Halloween Night at Boo at the Zoo

We love going to Boo at the Zoo every year! It is one of the kids favorite Halloween events! Our little Tautphaus Park Zoo does such a good job of decorating and setting the perfect atmosphere for a fun night at the zoo! This year was no exception we had a blast! It had been cold and miserable all week, but Halloween night was beautiful and warm, I layered the kids under their costumes and no one had to wear a jacket over their costume! YEAH! Some years the kids have to report what their costume is when asked because the costume is covered by a huge winter coat! I was so excited that this year despite being grim all week the weather cooperated and we had a really fun Halloween night! Before we left for Boo at the Zoo we had a yummy Halloween dinner! We ate Chicken & Rice soup in pumpkin bread bowls! It was so fun! The girls thought it was really neat and it put us all in a festive mood! Here are the pics of the day and evening starting off with dinner with all of us and Papa and Mama K!


Seriously are these not the cutest things?!? What a fun and yummy way to have soup on Halloween! We need to make this an annual tradition! In the past we have gotten the Jack-O-Lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's, but this was way yummier! New tradition established! I'm declaring it! Yum! And Fun!


These are the moments that make me happy spending time with family! Love it! And I love that the kids got to spend time with Larren's parents! It was a great week!


All the kids loved the dinner, but this was a cute pic of Grace digging in!


Savannah treat bag in hand, Trick-Or-Treating the Zoo! She had a pretty good haul by the end of the night!



Audrey playing a bean bag toss game in the petting zoo! Nice throw Audrey! I mean Mulan!

Savannah digging for a prize in the pile of leaves! This is their favorite activity at the zoo each year! It is fun to find a treasure in all those leaves!

Audrey looking at pumpkins and light displays in one of the cages, I love this picture because it shows the back of her bun, the wig is made out of black yarn and it is so cute!

Jonas and Mama K in front of the zebras.

Audrey working on a craft at the zoo. I believe she is dressing a monkey up as a vampire!

These are all carved pumpkins, not a single fake one in this display! WOW! Lots of work went into these! There were some very ornate, some wer cats, bats withces and others were Jack-O-Lanterns that had cute little faces! It was so fun to look at them all!

Well there you have it, another Halloween in the books! As much fun as it was, I was so happy to tuck in my little goblins on Halloween night knowing we would wake up to a new month with Halloween over! Now we are on to Thanksgiving and I am thankful Halloween only happens once a year!

Halloween Costumes

Halloween costumes were really fun this year for all the kids! Savannah found hers in a magazine and wanted to make it! I took one look at it and said "that looks like something that needs to be made in the garage! Let's have dad help you with it!" Audrey wore a costume Savannah wore a few years ago, but with a new twist! Grace wore a new one I bought her last year after Halloween! Yeah! She didn't have a hand-me-down! Kind of fun once in a while and that is really all it ever happens! And Jonas was just a boy and we've never had one of those so it was super fun finding a little costume for him! Here are a few snapshots of all the kiddos! They are SO adorable!

Savannah wanted to make this cute hot air balloon costume! It was such a great project for her and her dad to work on together! When Papa and Mama K arrived they helped finish it, it became a fun little group effort! She entered the costume contest at Boo at the Zoo, at the request of the Mayor no less! OK here's the story . . . we were walking through Boo at the Zoo (they have two costume contests each night and we had already missed the first one, so the last one was coming up like an hour from this incident) and the Mayor of Idaho Falls stopped Savannah and said, "I love your costume! Are you going to enter the costume contest?" Savannah said, "I don't know." And the Mayor said, "You have to, that is a great costume!" Then he kind of leaned toward her and whispered, "I'm one of the judges!" Needless to say we entered her in the costume contest and she won FIRST PLACE! Woo Hoo! Way to go Savannah! Her costume was very popular, lots of people stopped her and told her how fantastic it was! So much fun for her! She love being crafty and creative, so not my thing, but I'm glad she loves to do it!

Here is a cute close-up of our little hot air balloon pilot! Oh I just think she is such a pretty girl! I don't care that I am biased!

Oh my little golfer Jonas! It was love at first sight I tell ya when I saw this costume! It was just so him! He may kill me later when he sees the pictures, but I could not resist, it was too cute! I entered him in the Boo at the Zoo costume contest in his little age division and he won THIRD PLACE! Lots and lots of people thought his costume was pretty adorable too! He totally had the personality for it and so that really made the costume! I think this will be way hard to top! I loved him in this costume!

