Happy Halloween!!

Craig and Taylor joined forces on this pumpkin! So spooky! (Craig got a pumpkin for himself to carve but Katie had picked a rotten pumpkin so we ended up sharing, works for me! Just one fewer pumpkin that i have to hollow out!).
Here's Katie's pumpkin! She did it ALL by herself! Looks great Peanut!
Here's the back of my pumpkin, "SAD". When I saw this pumpkin in the field I couldn't turn it down! What great eyes! But they wouldn't show in the dark and I didn't want to cut them out so I had to do 2 faces!
Here's the front of my pumpkin, HAPPY!
Soph wanted a "princess pumpkin", of course. This is as good as I could manage. I like the eyelashes and lips!
They look pretty great all lit up!
Pretty great, huh? Why am I so crazy?
I finished sewing Craig's costume at 9:30 on Monday night and we decided to wake Katie up to show her the great results! Think she was scared?
Katie was taking the pix for us! Those are REALLY small face holes! Must be for little kids! Hee hee!
I know Katie isn't wearing a coat, but it was pretty chilly! Soph was freezing! The wind was pretty chilly too! Probably in the 40's.
Pretty night to be at the Pumpkin Patch! I think pumpkin patch/fall pix are my favorite out of the whole year!
This little pumpkin patch is just about 5 minutes from our house and it's got great apples and pumpkins and is cheap! They were doing great business on Monday night. I thought the sign was really funny! "pumpki", ha! That's funny!
Here's some pix with Taylor and the mummy at the museum!
More mummy pix! He looks good, doesn't he?

Last Saturday we went downtown to the Grand Rapids Public Museum. We got a family pass there this year and it's a really cool place to go. They even have a carousel and a planetarium! The planetarium was doing a "Spooky Tunes" laser light show. It was fun for Taylor Katie and I but Soph lost it at the first song! Too loud, too dark and too scary!

Monday night for Family night we went to the pumpkin patch and got our pumpkins, apples and the kiddos got donuts. Craig and I split a caramel apple, YUM!

We had the big Trunk or Treat ward party on Tuesday and Craig was mostly in charge of organizing it. I made him a fabulous mummy costume (much to his dismay). He looked great in it and Taylor was King Tut and I was Cleopatra. The girls didn't want to play along with our ancient Egyptian theme so Katie was a 50's girl with a poodle skirt and Soph was Alice the fairy (check the book by David Shannon, she really is Alice! I knew I liked that name!).

On Wednesday we carved our pumpkins! I just love the Fall. Every single second with the leaves so colorful and the air so brisk makes me want to make time stop so I can enjoy it longer.

I'm always up for a party!

See how much we were able to get out of General Conference with 5 kids in the house??
PARTY!!!
Thanks for a great weekend everybody! (like the party hat Craig got for me?)
Mom and Amy at the Grand Hotel.
Lunch at the fort!
The children's area at the fort was as fun as last time!
Doesn't Soph make a great soldier with her "hah" in her mouth! OOOooooo SCARY Soldier! Don't SHOOT!
It's the whole fam! Why is Soph dressed like a boy?
This pic is out of order. It's from the Dixie Saloon in Mackinaw City where we ate on Friday evening. It wasn't great food and the service was painfully slow but it helped the the kids could write all over the table, benches and walls! (kinda gross actually).
Here we are on the island in downtown Mackinac. I had forgotten how it smells like horse poo.
Taylor is a man after my own heart, he wanted to sit on top of the boat! ME TOO! Man, it sure was cold! They say it's a 16 minute ride but I really think it had to have been atleast 30 mins. My face is still recovering, but I loved it!
AHHHH!!! Don't feed the bear Peanut!
ATTACK BEAR!! AHHH!!
Cute little friends! I'm surprised we didn't meet up with this group when we were on Coeur d'Alene lake this summer canoeing.
Look Soph! Bambie's Dad! (all you hunters are laughing at me now I bet).
Who doesn't want a pic with a stuffed animal (or lots of them).
These are the reverence children.
Bear attack!!! We saw lots of crazy stuff at the Legs Inn in Cross Village! The food was authentic polish and I thought it was fine, but Craig and mom were not fans. It was bitter cold and we were NOT tempted to eat out on the patio, at all!

For my birthday this year we went back up to Northern Michigan. I had intended this trip to be about Fall color but they hadn't really started going in earnest yet. Thankfully my mom decided to come out for the trip and we made a quick trip over to Mackinac Island in honor of her coming! We left Friday morning and drove North hoping that the wind and rain and cold would blow over before we got to Mackinac but it did not so we stopped off in Cross village and did a scenic drive along Lake Michigan and got some old fashioned pix taken during the cold weather and post-poned our trip over to the island until Saturday when it was cold, but atleast sunny.

It was so fun to see the island in the fall. We took the carriage tour and they had blankets for us to put on our laps. By afternoon when we had reached the fort it was sunny and mid-50's and felt much better. We got lunch at the fort overlooking the harbor and warmed up in the sun. Then we walked around through town, got some ice cream with mackinac fudge in it and walked past the Grand Hotel and caught the ferry back to Mackinaw City and drove back down to Grand Rapids.

Hailey, Steve and the boys had come up for my birthday and for mom's visit so we were able to enjoy conference Sunday together. Hailey and Steve made some awesome chinese food for me (yum!) and it was fantastic to be all together!

Craig's Birthday Bash (Still playing catch up- It was labor day weekend)

Craig, Amy (that sweatshirt isn't doing me any favors, is it?), Mommo and Dad Starkey. Thanks for the help with the party planning Mommo!
Before we headed home on Sunday we took the kiddos to the park in Grandma's neighborhood to run hard before the trek home.
Hailey and Steve were able to come for the festivities!
Thanks to Grandma Arends for letting us crash her house for the birthday bash!
We had bbq ribs and cheddar brats! YUM!!!
It was actually really hot on Saturday and we took a historical tour of downtown Chicago on kayaks. It was cool to be kayaking through the city.

This year for Craig's birthday we went out to Chicago to take a kayaking tour and celebrate another year with Craig with his parents, Grandma, Aunt and cousins and my sister and cousin! It was fun to see everybody before school set back in.