Soccer Soccer Soccer Soccer...and Halloween

October was JAM packed with soccer...every weekend, almost every night of the week.  Exhausting - completely exhausting, but so fun.  Silas had his very first tournament and we went to Beavercreek for the Haunted Classic.  It was a lot fun hanging out with all he kids and families.  They had definitely done this a time or two based on how prepared they came for the tailgating!

Silas' team has had a rough season - trying to mesh a lot of boys to these 2 teams. This first tournament though, the played awesome!!  They won all 3 of their games and made it to the final playoff game.  They lost it by 1 or 2 goals but it was so great to see them all play hard, know where to go and what to do... so fun to watch their work come together.

Justin and Ella's Orange Strikers also had an awesome season. Undefeated during the regular season!!  They got bumped up to a tougher bracket in the last tournament and went 0-1-2 but they played so tough against these teams.  

Just as much as Ella loves playing, Justin loves coaching - funny for someone that never played soccer - ever!


There wasn't time for too much else in between soccer this season...though Ella and I got out for a couple walks and took some fall photos. Here is one of my favorites from Hayden Falls. 

I have a bunch from her and me that I should post.  She has a great eye!


We also managed to make time to get to the pumpkin patch (barely) in between Ella's last tournament games. That is why they have orange hair - they got sprayed with hairspray at the soccer game :)

We were totally behind in planning Halloween costumes. The Monday before Thursday Trick or Treating, we still weren't quite sure what they'd be.  Ella decided she wanted to be a scary baby doll and Silas originally wanted to be the Man with the Yellow Hat (from Curious George) but it was too hard to find an all yellow suit.  He ended up being a Zookeeper, Monkey Division.  Banana included.  They both looked really cute (ignore the photobomb in the window :)

The weather this year was perfect for Trick or Treat night.  50's and dry (unlike last year!).  They finished up with a firepit and hot cocoa at one of the neighbor's houses. 

And now, here we are in November...one more soccer tournament left next week (for Silas and it's going to be COLD!!) and then on to worrying about getting Christmas shopping done!

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

This time of year is so much fun!  Last week we went to the pumpkin patch and got our pumpkin (which I'll blog about when I catch up).  I was gone this past weekend in Hocking Hills with my book group (which I'll blog about when I catch up) so we had to wait to carve pumpkins until yesterday - just in time for Trick or Treat tonight!

They all took great care in planning and digging out their pumpkins.  We saved the pumpkins seeds (of course) and made a few batches of baked seeds.  Yum!

Their hard work on the pumpkins paid off - they looked great and spooky out on the front porch!

Tonight was Trick or Treat.  Mason went to a friend's and hung out and passed out candy, Ella (and Ashlee) were grannies and Silas was Darth Vader.

We put Ella's hair up in curlers and then a granny rain cap on it.  She looked pretty legit!  She even had the slow, creaky granny walk down but we had to tell her to hurry it up so we could get around the 'hood!

Si has some pretty spooky Darth Vader eyes!

I love the pictures of the pumpkins - the street light across the street his the tree branches and the shadows land on the house - perfect for the spooky picture effects!

Ugh, and now it's hard to believe, but it's time to start planning Thanksgiving and get Christmas shopping underway!! Where does the time go!?!

The Carving of the Pumpkins

As is our standard operating procedure around here, it was last minute pumpkin carving on Wednesday (the night before Trick-or-Treat). Sometimes, when it was just Mason, we did same day but now that there are 3 kids, it's quite the ordeal and takes awhile...

Silas loved making his pumpkin's face, but REALLY hated the guts. He'd freak out a bit each time he'd come into contact with it.


For Ella, on the other hand, that was her favorite part - she picked all of the seeds and guts out of her pumpkin.
She helped me sort out the pumpkin seeds and we roasted them. They were Yummy!


(you'll notice Mason carving his pumpkin without a shirt on...so that he didn't get pumpkin guts on it - so he says...)


Here are the final products! Not sure if you can tell on mine, but the stem is my nose.

(L to R top: Me, Justin, Mason
bottom: Silas and Ella)

Happy Halloween!!