Here he is sitting on the steps with his clubs! Call me biased again, but that is one handsome little golfer!

My sweet butterfly, Grace! I got this costume last year at Downeast after Halloween was over and saved it for Grace! I didn't show it to her last year, so it was so much fun to see her face when I showed her the costume! She loved it! She had been wearing the wings around the house for weeks before Halloween! She looks so sweet and how fun for her to have her very own costume that no one ever wore! That is a pretty rare thing when you are the third girl in a row!

The costume consisted of the tu tu, the onezie and the wings and was adorable, but the funny thing about Grace is that immediately in her mind the costume wasn't complete (now she did love it mind you) but she noticed right away there were no "tennas!" She became fixated on the missing "tennas," it was so weird, anyway the week of Halloween, I explained this to Carolyn (Mama K) so we searched for anntenae and found nothing sold separately, so we bought parts and pieces and unassembled and reassembled and Mama K got these "tennas" made to put the finishing touch on Grace's costume! Turned out pretty dang good if I do say so myself! And that completed the look and she was on happy camper with her little "tennas" stuck to the top of her head! What a girl! And a very pretty one too!

Here's our little Mulan! I got this costume for Savannah when she was in Kindergarten, and it was still a little big on Audrey this year and she is in 1st grade! She is so tiny!! Anyway Savannah wore it and looked adorable in it, but Audrey and Grace must be two peas in a pod, because I didn't put any make-up on Savannah the year she wore this, but Audrey pointed out to me in the "matchmaker" scene when Mulan's were this type of outfit, she has "white make-up, blue eyelids and red lips!" I said "no I don't think she does." Audrey said, "look it up, Mom!" We looked it up and sure enough there is Mulan in white make-up, blue eyelids and red lips! So Audrey wore the Mulan costume with a twist! She's all dolled up! She looks so cute! And in the end she was right the make-up is fun and really makes the costume! And look we have another gorgeous girl! I'm biased and I'm fine with that!!

She entered the costume contest at Boo at the Zoo too and took SECOND PLACE losing to her sister! They were in the same age division! She was thrilled with SECOND PLACE! She is thrilled all the time, life is just fun to her always! She really wanted Savannah to win, she is just that kind of sister! Love her for that!! Every kid that entered won! So funny! I tried to get Grace to enter, but she was way too shy! She is funny that way - not shy around us but she has no desire to be in front of people she doesn't know! We had a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finish! I'm not sure we will be invited back to Boo at the Zoo next year! Not sure I want to go back actually, especially if the kids are counting on me to get them to finish in the top three again next year! YIKES! Pretty sure this was a fluke and not something I could ever duplicate again, but the kids had a great Halloween and they all loved their costumes!

Carving Jack-O-Lanterns

After getting our cute little pumpkins at the pumpkin patch we carved them into Jack-O-Lanterns! It was so much fun to have Larren's parents in town for the Halloween festivities. We have never spent the Halloween holiday with them so this was a real treat for the kids.


Guts! Guts! Guts! Grace was spoon in hand until she saw what exactly she was going to be doing - then she chickened out big time! So did Audrey actually too! Such funny girls! Grace did finally get close enough to get a good look, but wouldn't get her hands dirty!

Papa working on gutting Jonas' pumpkin! Poor Mama K on slimy duty and Jonas looking on at all the excitement!

More watching! Next year Jonas will be able get in on the action and my guess is he won't be afraid of a little slimy goop like his big sisters are!

Papa and Jonas with the finished Jack-O-Lantern! Not a very good picture of Papa (sorry Papa) but it turned out to be such a cute little pumpkin!

Savannah and Larren working on Savannah's haunted house! She is way into complex arts and crafts lately! Thank heavens Larren is talented in that area and can help her out! Hers took quite a while to complete, but it turned out really neat!

Grace with her little pumpkin! She loved it once it was all cleaned out and carved!

Here are all the Jack-O-Lanterns out on the front step! Grace's is on the top step, Audrey's is the scaredy cat and little Jonas' is next to hers and Savannah's is the on the bottom step carved into a haunted house! And finally Mama K' s is the white pumpkin with a spider web designed on it and she even drew a spider in the web! Very very cool! Love this Halloween tradition!

