Posts Tagged ‘Halloween’
2011 Engraved Pumpkins
February 3rd, 2012 Posted by Mike in Kids | No Comments »Our engraved pumpkins turned out really nice this year. About a month before Halloween we went to Rutiz Farms to engrave still green pumpkins. We chose the pumpkin that we liked and then used a ball point pen to scratch the surface of the pumpkin skin. Then as it matured the scratch hardened and turned a brown color. We really enjoyed our pumpkins and we plan on making this a tradition in our household. Disclaimer: These photos were taken a while after Halloween and that is why they are looking kind of old. They were in great shape when we picked them up.
This is our family pumpkin:
This is Dylan’s Pumpkin:
And this is how Aubri’s turned out:
We made this one for the baby before we knew what little Daphni was going to be:
Pumpkin Carving
November 1st, 2009 Posted by momitomi in Kids | 754 Comments »
On Halloween morning we decided to carve our pumpkins so they would be ready to be put out for decoration on Halloween night. It took a little while before Dylan warmed up to the idea of sticking his hands inside the pumpkin to pull out the guts, but after he realized it wasn’t going to hurt him he seemed to have fun cleaning out his pumpkin. Aubri on the other hand never seemed to get the hang of cleaning her pumpkin out and she preferred for someone else to do it for her.
Dylan really wanted to carve a “face” on his so that it would look like a Jack-o-Lantern. He gave it his best shot of trying to carve it on his own, but really the knife just ended up going up and down in one spot. He didn’t seem to realize that he wasn’t doing any carving though and really had a good time. Mike ended up finishing carving his face for him and he just pulled out the pieces as Mike cut them free. Aubri chose the cat for her pumpkin to be carved into, and I think they both ended up turning out great. Dylan couldn’t wait to get to put the candle in his so that it would light up. He was quite proud of his pumpkin and pointed out all of the pumpkins that had a face like his while we were out trick-or-treating. The next day Grams roasted up all of the pumpkin seeds with a little bit of garlic and everyone thinks they are delicious. Click here to see more pick of the kids carving pumpkins.
Disneyland, October 2009
November 1st, 2009 Posted by momitomi in Kids | 712 Comments »
My mom had a couple of days vacation that she needed to take, so we figured we would take the kids and head to Disneyland. Mike luckily was able to get the time off also, so he came along. We went up on Thursday morning and stopped by to have lunch with Grandma McDonald on our way through and ended up hitting Disneyland around 3 o’clock.
The first ride Dylan wanted to go to was Buzz Lightyear so we headed there first. When we got in to get on the ride Dylan got a little scared, I don’t think he really remembered everything from last time. It took him most of that first ride to really get the idea of the whole thing again, but as soon as it was over, he was ready to go on it again. Aubri wasn’t sure about the ride, and she really didn’t seem like she liked any of the rides the whole time we were there. The only ride she seemed like she really wanted to go on was Dumbo and that was only after Dylan and Grams got on the ride and she was left standing on the sidelines because we figured she wouldn’t go on it. We had a lot of fun, but it is amazing how few rides you actually get to do when you are there with young kids and you have to go on their time and deal with multiple potty and snack breaks. Dylan did go on the roller coaster in Toon Town again and he really enjoyed that. I tried to get him to go on Thunder Mountain Railroad with me, but he didn’t seem so sure about that. Maybe next time I can convince him to go on it with me. One of the highlights we found by accident was getting to ride in the very front car of the monorail in with the driver. You get a great view of the whole park looking out of the front window, and it was really neat at night to be able to get to see all the lights from the park as well as all the lights from the hotels. Both the kids really enjoyed this part of day.
We have realized that Dylan is much more of a daredevil than we used to think. He doesn’t really seem to let heights or speed bother him. When Mike took Dylan on the Jellyfish ride, he was much more nervous to go up high then Dylan was on the ride. Mike kept a tight grip on Dylan even though was hooked in, and he checked his seat belt several times before the ride started. Probably everyone’s favorite ride was Toy Story. It is a great ride and it is really interactive. We just had a hard time getting either of the kids to keep on their 3D glasses so they could get the full effect of the ride. They also had both of the parks all decorated for Halloween and it was really neat to see all of the pumpkins and Halloween related decorations all over. Since we all have season passes now, we are already planning a trip to head back around Christmas time so we can see the park all decorated for Christmas. Click here for more Disneyland Pics.
Trick-or-Treating 2009
November 1st, 2009 Posted by momitomi in Kids | 675 Comments »
Halloween came very quickly for the McDonald household this year. It seems like we were just enjoying summertime and then all of the sudden it was fall and Halloween was upon us. We were very excited about Halloween this year. This was Aubri’s first real year of Trick-or-Treating since she wasn’t walking last year. Uncle Jack was kind enough to get a hold of a discontinued Octopus suit for Aubri to wear and Dylan was more than excited to be a peacock again this year. We thought the kids were going to be so excited to go out Trick-or-Treating and then Aubri fell asleep not too long before we were planning on going out, and since she got woken up from her nap long before I think she wanted to, she wasn’t in a great mood when we began. Dylan seemed excited to put his costume on but when it came to actually going out he wasn’t really that excited. Once we got the kids dressed and outside we snapped a couple of pictures and then we were off to our first house.
Aubri wasn’t sure what was going on, so she just kind of stood back and watched her big brother. After she realized that people were handing stuff out, she at least wanted to go up and get some for herself. After the first or second house, Dylan got some M&M’s and he decided at that point he was done and he just wanted to go home and eat his M&M’s. We kept telling him he might get more candy if we went to more houses, but he said he had enough and was ready to go home. We convinced him to stay out a little longer because we wanted to go by one of the houses that was really decorated for Halloween.
Then we told him we would just head back to the house but we could hit houses along the way while we walked back. Aubri didn’t seem all that impressed with Trick-or-Treating either. The second house we hit gave her a sucker and that was all that she wanted. Once she had her sucker open she was happily sucking on that and didn’t really want to be bothered to go up to anymore houses. The houses that we did get her to go up to the door on always wanted to put her candy in her bag, but she didn’t want anything to do with her bag, she wanted to hold her candy and she didn’t want it in the bag. She usually had at least two or three pieces in her hands at a time and would only give those up when she got another one. We made it home after a half an hour or so of Trick-or-Treating and the kids were both content to eat one piece of candy before bed. I think they had a lot more fun passing out candy to the rest of the kids that came to our door that night than they did actually getting the candy themselves. Soon, it was off to bed for the two little ones and it was time to leave their candy loot out for the Candy Fairy to come take and leave them a small surprise in return.
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