Don't, I Don't Care... I'll Pull Down My Underwear!!!

That's right people... this little man is finally potty trained!
Yay Hayden! Don't worry... another post will follow
shortly telling you all about the potty
training experience!

Or Maybe Just My Hat...

Get this thing off of me Momma!

Happy Halloween 2011!!!

We went on a safari and caught us some wild animals!:)

This Halloween has been one of the best yet. The boys got so into all of the activities which was super fun for this Halloween crazy Momma!:) They even got into the choosing of our costumes this year(more so Hayden than Sawyer, but you know what I mean!). He started out wanting to be a cow, but ended up deciding on a giraffe which I thought turned out super cute. The best part was... we found his costume at TJMaxx. I wish each and every one of you could have been with us the day we were in the store and he spotted HIS giraffe. The "mmmyyyyyy giiiiiiiiaffffffeee" scream was loud enough to be heard a few stores down! Needless to say, it was the perfect costume. I showed Sawyer a couple of different costumes online, and he seemed to get most excited when the tiger costume would pop up on the screen so we went with the tiger for Saw! It was perfect too! Oh, and not to forget Sydney... she didn't exactly have a say in her costume, but I know she loved being a little zebra! Thanks again to TJMaxx for her great costume!! The only problem with their costumes was I had no idea what we were going to be to go with it. I love doing the family themed costumes, so of course I had to come up with something... elephants just didn't seem like the right fit! We decided on Safari Guides and it actually ended up being pretty cute. I was happy with it anyways!

Happy Halloween Safari Style!!

If I saw little guys this cute running around on a safari
I would most definitely have to catch them!:)

I just want to squeeze them to pieces they are so stinkin' cute!

Never in the history of tigers has one been this cute!:)

If this giraffe doesn't make you smile I don't know what will!!

I take that back, I know these cute skeletons have got to make you smile...

You didn't know a skeleton could be cute huh?!?

We were having so much fun taking PJ pics! Hayden thought it
was SO funny when Sawyer would scoot right on out of
the picture! Mommy... not so much, but at least
they got a good kick out of it!

Nothing better than some holiday themed PJ's huh?!? Is it sad that I still wear holiday themed PJ's as an adult?!? Obviously my Momma must have thought this was super cool too and it stuck with me! There is just something so fabulous about getting ready for bed in your holiday appropriate pajamas. And of course the matching part is a must!:) I don't do the whole matchy matchy(as in exact I mean) thing very often when it comes to the boys clothing, but I love doing it with the pajamas. Usually I just like for us to coordinate, but when it comes to the PJ's matching makes me smile! It is just so cute I can't stand it. The best is when I can find one for Sydney to join in the matching fun! Yes, she has skeleton pajamas also!

Having SO much fun! I don't think Sydney knew what to think about it all!!!

So cute!

So sweet!

I like to call this "Fun with Skeletons!"

Cutie Pie!

Love these skeleton faces!

The boys like wearing their pajamas so much we even carved and decorated our pumpkins in them!

Carving and decorating fun!

I actually cannot believe how into the pumpkins the boys actually got. They had so much fun "helping" Daddy carve out our big one, and decorating a few of our others. We found some Buzz and Woody pumpkin decorations at Target earlier in the season and could not wait to use them. Toy Story is still one of our favorite movies around here and as you know Woody is pretty much a member of our family. So, what better way to decorate our pumpkins than with Buzz and Woody?!? No matter how many times I told them in Target what we were going to be using Buzz and Woody for, I don't think it registered until we actually got them out of the package and started making places for them in our pumpkins. Sawyer was SO funny during this process. He loved getting to help out! And Hayden, of course, loved helping Sawyer help us out. It was really cute. I'm so glad we opted for these little guys instead of actually carving more than one! Much easier and more fun for the boys! Don't worry, we kept the pieces so we can use them again next year!:)

Hayden got really into the part where Daddy was
getting ready to take off the pumpkins head!

But Sawyer... not so much! He enjoyed rolling this
ball around the kitchen during that time!!!

And now for the pumpkin results...

Monster Pumpkin!

Buzz and Woody - Pumpkin Style!

The Creepy Spider Pumpkin!

And of course I got a pic with the boys...

Love them... and love how much they loved these pumpkins!

The day we carved pumpkins was also the day of our annual Halloween costume party. Once again, it was a blast. It is just so much fun seeing everyone all dressed up! This year we decided to add a couple of games for the kiddos since they are getting a little older. We usually just let them play with the toys with each other, but I thought I might want to have some other plan this year if I didn't want the house TOTALLY destroyed!:) It turned out to be great fun. We got down the bowling lane we made last year for Hayden's birthday and used it for Pumpkin bowling and then we also played a little game of stick the smile on the skeleton. Fun! The kids really seemed to have a good time together, which was so much fun to watch!

