Bobbing for Apples

Halloween night was rainy and windy this year.  Trick or treating got rescheduled to the weekend and we spent a fun evening at home as a family.  The night was highlighted by a new-to-our-kids fall activity:  bobbing for apples!  It was so much fun and is sure to become an annual tradition now.  

We brought up the galvanized bucket and I did my best to clean it a bit as it normally stores sports balls, baseball gloves, etc. in our basement.  I used a pitcher to fill it with water and dropped in four of the smallest apples that Will and I picked recently at Erie.  Perfect size and firmness for little people attempting capture with teeth in a bucket of water.  Haha!

Soph chose (on her own) to put on a swimsuit and Will just took off his shirt in preparation.

Let the game begin! 

I adore all of the expressions of the onlooking child! 

Look at her seriousness! 

First success! 

Enjoying the reward. 

Sophie continued to have a hard time but never gave up trying! 

Finally, Craig cupped his hand under an apple to give her something to push it against and she found success.

Way to go, baby girl! 

Going in for round two.  (This turned out to be a substantial part of dinner.  Haha!) 

And then at the end, because our kids just LOVE to be naked, they stripped down to their skivvies and birthday suit respectively and jumped in to dance in the "tub". 

We followed this up with a bath, jammies and the Charlie Brown Halloween on TV.

GBU Kids Halloween Party

The annual GBU Halloween party at Oak Shade Grove was the same day as our family pictures, so we quickly scooted over there right from our shoot.  You can still see Will's collared shirt under his costume.  :)  

This year for Halloween, we were reeeeeally low-key with costumes.  I'd purchased Will's Ironhide costume (Transformers) from Amazon right after Halloween last year for $8 because that's what he said he wanted to be.  Well, since then, Star Wars has become all the rage and he changed his mind.  I said I was sorry but this is what he was wearing this year and I wouldn't buy ahead for next year.  He pouted a little, but then he was fine with it.  Sophie got several choices offered (all of them from Old Navy's warm, one-piece, $22 selections - lol) and ultimately said she wanted to wear her dress up clothes.  So she wore the fairy-looking dress that the Rethman fam bought her for her birthday + the wings our friend Jill bought her for Christmas a couple years ago.  No sweat.

The GBU party typically includes food, games and a trick-or-treating parade, but this year also included a hay ride outside with papa's wagon and a Gator.  Also, cousin Tabor was in attendance this year and it was fun hanging out with him.

Ironhide, complete with mask.

Soph, dancing with the other tutu-clad ladies.

Kids group pic.

Almost always, there are coloring pages to work on at the table.  This was actually a bingo game that they were calling out while the families were sitting at the tables.

Hay ride time!

Papa & Uncle Ronny manned the Gator.

When they returned, trick-or-treating commenced outside.

We capped off our day with some playground time and then headed home.

Will hit up the monkey bars... shocker.