Everything October

I was so excited for October to roll around this year!  So excited that I think I burnt myself out of fall fun and am excited to move on to winter and Christmas! But before we do so I thought I would recap all the fun things that we did this month.  Fall in New York is absolutely wonderful.  It is probably my favorite time of year.  After a hot humid summer we are able to enjoy a few months of the most perfect fall weather!

October 1st was definitely the most beautiful day of the year!  I could not believe how gorgeous it was that day!  I remember walking down to the park with Jayden that day with a permanent smile on my face.  The sun was shining, the air was cool but warm, and it was finally October...the holidays were officially here!!!  That evening we made our favorite homemade chili and cornbread to kick off the season!

That evening we made our favorite homemade chili and cornbread to kick off the season

Put up the few Halloween Decorations that we have

Conference weekend we made cinnamon rolls

The boys loved taking turns rolling the dough

Jayden and I at the farmers market

Take a look at that face

Dipping apples in Caramel

MMmmMMmm

We had Fanney and her friends over one night to decorate Halloween cookies

Not use to a room full of girls

Lots of chatter, giggling, and very creative halloween cookies

Nana, Papa, and Paige sent the boys a Halloween Package.  Paige made them all a darling halloween trick-or-treat bag!

Jayden and I at the New York Botanical Gardens

Pumpkins, pumpkins, and more pumpkins

Jaydens favorite part of all was running through the maze over and over again!  He loved it!

Painting pumpkins at playgroup

Jayden and his friend Dan

Moms and toddlers at Sugar and Plumm for a little morning Hot Chocolate

Afterwards we took the boys over to the Natural History Museum to get all their energy out

The ward Halloween Party

Primary Parade

Jackson had his friend Makeila over for a playdate.  They have become good friends.  

We made Halloween Cake Pops

October 31st

Carving our Pumpkin before we head out to go trick-or-treating

2 Pirates and a Dragon

Trick-or-Treating to a few of the shops along Broadway

After trick-or-treating our building had a party for all the kids

Bancroft Friends

Games

Decorating Pumpkins

Finally, the best part of Halloween

counting all your candy

organizing them into favorites

and feeling like you have a never ending supply of the best thing on earth

What a great day!

Happy Halloween!

2012

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!