October in November, part II

As many of you know, October is a big birthday month around here, with Ezra's on the 23rd and Scarlett's on the 28th.   The last half of October is literally the busiest 2 weeks of the year for me, but I gotta say, I love every minute of it.

Since Ezra turned the big 0-8 this year, he got to have his first friend sleepover.  He was beyond excited for it, as were his guests (especially his bestie, Liam, whose first sleepover it was too).  It was pretty much insanity having an extra three grade-school-aged boys in the house (heaven knows, no one got a wink of sleep), but they all loved it so darn much we'll have to do it again :)

The man of the hour

#1, #2, and #3

The birthday boy with his guests, Hayden (above), Liam and Nathan

Ezra's minecraft creeper cake

(Hayden and Nathan did the chocolate for me since they're oh-so-much-more familiar with all things minecraft)

Happy Birthday, Ezra Emil!!!

Next up, Miss S!  Scarlie-girl turned 5 years old this year. Despite her tiny-stature, she actually is getting bigger all the time, believe it or not.  If not inches, than at least in years :)

 The Birthday Girl!!

 showin' off the goods

 I couldn't resist a stellar-deal on a mini-me American Girl doll, Marie-Grace

(does she not match her perfectly?!)

 The other American Girl doll

She's a simple girl...all she wanted was a yellow cake, purple sparkles, and a number candle.

done. done. and done.

By Scarlett's birthday on the 28th, we were quickly running out time to carve pumpkins, so we squished them in-between the birthday celebrations.

 Ezra with his giant pumpkin, pre-carving

 Oak couldn't wait to get in there and get his hands dirty.

Oh, how I love that boy.

Georgia's my texture-girl and hasn't done any pumpkin-cleaning in the past, but she sucked it up this year and got to work.

Ezra and Scarlett, however, wanted nothing to do with any of that messiness.

Oak, in typical fashion, taking things into his own hands. 

Don't worry, folks, I took it away as soon as I snapped the picture.

 Mr. F watching the action

The birthday girl with her finished product. 

If it looks like nothing to you, don't worry, you're normal.  We have the kids draw their picture straight onto the pumpkin and we attempt to cut it out.  The end results are...unique.

Georgia girl and her pretty pumpkin with the long, golden locks 

Ezra, it seems, oddly resembles his pumpkin

seriously.

We tried and tried and tried to get a group shot, but Oak was just too darn interested in blowing out the candles instead.

Well, that's all for tonight! phew!  Thanks for hanging in there!  Next up...Halloween!

October in November, part I

I know, I know, it's just not kosher to post your Halloween festivities pictures this far into November, but I figured better late than never.  It's for posterity's sake, right?  Not to mention, November is still fall so that kinda makes it better...whatever, c'est la vie.

Anyway, we'll start at the beginning and work our way through. Enjoy!

Halloween just wouldn't be the same in the Lifferth household without a trip to Schaake's Pumpkin Patch (remember?  our super-fun free one with a hay-ride, playground for the kids, and hay-bale maze?)! Oh, how I love that place! We started the day off with a stop at the How Tall This Fall sign:

 Miss S, almost 5 years

Miss G, almost 6.5 years

 Mr. E, almost 8

 Mr. O, 2 years, 4 months

Just to warn you, Oak refused to smile for pictures for the entire trip.  So, this is your first non-smiling picture.  Prepare yourself to see more.

 An almost-picture of Mr. F

(sorry, for the lack of Fischy-face here.  Spencer didn't warm me you couldn't actually see the baby when he took the picture)

My husband posing like a 2nd grader

Oh, how I love that funny man.

If you'd like to compare our growth with previous years, go here (2012), here (2011), and here (2010 and 2009)

After that, we went and looked at some animals,

played on the playground, 

and posed for 50 million stand-ins...
(did you know that's what the face-less photo props are called?  I looked it up 'cause I'm cool like that)

(take note, folks, this is the only smiling picture of Oak we got and that's only because he didn't see the camera)

...and then headed down to the pumpkin patch!

We love ourselves a good hay-ride!

I couldn't not post this picture

...and then we got to work picking out our loot.

Oak spent most of his time wandering around, finding pumpkins small enough for him to heave through the air...which he did...over and over.

Ezra's a simple guy with simple pleasures.  The boy just wants a cool-lookin' pumpkin.  He found his pretty quick and then he just hung out waiting for the other to find theirs.  The picture doesn't do it justice...it's actually blueish-green with pinkish-orange spots.

Before Scarlett started her search, she told me "I'm going to find my pumpkin and name it Chay-Chay."  After searching far and way, she presented me with a yellow, waxy-looking pumpkin, saying,  "Mommy, meet Chay-Chay."  (Incidentally, yellow is her favorite color and she picked out a pumpkin of the exact same variety last year too.)  After that, every so often we would hear Scarlett yell, "Ezra! Don't touch my Chay-Chay!" or "Look at my Chay-Chay, isn't it beautiful?" I can only imagine what on-lookers thought we were up to.  Oh, that girl and her vaguely suggestive names :P

aaaaand then there was Georgia.  She wanted the BEST and the PRETTIEST pumpkin...and she is very  indecisive, to boot.  She walked probably a half-mile all over that pumpkin patch until she finally settled on two that were nearly identical.  She just couldn't decide between those two...for a really. long. time. (this was after we had waited for her to wander all around the patch picking out her pumpkins in the first place.  Eventually Spencer told her he'd give her a quarter if she just got the smaller one so we could leave (he figured he'd save about that on the purchase of the smaller one).  We all breathed a sigh of relief when she went for it.

There were smiles all around on the hay-ride back up.

Except for Oak...who prefers, instead, to be a creepy-lookin' child of the corn...errr...pumpkins

That's a wrap, folks!  Next up...BIRTHDAYS!!! Come back soon :)