Pumpkin Bowling!!!

Pumpkin Bowling turned out to be a big hit! SO glad we got this out!:)

Even Daddy had fun with it!

But nobody had as much fun as Hayden... yes he jumped and jumped
every single time he threw the ball down the lane! He LOVED it!

He also thoroughly enjoyed lining up his bowling pins the way he saw fit:)

OK, I take that "Nobody had as much fun as Hayden" statement back...
I'm pretty sure Sawyer had as much fun as Hayden!
Who knew Tigers could bowl?!? Ha!

Stick the smile on the skeleton also proved to be a good time...

So he didn't exactly get the smile in the right place, but he did keep
his blindfold/mask thingy on and try, which totally
impressed me!:) Good job Hayden!

How cute is Sawyer giving it a try?!? I know he's a
little young... but I couldn't leave him out!:)

Piper wins the prize for most entertaining during the game... she
thought it would be a good idea to pull down her blindfold
and use her eyes to chose where to put her smile! Too
bad she didn't pick the mouth!!! Next year
Piper, next year!:)

Although the games were fun for the kids, I don't really think I needed anything but my backyard and a few balls to keep them entertained. They had the most fun racing each other from one side of the yard to the other...

SO fun!

It also proved to be a good photo opt! It is next to impossible
to get all of the kiddos to look at you when you are holding
a camera... you can definitely forget the smiling part!
Incorporate a race into the mix and they
are ready to smile!:)

This was our attempt to get a picture of all the kiddos
once we were inside... not quite as successful!

And, believe it or not, we actually got a couple of group pictures using the handy dandy tripod...

Well all but one was missing. Poor Syd missed the pic. You can kind
of see her in the side of this one, but because she missed
it I just had to get one of her by herself...

Sydney the Zebra! Love her!

Turned out pretty good huh?!? Love all the cute costumes!

How crazy is it that the kids all looked and cooperated for the tripod, but don't really do it for a person?!? I guess it's that we don't use the tripod very often, so they didn't know what the think of it. Whatever it was... I'm glad it worked. So glad we got everyone together! We always love seeing everyone all dressed up and ready for the occasion, and we always have a costume winner...

This year it was The Reeder's... aka the cutest Wizard of Oz
family ever! Can you believe how cute they were?!?
How could they not win?

Mommy and the cutest giraffe ever!:)

Did I mention he was a sweet, fun loving, playful giraffe as well?!?

And this little guy is definitely the cutest.tiger.ever!

Can you tell we have fun with pictures in this family?!?

Especially Mommy and Daddy!:)

How funny is this? I love the person(not sure which of you did it!)
who thought to take this picture. It is perfect. Exactly
what we look like trying to get ready to take the
posed picture I never like as much
as this REAL one!:)

At one point during the night we had a surprise visit
through our back door from these scary
guys! Loved it Willoughby's!

And at another point we caught Sawyer trying to sneak chicken
nuggets from the coffee table!!! Does he look caught or what?!?
I don't have anything in my mouth Mommy... I promise!
And NO, I'm not grabbing another one with
my mouth already full to the brim!:)

The funniest thing about this picture is that Sawyer doesn't normally eat chicken nuggets. As in Sawyer has NEVER eaten a chicken nugget. I guess he felt like he was being slided and when we weren't looking he would snag him one and see what he thought of it. For the record, he loved it! I would have never in a million years given him Chick-Fil-A yet, but so much for that. Why not you ask? Well mainly because Sawyer just started eating more solids and I just don't rank CFA up there with first solids to give a child. Oh well. He liked it! I would also like to note here, he doesn't seem to care too much about it since then. He has tried it a couple of times, but nothing like that first time at the party! I guess after you take the fun "sneaking" part out of the equation it's just not as good anymore! One thing that is good no matter what the circumstance...

Witches Brew! Yummy!:) Gotta love the floating spiders!

And "tool" decorations! SO much fun!

Gosh... I love a good Halloween party! Probably almost as much as the kids love trick-or-treating!!!

My good friend Kahlia brought little Adalie over to the house
to trick-or-treat with us and we were determined to get
a picture of the three cuties together before we went
out for the night... they were NOT so determined.
Ha! Not exactly what we were going
for, but it is a pic!

Hayden was more into figuring out what "Adalie The Chicken"
was all about than taking a picture...

And Sawyer was more into getting OUT of the picture all together!
It was kind of hard not to let him because his little
Tiger crawl/scoot thing was so cute!

And it makes Hayden laugh for pics!

Somehow we managed to get this picture of all the kiddos
right before we headed out for the night! Yes, our group
is multiplying... gonna have to get one of
those wide lenses for next year!!!

