Halloween This and That 2013

So never made it to a pumpkin patch.... these pictures, taken at a local nursery, will have to do for our annual pumpkin pictures. Ha! 

Took MG and Simon to a costume parade at a nearby library.

Also took them to our church's preschool play date at the botanical gardens.

Henry wanted to be a skeleton this year.

I'm not ready to go the scary costume route, so I pitched this toddler costume to him.

He didn't go for it.

MG wanted to be a ballerina.

I was able to take her to a dancewear store and pick out which leotard she wanted... with some guidance.

Probably tried on 10 different ones.

It was a fun experience for her and me!

MG had a Halloween dance class...

Our church had a Fall Festival.

Games.

Several rides.

Inflatables.

It was really cold that night.

Henry was dead set on going on this ride... I tried to warn him!

Finally, Halloween day...

Took the kids to a parade in Mountain Brook.

Was afraid we were going to get rained out for trick or treating and wanted to make sure the kids had some sort of special activity.

 We got a prime spot at the beginning of the parade route.
The kids scored big loot!

Quickly served the kids a healthy dinner...

So that as soon as Tom got home, we could head out and try to beat the rain.

Henry was not happy with my effort to make him a skeleton... 

... I eventually got to a product he was happy about.

We drove to a flatter spot in our neighborhood that has sidewalks.

Kids had a great time!

The night didn't end up so well....

See the creepy guy standing by the garage door?

We didn't at the time...

Until he came out with chainsaw.

My poor, poor children.

I was really mad at the guy and wanted to give him a piece of my mind... but I didn't... just comforted my children who screamed for a minute straight.

Ruffner Mountain

Found a nearby nature preserve to enjoy!

Nice hike to the top

Picture doesn't give the view justice.

Camera was propped on a branch.

Splish Splash

So I'm trying to get better at the technical aspect of taking pictures.

I feel like the more I learn, the more I mess up a picture and the more critical I become of myself.

I love these pictures of my kids in the bath.... their expressions... their happiness.

But not so much the editing.... oh well. I'll keep trying.

This one of Margaret Gray was a total fluke. 

My camera was on all sorts of wrong settings when I clicked. 

But then played around with it using Lightroom.

 Might be my favorite.

Owl Prowl

On October 6th, Henry participated in his 1st Fun Run.

His school puts on this run, called the Owl Prowl, for all the grades.

Each grade runs by itself.

The course is partly through the driveway of the school and also through blocked off streets in the neighborhood. 

Kindergarten only has to run a half mile.

Parents can run with their kid... Tom wanted to run with Henry, but I had volunteered during the race and someone had to be with MG and S.

I think Henry was ok with that. One of his friends gave his dad the boot before the race started. ha.

They also have members of the high school track team running with all the grades... encouraging the kids as they ran. Pretty cool. 

Henry was pretty nervous about it, so I practiced with him the day before... a very slow run of the route.

Kept reminding him that when I ran my 1st (and only) race, I didn't win, but I was so proud of myself for finishing.

I volunteered to help hold a direction sign during the race, but lucky for me, a sweet middle school girl took over my duty so I could watch Henry... even though I was a bit worried she wouldn't be paying attention and a kid would run the wrong way onto a busy street...

Tom got to capture these pictures, while I stood on one of the neighborhood street corners to cheer on our big guy as he ran by.

Henry is in the middle...

Getting pumped up

Woo Hoo!

Starting to get nervous

Man, the nail biting has come in full force this year

This picture makes me laugh... look at all those boys rearing to go... and then there is nervous Henry....

... who obviously got over his nerves and had a good start.

Until he accidentally tripped a girl and fell over her.

Scrapped his knee pretty bad, but got up and kept on going... bloody knee and all. 

We were very proud of him. Ha.

The other girl had some trouble getting over her tumble...

About to cross the finish line.

Proud of their brother. 

The way Simon said "Owl Prowl" was the cutest thing!

He finished!