Wow! What a week. With Halloween falling on a Sunday, it sure made things tough around here. Our town wouldn't take a stand as to what day Halloween would be celebrated, so it turned out to be a Halloween weekend instead of a Halloween day. Our Halloween actually started on Thursday which was when our church held its trunk-or-treat. 
This was one of those special years that I didn't spend any money on Halloween costumes! Yay!! I was so proud of myself! We met up with a lot of our close friends at trunk-or-treat and I tried to get pictures of my kids with their friends. Here is Ashton, my lion, with her friend Jake.
And here she is with another one of her friends, Sam. I had to convince Ashton for a month that lion's are cool and she would look super cute. She wanted so badly to be Addie's Tinkerbell. This lion costume has been around since Avery- it's one of my favorites! I was so glad that she finally agreed to be it!
Addie, as I mentioned earlier, wanted to be Tinkerbell again. That was fine with me! I'm hoping she will be like Austin who wore SpiderMan three years in a row. We have two years down now, we will have to see what next year will bring! Addie is here with her friend Lanie.
And here she is with some more of her friends, Evie and Ellie. They had so much fun going around to all the trunks, but the most fun was getting to go on the "Vac-mobile" bus and sliding down the slide at the end. They wanted to do that over and over!
Addie acknowledged Captain America, otherwise known as Lucas, but she wouldn't stand next to those muscles! He looked so cute and you could tell he was so excited to be in his costume!
Austin also found his buds- Logan and Mack. We stayed pretty simple with Austin's costume, but I really liked it. He wanted to be a pirate and we already had the earring, eye patch, and bandana so I just threw on a t-shirt and jeans and a little facial hair and he was good to go!
Avery had many ideas as to what she wanted to be this year. But one day when we were over my mom's house, my mom pulled out an old shirt that she actually used to wear but that had been in our costume box growing up. Avery was sold! She looked great as a hippie girl! Here she is with her sweet friend MaryKate. I like the blurred Addie in the background... she is off and running after some more cars with candy!
It was a fun night, here are Ashton and Addie at the end after getting all their candy and eating their hotdogs. We went home and crashed!
And then came Saturday night. A few neighborhoods declared Saturday as their official trick-or-treat day. So we headed over to our friends Tyler and Amanda's house for dinner and trick-or-treating. 
The kids were really into it, I could barely keep up with them. The night was perfect- not too hot, not too cold.
Jake is such a great kid, he just sat in the stroller and enjoyed the ride!
The older girls wanted to walk the neighborhood by themselves, so this is the only picture I got of them. Izzy was a hobo, and of course Avery and MaryKate (I still didn't get a picture with her mask off!) You can see Izzy holding her stick with the handkerchief attached here.... but it didn't take long for it to end up in....
her mom's arms! Emilie is such a great sport!
Addie was one of the ones leading the pack! She has this thing down pat!
Austin's bag doesn't look too heavy yet... but believe me, it got very full! We went through all their candy and used the ones they liked the least to pass out on Sunday. I know, we are terrible!
Here is our sweet friend, Blythe! I loved her Jesse costume from Toy Story 2! She is so adorable.
Sam hung back with us a little more so I got a couple of great snaps of him. Most of the kids were so far up I never caught up with them!
Ashton was definitely bringing up the rear of our group. She was slow, but she loved every minute of it. And she enjoyed going up to the door by herself, knocking, 
and saying "thank you". Little moments that I will treasure forever! Happy Halloween everyone!
Awww- the good ole pumpkin patch. I just never get sick of going out to this place! This year was Addie's year for her first field trip to the pumpkin patch.
Ashton and I met Addie at the pumpkin patch. She rode the bus with her class, and was so cute when she saw us. She didn't want to get out of line but you could tell she wanted to run over and give us a hug. I walked over to her and Ashton stood in line with her. Addie took her hand and they walked together to their designated eating area.
We started off our field trip eating lunch. Ashton and Addie both wanted lunchables.
After lunch, we headed over to play and wait for our turn to go on the hayride. They had lots of fun activities to do while we waited.
Always love the little hay maze and the jail area. Too cute!
And they have a fun park with monkey bars, swings and jungle gyms.
Then it was our turn to go on the hayride. All of Mrs. Eason's class squeezed onto the hay bails. 
