Hallow--WHAT?!

So I'm not a big Halloween person ... go ahead, make your judgments ... it's just not my thing. I think the costumes are fun, and the candy is without a doubt a real TREAT (see what I did there?) but the scary stuff is just not . my . thing . 

So now that we've established that, let me tell you what DOES peak my interest ... pumpkin carving. But it has now reached a whole other level! Without going into a long shpeeeel (that's a word, right?) I present to you a lookbook of one of our local park's presentation of pumpkin carvings .... The Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular! Over 5,000 pumpkins, carved, etched, and glowing throughout a 1/4 mile of the park... Let's just get to some photos now shall we!?

From your average joe carvings, to the absolute most unique... 

We easily found two of our favorites, along with an entire section I didn't want to leave...

..... Yes! Christmas! And there were even snow flakes in the midst of it all. *sigh*

But honestly, the amount of pumpkins around this park was nothing I've ever seen before! Truly incredible.

Although it was a long night and the line was out of this world (it took 2 hours to walk that 1/4 mile), but it was well worth the wait! And thankfully, it was NOT a school night. ;) ...yes, both asleep.

Pumpkin Carvin' Creations

The festive day has finally arrived; although with many people celebrating it the night before. Our town, along with many many others had to reschedule trick-or-treating for Wednesday night to avoid the storms ahead. The kids had no complaints about it! Neither did we. It was a pleasant evening. Leading up to, we did some pumpkin carving with my in-laws and it was so much fun. Today's a short post, but wanted to share the photos (borrowed from my sister-in-law) from our first pumpkin carving together!!

 Have a safe Halloween, everyone!!!

Trunk or Treat

This weekend was full of Halloween fun. Saturday was our trip to the zoo, and Sunday was the annual "trunk or treat" festival at our church. A great compilation of kid activities, and volunteers decorating their car trunks in rows for the kiddos to walk around and collect candy. It gets pretty creative. The first part of the day consisted of a bounce house, inflatable slides, train ride (with her Pop, of course), and putt-putting. My sweet girl wanted to stick with the princess theme this year, so she wore her Rapunzel dress this time around.

Our church gets so creative with the activities. I just love it. Next we were moving on to the pony ride. In all honesty (a mother's confession) I was not looking forward to it; poop on the ground, repugnant smells, and the longest line EVER. Regardless, we do it for our kids, right? I know the pregnancy doesn't help with the patience on these things - it's a fact - but we manage. There for a moment she seemed to be over the long line herself! But when we made it to the front, she was revved up and ready to go.

Shockingly, we nearly had to beg her to go trunk or treating that day. She just wanted to play! By all means, my darling. I'll never complain about my daughter refusing candy... except that was the whole reason we came! Somehow we managed to ignite her interest by pointing out all the silly costumes we saw through the row of decorated cars. Our favorite was a family of minions.

Cars were lined about 5 rows across, and about 8-10 cars deep up and down. Now and then we found ourselves at a standstill. But all for the love of trick-- TRUNK or treating! :) She was having a blast, and it's funny to see people you know. For instance, Chris' aunt and uncle dressed as Duck Dynasty. Ha! 

Well it's Wednesday, meaning one day closer to Halloween, meaning two days closer to the weekend, meaning OUR ANNIVERSARY! Just thought I'd share that little bit of news. :) 

Happy Hump Day, everyone!

Shade of the Week

With the spooky holiday quickly approaching, I figured I'd go along with it for my weekly polish as well. Again, I'm not a big Halloween dress-up participant, but I can still keep it festive. With that said, while my toes are rocking Beautiful Berry, this week I've chosen a much darker shade for my nails:

Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear Grey Area #061

This photo displays quite a deep grey, but depending on the number of coats you apply you can choose to make it as light or dark as you prefer. 

I choose just two coats to give my nails a dramatic, but chic look for the fall. Just because Halloween is gloomy, doesn't mean it can't be fashionable as well. ;) Touche? 

