Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone! We have had a BUSY week celebrating Halloween with the boys. I remember when I was a child we celebrated Halloween one time - on Halloween. Now, it seems like we had something to do every night!

We started out on Tuesday by attending Boo at the Zoo. This was our second year going, and the boys had a great time. Kaden chose to dress up at Woody this year. He fell in love with Toy Story earlier this year, so there was no question in his mind who he wanted to dress up as! It was a little difficult for me to "let go" and let him choose this time, but he was so proud of himself walking around the zoo that it was totally worth it. Every time we passed by another child dressed up like Woody, or Buzz Lightyear, Kaden would wave at them like they were best buddies... it was priceless! I decided to dress Noah up as Cocky this year, so we got to strut around the zoo dressed up as our favorite mascot :) He was, I think, the most popular kid at the zoo and we were, once again, stopped by other visitors to get pictures with "Cocky." By the time we got done trick-or-treating, toasting marshmallows, and grooving at the dance party, the boys were worn out!

The next morning Kaden's preschool went trick-or-treating at some of the shops located near the preschool. I helped chaperone the event, so Kaden got all dressed up and was off to trick-or-treating part 2. Since Patrick had to work, I dressed Noah up again and brought him along too. Once again, both boys racked up in the candy department and had a great experience getting to walk around downtown Chapin. I love that we attend a preschool that gives the kids the opportunity to go trick-or-treating. All of the children were precious dressed up in their costumes :)

After taking a few days of recuperation, we got dressed up a third time to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. A.J. and mimi-mama joined us this time along with BoBo and B-Bo. We pretty much hit every corner of the neighborhood and had very full buckets by the time we arrived back home. It's times like these that I feel very fortunate to live in a neighborhood with lots of kids where my children fit right in. We had a lot of fun this week and are now on the countdown to Thanksgiving and Christmas - oh my! Enjoy the pictures, and Happy Halloween!

Boo at the Zoo pictures

A few pictures from preschool ToT

Halloween Night

All Aboard!

On Saturday we got the opportunity to do something that none of us have done before. We headed up to Winnsborro, SC, to the South Carolina Railroad Museum (SCRM) to take a ride on a steam train! The SCRM usually offers train rides over the summer using a diesel engine, but for two weekends in October they had a special steam engine available for rides. Kaden and Noah LOVE trains, so we knew that this was something we had to do. My mom went with us so she could share the experience with the boys as well.

The boys were thrilled to see all the trains when we pulled up to the museum. There was only one train available for rides, but they have other train cars set up for you to tour. We got to walk through a dining car, a car that had two rooms set up for sleeping, the mail car, and a luggage car. We also got to explore a cute red caboose.

The train ride itself was really neat. We got off to a bumpy start which totally freaked Noah out, but once we got moving he really enjoyed himself. Every time the train whistle blew, Kaden's face lit up! I absolutely live for that smile :) Noah was adorable when the train whistle blew as well because he would "pull" on his imaginary train whistle and say,"CHOO CHOO!" It wasn't a really long train ride and we only went up and down one section on track, but it was totally worth it to see the boys having that much fun. Lots of people were standing on the side of the road taking pictures of the train and waving to the passengers, and the boys felt pretty special getting to wave back to everyone.

I definitely see some more train rides in our future! Enjoy the pictures :)

Waiting for our train ride

The steam engine

Noah and Daddy before the train got moving

Kaden and me on the train

The conductor

Kaden smiling after the train whistle

Noah after pulling his imaginary train whistle

Kaden and Noah checking out the inside of the caboose

The dining car

Kaden posing in the mail car

My little daredevil

My boys posing in front of one of the non-running engines