For fall break this year, I took the kids to Branson, MO. After all the golf benefits Randy put on this year, he is almost out of vacation! But we didn't let that slow us down... we gave him hugs and kisses and took off without him. As soon as we got all checked in, the kids started rummaging through their suitcases for their favorite item of clothing- their swimsuits! We took advantage of the indoor pool almost everyday!
I did bring with me some extra helping hands! My sister-in-law, Jen, had her brother (Stephen) and sister (Amanda) visiting from Tennessee. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to let them see some more of this part of the country and selfishly get some fun people that my kids could hang out with! They didn't disappoint! My kids had a blast with them! My brother, Jordan, was also running low on vacation so we left him behind too. Sorry, boys! Maybe next year!
I also brought along my mom, who is always a big help with the kids! I was excited to get her back out to Branson as it has been years since she has been there. It has really changed a lot in the last few years! 
We also did a lot of shopping. Branson has some great outlet malls. We spent the next day shopping til we dropped! Then we headed back to our condo so Avery could make some bracelets at the clubhouse. After that, they played miniture golf while my mom and I took the younger girls to the park.
The weather was beautiful the whole weekend. We spent a lot of time outdoors at the park, or miniature golfing, or playing horseshoe or basketball at the lodge.
That night we had tickets to go see the Duttons. I could tell that Jen wasn't quite sure about going to a show. She was asking a lot of skeptical questions. I kept reassuring her that I was told it was a good show but inside I was praying that it really would be good since I hadn't seen them before either. However, I can now say as one having seen the show that they are AMAZING and HILARIOUS!!! Jen agrees :-) 
We had so much fun! It was a show for all ages- the kids loved it. Avery, however, was feeling under the weather (in fact she threw up in the van on the way home from the show). 
Ashton even sat there intently watching... until she fell asleep! The show didn't start until 8pm which happens to be her normal bedtime. Poor girl didn't even get a nap the whole weekend. She didn't want to miss out on anything.
Addie, was the funniest at the show. She must have been missing daddy or something. One of the Duttons would come out dressed as his "twin cousin" from Spain. He was so funny, I was laughing so hard at what he was saying and what he was doing. But Addie would get so mad at me and tell me to stop laughing. She would put her hands over her ears if I laughed or put her hands over my mouth and tell me to stop. Finally I said, "Addie, he's funny, look at him." She looked at me sternly and said, "Don't laugh at him, mom, you're not his wife!" I guess I'm not suppose to think anyone is more funny than her dad!
We usually split up when we went shopping and Avery always went with the big kids to shop. She is growing up so fast! It was cute because on this day she really wanted to buy something for her dad. She was feeling better after getting some rest the night before. I think she was car sick from all the twisty and hilly roads of Branson.
After going back to do some more crafts, bingo and swimming at the lodge, we went out for a fun night of go-carting! Poor Ashton wasn't big enough to go, but she was a good sport (most of the time). Addie just made the cut-off and she road with me the first time and then Jen the second time. She was adorable- she really thought she was big stuff! We went on the go-cart track that twirled up high off the ground. She would hold on like she was driving and every time she passed the look-out tower she would wave. It was super cute!
Austin road with Jen one time and Stephen one time. This was definitely a highlight for Jen, Amanda and Stephen... they rode three times!! We were leaving the next day so they wanted to get all the fun in that they could!
Our last morning Jen was in the shower and all of a sudden the water stopped. Luckily she had just finished rinsing her hair out! We had trouble with our water tank the whole time, but this took the cake! Amanda went outside and told us that it was flooding. I guess a water line broke under the pavement. You can see the crack in the cement where the water was coming out. That parking spot is actually where my car was sitting! I had Stephen go out and move my car. It was crazy- but luckily we were leaving anyway!
This year, Austin and Avery both chose to run the Bruin Mile. I think this is a great activity to get the kids running both for their health and for soccer! However, I only found out about when the mile was going to be a week in advance this year, so not much training!
I was glad that Austin chose to participate this year. This event is mainly for 4th and 5th graders, but Avery ran last year and Austin decided to give it a go this year. He did awesome! I was super surprised that he came in as early as he did. And even more surprised that he kicked into full sprint in the last stretch! Way to go Bud!
Avery did awesome also! She was a little more nervous because last year she was one of the older kids in the group and this year she was racing with 5th graders. But I just kept telling her as long as she finished, that was all I cared about! 
