Columbia Homecoming

Chase has a lot of work events during the month of October.  It is always a bummer when he has to work on Saturdays but this is one event that the whole family gets to enjoy!   The boys love it and look forward to it each year.  

Chase and Jackson racing through the Nascar jump-on-it

Jayden wouldn't go on all of the blow-ups but the Sesame Street balloon caught his eye and he loved it! 

Playing Games

Cotton Candy

Face Painting

Tiger

Cheetah

Lion

Happy Columbia Fans

Jackson's Halloween Party

Last year Chase got to have a Halloween Party so this year it was Jackson's turn!  He has been excited for this day ever since we started planning it.  One thing that I have learned is that I need to plan it silently until it gets closer because the boys get too excited and then it ends of being weeks of them asking how many days until their party.  I guess I can't blame them because I remember the same excitement when I was a kid.  A week ago Jackson took all his friends their invitations.  It is not as easy delivering invitations in New York.   Although it took a while, and next time I will probably do Evite invites, Chase and Jackson loved riding their scooters with their Halloween bags to deliver the invitations.

Jackson invited 5 of his good friends; Makeila, C.J., Madison, Joseph, and Sayer.  

Jackon helped me make, lick, and decorate the cupcakes at 6:00 this morning.  It ended up being a very busy weekends so we had to get an early start!  Somehow we managed to pull it off.

Making Halloween Necklaces

Decorating Haunted Houses

C.J. is in Jackson's class this year.  They have become good little buddies.

Haunted Houses on display!  We lined all the kids houses up once they were finished and little Chase helped me give them each a prize for their creativity.  Unfortunately my royal icing was somewhat of a bust and they did not turn out as well as I would have liked.  Luckily the kids still had a lot of fun decorating them and surprisingly they did not eat all the candy before it made it on their house.

The hardest part of the party

was reminding the other two

that the party was not for them.  They both wanted to be the center of attention.  Chase wanted to be a stand up comedian and Jayden wanted to be a real live dragon.  

Apple Picking

Saturday, Sept. 29th, we took a trip to Barton Orchards to go apple picking.  For the last two years I have heard a lot about how fun it is and was so excited to finally go!  It was fabulous!  I wish we could go again!  It was an hour and a half out of the city which resulted in all three kids throwing up the entire way there.  We finally stopped and got some dramamine for the trip home which made for a much more pleasant drive.  Other than the car sickness, the drive was wonderful!  The leaves were absolutely beautiful and I am so glad I got to see all the leaves changing colors!

The Egan family came with us!  They have two cute boys, Joseph and Dan, so between all 5 of them they had a blast running around on the playground, petting the animals, and picking apples!

It was quite the experience testing all the different kinds of apples and finding out which ones we liked the best.  The Empire apple was definitely our favorite!  By the end of the day we had eaten so many apples!  

Hayride

Picking a Pumpkin

Zuckermans Famous Pig

Ended the day with their famous donuts!

The night before we went apple picking Chase and I made homemade caramel...AND it was a success!  I don't know if there is a better fall activity, apple picking and caramel making!  Perfect way to kick off the season and the upcoming holidays!  I had the boys each pick an apple for their teachers to go with the caramel.  They were pretty excited to give it to their teachers.  I wish I had Jackson's face on camera. He thought he was the teachers pet of the year!