The simple joy of a leaf pile

At the beginning of November my children discovered the simple joy of a leaf pile

Doesn't get much better than that. 

All things Halloween! 2013

To kick off the Halloween season I hosted a Halloween playdate for a few of Teya and Brinley's little friends.

We started off by making Oreo bat cookies

 Lots of chocolatey fingers and faces!

Then we made paper plate ghost decorations.

After all that snacking and crafting the kiddos went downstairs to watch the Cat in the Hat Halloween movie.

And the mommies stayed upstairs for some much needed grown up time :)

Later in the month we went to Kuipers pumpkin farm to pick out a perfect pumpkin for carving.

These little pumpkins had a blast.

They jumped on the giant jumping pillow

and dug around in the corn pit

They slid down the giant slide, played on trains and tire horses, and sipped hot cocoa to stay warm.

Their favorite part though was the petting zoo. 

They loved all the cute little animals!

We didn't end up picking a pumpkin from there but we did go home with some freshly made hot apple cider donuts which were amazing!

Later we were gifted a few pumpkins so it was good we didn't buy any at the farm. 

For our family night before Halloween we got to work carving the pumpkins. Mommy traced out the patterns and Daddy did the carving. The kids did a great job pulling out the gunk and separating out the seeds.

 Taber and the girls with their finished masterpieces! They turned out great!

 We tried to get a picture with Cam in there too but his face pretty much sums up how he felt about that. 

He did however enjoy blowing out the pumpkin candle and yelling "Happy Bert-day!"

The weekend before Halloween we had a Trunk or Treat at church

Brinley dressed as a pumpkin princess, Cam was Jake, from Jake and the Neverland pirates, and Teya was a spooky Spider (my first attempt at a homemade costume for her)

On actual Halloween they switched things up a little. Brinley ditched her wig and Cam opted for the sock monkey costume Grandma Karen had sent him.

I also did some face paint on the girls to give their costumes a bit more pop.

 They looked darling :)

It was wet and rainy but that didn't stop us from trick or treating.

 Cam really had it down this year and was the cutest little monkey in the neighborhood .

 It was fun bumping into friends

 And trick or treating at our favorite neighbor's houses.

Brinley even got to trick or treat at her kindergarten teacher's house which was pretty exciting.

The kids pulled in a respectable loot, and after sorting and counting, they picked 25 pieces for themselves and surrendered the rest to be "donated" to someone who needed it more (aka, Mommy's emergency sugar stash) 

And that's it for Halloween! 

(well I still have to post about our costume party, but that's almost it anyway :)

Rigg's annual Halloween Costume Party: Chicago Edition

Back in October we held our 4th annual Halloween costume party for the first time in Chicago. 

We had a good turnout and the costumes were all so fun ! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

 As the host and hostess, Taber and I dressed up as Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) and Wilson (the volleyball) from the movie castaway. I had a blast making the costumes and loved the way baby bump got to be part of the ensemble too :) 

Here are all the other costumes:

Doomsday preppers, a Samoan royal couple, 

Elvis and hippie, Fear the beard Red Sox player and she devil. 

 Little Red Riding Hood and the Big bad wolf dressed as grandma, 80's couple

Lady bug and Gentlemen bug, Muldoon and the Velociraptor from Jurassic Park. 

Native American Couple, Robin Hood and Maid Marion

Justin Timberlake and Brittany Spears, Renaissance couple.

And the costume prize winners were:

4th place: Mary Poppins and Burt

3rd Place: Lion Tamer and Lion

Tied for 2nd Place: Piñata and Piñata breaker

 Tied for 2nd place: Gru, Agnes, and Fluffy Unicorn from Despicable Me

1st place: Fake Taber and Becca. 

(Thomas is bald and doesn't have facial hair so seeing him get all Tabered out was hilarious! Also Jolene's fake pregnant belly, black wig and hawaiian garb was awesome! Love these guys so much!)

We had a fun time eating, socializing and playing some warm up games. 

then it was on to Minute to Win It. 

 this year we played Suck it Up

 Stack Attack

Separation Anxiety

 Nervous Nelly (laughed my guts out during this one!)

 Hanky Panky

 Rapid Fire

 Junk in your Trunk

 And Face the Cookie, which was won by Gru, giant fake nose and all!

 then it was time for prizes. I put together some fun themed prize baskets this year and they seemed to be a big hit. 

 We took pics of the winners with their prizes and then it was time to go. 

Another awesome Halloween party down in the books. Hoping to make it even better next year!