Pumpkin Walk

The girls had been wanting to go down to the Pumpkin Walk in Shelley, so even though the weather was FREEZING, we braved the cold and took a very brisk walk through the Pumpkin Walk! Back story . . . a friend of mine told me last year about this little Pumpkin Walk in Shelley that uses pumpkins and other fall vegetables in fun little vignettes depicting various scenes that children would recognize and enjoy. Evidently the idea behind this is to give children something fun to enjoy at Halloween time that is not haunted or scary! Anyway the girls loved it last year and wanted to go back again this year! Even though it was VERY cold, it was totally worth going, the kids loved seeing all the little scenes! There aren't a lot of pictures because we didn't stop much, way too cold, but trust me it was so cute!
We were seriously bundled up! BRRRRR! Here are the girls in front of the Three Little Pigs scene! In each of the windows is a pumpkin painted pink and made into a pig! Super cute!

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head made out a pumpkin and some sort of squash. So clever!

These little pumpkins were made into porcupines! Hilarious!

This was their favorite scene of all, Charlotte's Web, it was really cute! There was not a single detail left out, it was done so well! We spent the most time at this scene taking it all in - really super cute!

Here is an up close shot of Fern, Wilbur and Templeton!

Here is a shot of the horse, the geese, the sheep and a farm hand! ADORABLE!!

Here is the rest of the Charlotte's Web scene, cows, turkey and Mr. Zuckerman! This must have been a ton of work! We loved it! Hopefully they will do this Pumpkin Walk for many years to come, it is such a fun fall activity!

Pumpkin Patch

Larren's parents (Papa and Mama K, if you ask my kids) came to town the week of Halloween for a visit, my kids were so excited, they had been counting down the days! They arrived late Sunday night and then on Monday Larren had to travel to Boise for a hearing, Robin decided to travel with him and Carolyn stayed with me and the kids. After the girls got home from school we decided to check out a local pumpkin patch, it was really cute and we had a lot of fun until we realized they only took cash, which neither of us had, so then the fun came to an end, (take a look at the classic crocodile tear shot down the page - poor Audrey) but we promised to come back later in the week and get our pumpkins. It was actually fun to have to go back later because then Larren and Robin got to join in on the fun! I hope to make this an annual tradition, it was a really cute little place and had some great pumpkins to chose from!

They had a little straw maze for the kids to go through and in the maze was this little peddle tractor! Jonas was in heaven! He loved it, he sat on it forever, of course cried when I finally took him off! So cute, maybe someday he'll get a little tractor of his own! Boys are so fun, he has been a blast! What a guy!!

Savannah standing on top of the straw maze, it was a cold, crisp but absolutely beautiful day!

Savannah taking Jonas down the slide. He loved it!

Wee! They made it to the bottom! Savannah is such a sweet and doting big sis to Jonas. Jonas couldn't have gone down by himself, and I was just carrying him out of the straw maze, and Savannah said "mom, let me take him down the slide." I love how thoughtful she is and quick to include her younger siblings in the fun! What a sweet girl!

Uh -oh! Audrey had picked out the perfect pumpkin and then we realized it was cash only and we had no cash! She is such a cute little drama queen! Don't worry Audrey we are coming back and this time we will be prepared with money in hand! Oh that face though, so cute and sad! Priceless!

So as promised here we are back again, at the pumpkin patch this time though in the snow! Gotta love this Idaho weather! Here is Savannah catching snowflakes on her tongue! But snow or not we were back to pick out the perfect pumpkins to carve into Jack-O-Lanterns!

Grace settled on the gorgeous big round pumpkin! Hold on tight Grace, that pumpkin is bigger than you! Look at those cute little cold fingers and cold cheeks, but she loved walking up and down the rows of pumpkins looking for the perfect one!

Audrey was certain she found the exact pumpkin she had picked out the first day we came out to the pumpkin patch! She was thrilled to be reunited with her long lost pumpkin! Look at that happy little face! Way to go Audrey!

Audrey and Grace pushing and pulling our pumpkin wagon along! It was seriously hard work!

Savannah picked out her pumpkin! All the girls went home with amazing cute little pumpkins! It took us two days but we got our pumpkins!

Here are all four kiddos in the wagon with all their pumpkins! OK it's freezing . . . let's get outta here!