BOO! At The Zoo

This weekend, we joined together with friends and family to venture on out to our local zoo. Every year, through the month of October, they host a Halloween Party with plenty of candy and characters to entertain! This was our first year attending, now that Audriana is old enough to enjoy it. We brought the stroller along incase those little legs couldn't hang, but she was a trooper and walked the entire time. Again, she's growing up too fast and I don't know how to slow down time. Whaaaah :(

Along with us were my parents, husband, sister-in-law, and two of my favorite people Erika and Amy, with their children. Unfortunately, we didn't get an entire group photo, but still plenty were captured.

We started at the entrance and walked in every direction possible, until the train ride at the end! Whew, what a workout - for me anyway. The set up was incredible. I just loved it! They had a theme throughout each corner; from Storybook Princesses, Nintendo, Superheroes, almost all Disney movie characters, , and the Wizard of Oz, to name a few. Ha. Sadly, Audriana was bundled up and no one noticed her Princess Sofia dress underneath, they thought she was an owl. She was cool with it, so by all means. Ok, so getting to it! I decided to just share the highlights of our zoo adventure. Still a lot, but believe me there were a bundle.

They were obviously having a blast. As you can imagine, it took us awhile to make our way through from all the photo ops, but they were loving it. And every now and then the grown ups would have our own little fun with it. Next year we'll have our son for a complete family photo!!!

Oh, and we can't forget the hot chocolate!!!! It was a chiiiillllllly night. While the kiddos danced around under the disco light (yes, there was a dance floor reserved for kids to exert their sugar rush) we hung around and sipped on our hot cocoa. Yummy!!

Well, that's about all there is folks. Other than a few more here or there, we made our way around back to the front entrance for Audriana to enjoy a carousel ride, and last but not least caught the train ride around the zoo.
This was such a fun day! Not to mention Audriana passed OUT on the way home. I guess you could say we all could have at that point. We all had a great time. I'm so glad we were able to experience it with family AND friends. The kids had a blast with one another. I'm thankful for our relationships, and the ability to share moments like these. Can't wait for next year!

Although, I won't be able to get festive with an AWESOME shirt like this again. I couldn't have been more pleased with my customized t-shirt. I shopped around for all kinds of maternity ideas for Halloween, and this was the winner. Simple, but certainly making a statement. Ha!

Those were our shenanigans for the weekend! What were some of yours??? LINK UP! and share. :)

Halloween costumes: Clever or Creepy?

Well, it's here! OCTOBER! Officially FALL, meaning everything under that category applies: boots, scarves, pumpkin flavored everything, Harvest Homecoming, pumpkin patch, and a whole lot of PSL from Starbucks. Oh yea, and Halloween. How can I forget that? Not that I'm an avid Halloween fanatic, but it's certainly the main staple of October.

I've never been a big participant in dressing up. Sure the cutesy outfit here or there, but never detailed get-ups like most. Don't judge me, it's not for everyone; aka me. Regardless, given the festive aroma this month brings, I couldn't help but research some ideas for maternity costumes. The discoveries were quite interesting, and I wound up with images I may never be able to erase. To name a few, but not limited to...

I'm not sure if the first two are clever, or seriously creepy???? I wouldn't have thought of that myself, so I can at least give them credit to a unique idea. As for the last photo, I'm not really sure what to make of it. But I'm not here to pass judgement. :)

Then my curiosity got the best of me, and I began searching ideas for family costumes. My oh my. Again, I'm not sure what category these fall under. I'll leave that up to you.

 Hmm.... nope. No words.

Although, I did stumble across a few VERY clever, and adorable family costumes that sure take the cake. If I had the ability, the sewing ability, I would definitely organize a cute family ensemble each year! Chris should thank his lucky stars; who knows what I'd think of! Check these out.

  I don't care who you are, the Napoleon Dynamite family wins HANDS DOWN!!!!!!! Kudos.

Well, that's all I have for today folks. Again, I'm not a big Halloween guru, but I'm always anxious to see the costumes each year. Thankfully, we don't have any parties to attend otherwise I'd probably end up with one of these.

Or go all Jessica Simpson on everyone, as a "mummy". Truthfully, it's cute. I have to admit.