Kaila & Jack's Halloween Party

Claire the sweet pumpkin

Love the bloomers!

Costume #2, a beautiful ballerina

Wilson as Captain Jack Sparrow

Gator Cheerleader Caroline!

Spidey Bowen

Evan, the Ninja, with his ladies Yasmine (My Little Pony) and Kaila (girl pirate)

Jack as Captain Jack Sparrow

Buzz Lightyear Evan

Kaila in outfit #2, one of my tutus :)

Can't get enough of this tush!!

Sweet baby Drew

Evan as Spidey, thanks Bowen for letting Evan try this on!

Evan & Claire's friends Kaila & Jack hosted a wonderful Halloween party earlier this week. All the kids looked so sweet, scary, heroic, etc in their costumes. Chris (the mom) did such a wonderful job throwing the party and the kids had a blast playing with toys, making crafts and driving the 4-wheelers out back. Saying that Evan loves to dress up A LOT is a gross understatement. That's pretty much all he does all day long, dress up as different characters and play pretend. So, I wasn't too surprised when he wanted to wear Bowen's spidey costume for a little bit. He couldn't imagine being just one guy for a few hours. And since Claire is part of this family, she got to wear 2 costumes as well :).

Pumpkin Painting

This year, instead of carving a pumpkin, Evan painted 3 of our 4 pumpkins. I painted Claire's for her. Evan had such a great time doing it and he was able to do it all himself, unlike carving which is about 5% child involvement. Plus, now there is less worry about rot! The pumpkins turned out great, but even better was that the 4 of us got to hang out on the porch together for an hour or so and just had a nice, relaxing time!

Playing in the leaves

I just love fall and miss it the most of all things that I miss living here in Florida. While we were up north I was able to get a few cute shots of the kids in the leaves.

Halloween Party at Aunt Kathy & Uncle Mike's!

 Trick or Treat

 Griffin, Evan, Claire, Connor & Katelynn with Nana

 Out of focus, but loved the action in this one

 Claire and Aunt Kathy

Batman Evan & Firefighter Griffin

Cutest Blue-Eyed Firefighter Ever (aka Connor)

 Pops was there too!

 

Joe, Ryan & Mike with the kids

4 Generations of Hogan women and me

Kathy and Mike had us and some of the family over on Sunday after I returned from my wonderful girl's weekend away in the Northern Neck of Virginia. All the kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes and went trick or treating to Mr. Inkman :). It was great getting to see everyone and Evan had such a great time playing with his cousins! Claire had a great time too being held by everyone.

Visiting Davis!

While up in Virginia & Maryland we got to visit Bryan, Laura & Davis. Davis is getting so big (4 mos old) and it was so fun to see him laughing and smiling!! Our visit was too short at less than a day, but at least we get to see them at Thanksgiving!! While we had the three kids together, we had to get them dressed in their Halloween costumes. Claire and Davis looked adorable, while Evan looked scary (just like he wanted to as a Ninja from Scooby Doo).

Superhero Evan!!

As we prepare for Evan's 4th Superhero Birthday party, here are some pictures of the superhero himself, both as Batman and as Superman!!

Pumpkin Patch

Today I took Evan and Claire to the "pumpkin patch" at Evan's school. I use that term very loosely because here in Florida, there are no pumpkin patches. Just some pumpkins set out on pallets. Kind of sad, but they did set up a cute little backdrop to make you think you are somewhere cool and fall-ish!

Claire was distracted, trying to grab everything in her sight and Evan didn't really want to look at me while smiling. So, the pictures aren't what I had dreamed about, but you take what you can get! Such is life, it's surely not perfect, but I'm grateful for all the un-perfect moments each day!

Southwest Fall Festival

 Audrey doesn't look too happy, but she wanted to go back on when the ride was over

 Evan & Kaila, just too cute!

 Weeee!!!!!

Claire was there too!

On Friday night, we went to the Southwest Fall Festival with some friends and family. The kids all had a wonderful time riding all the rides and playing the games. Thankfully we left without a pet fish this year; our only souvenir was a blow up Scooby Doo.  I'm sure that Evan has grown recently, but I think that they were a little lenient on the height restrictions, which was perfect for dare devil Evan! I just love the fall, there is so much to do!!