We were so proud of all the kiddos for cooperating for the pics. If you could have seen how crazy the adults were acting you would have been proud too. It was like we were a bunch of loons. All to get a few(9) kids to look at the cameras(yes that's plural - there were probably at least 8 of them) for a picture!:) At least it turned out cute!

And the kids got to go egg hunting once the picture was over!

Yep, you read that right. Immediately after we took that picture on the sidewalk the kids ran up the hill and started hunting for eggs! Hilarious! In their defense we do sit on this exact same sidewalk and take this SAME picture before we hunt for Easter Eggs. If they sit nicely and take a good picture they get to start the egg hunt. They were just using their great long term memory and going to find them some candy after they took their good pic!:) I would say we are going to change it up at Easter and do something different for the picture, but now I just kind of think it will be fun to have that exact same one each and every time. I'm sure it'll be fun to look back on one day... like tomorrow!!!!

Sawyer wasn't too into the trick-or-treating stuff. He really wanted
me to leave him alone so he could enjoy his wagon ride!

And he definitely did NOT want to smile for me for a picture!

Hayden on the other hand was ready to go right
from the start! Cutest.giraffe.ever!

He lagged behind his friends for most of the trick-or-treating, because that's just what Hayden does. He likes to do things in his own time! But, when it came to Banks' house he jumped right up there with his buddies...

Thank you Mrs. Farrah for the yummy treats...

Hayden LOVED them!:)

If only I had a video of this, you could see just how
fast he was running to get him some "tandy!"

While Hayden was having fun running door to door
Sawyer and I managed to have fun with the wagon!

And tried to keep this crazy girl under control!:)

Hayden helped out a lot with Syd when he wasn't "busy"
trick-or-treating. "Loot at me Mom, I'm vwaltin' a
zebra!" was a line I heard a time or two!
I know it's crazy that I even brought
her seeing as Daddy had to work
and all, but I just didn't have it
in me to leave our little
zebra at home!:)

At one point in the night Hayden decided it was time to share
one of his "sutters" with Sawyer. Let's just say I wasn't
thrilled with him! Sawyer on the other
hand was beside himself
with excitement!
His very first
"sutter!"

Almost as excited as Hayden got when I let him take a trip
down the slide before we headed back to the house
for the night! I'm pretty sure he thought
this was as exciting as the entire
trick-or-treat experience!

Speaking of the trick-or-treating experience, I couldn't let the night end without taking Sawyer up for a few trick-or-treats of his own...

You gotta love getting to give candy to a tiger this cute!:)

We have got to have one of the best neighborhoods ever as far as trick-or-treating is concerned. There were a ton of kids and all of the families were so generous and fun. I had almost as much fun handing out the candy to the older kids once we got home as I had taking mine out to trick-or-treat! I love seeing all of the unique and fun costumes! Can't wait for more Halloween fun next year! Until then...

We'll be enjoying all of the suckers we got this year!

For a child who has never put anything like
this in his mouth before he sure seemed
to know what to do with it!:)

And loved every.single.second of it!!!

Apparently he didn't just want his own sucker...
he wanted Hayden to share his as well!

And sweet Hayden did just that!!!

Never knew a giraffe's lips could turn blue huh?!? Gotta love it!

Hayden thoroughly enjoys his suckers!

And I can't forget to mention how much Sawyer
enjoyed having his Tiger tail!:)

I thought it was cute that he liked it, but not so cute that it left
little bits of dirt in his mouth!! Let's just say that
it was not a lot of fun to get out!

All in all, suckers make great picture bribes for us!!!

This one's for you Auntie Tiz... a little "Orange" smile!!!:)

Don't worry, he did a real smile for you too...

And even a mad face! Isn't this funny?!?

Sawyer has graduated to size 11 tiger claws... who would have
thought that a change in feet would have happened so fast?!?

Don't worry, it didn't help him walk at all... he's still our little
scooting king!:) Whatever makes you happy Saw!

Hayden is definitely up there on the list of things that can bring
out Sawyer's smile in an instant! I love how
much they love each other!

Even when they are wrestling on the couch!:)

Halloween 2011 was a huge success filled with lots of firsts for us. Sawyer had his first official knock on the door trick-or-treat, his first Chick-fil-A nugget, and his very first sucker... huge deal around here! And, Hayden was officially potty trained! Pretty big deal for us as well!:) As always, we can't wait until next year to take part in all of the fun activities again.... minus our safari outfits of course. Who knows what everyone will want to participate as next year! Enjoy these last few safari pics until then...

Happy Safari Halloween 2011!

We sure loved our Tiger and Giraffe!

And I think I'll always wonder if the real tigers and giraffes are
as happy in the jungle as these boys were in their cotumes!