Halloween Fun

Can't move on to November without getting some Halloween pictures on here!  Here are my two cuties.  This year Luke went as a Jedi (He said he was Luke Skywalker about half of the time and Anakin the other half.  I don't know which he really was..) and Ella as Snow White.  

We had a big block party with our neighbor friends the Lakes, Listellos, Meldrums, and Willeys. Other friends outside of the neighborhood joined us too for some chile, cornbread, and trick-or-treating.  It was a lot of fun!  Here are the kids at one of the first houses they trick-or-treated at.  A lot of people around here go all out with decorating!  

Ella was so excited after every house and would run up to Jake and I to show us the treat she got.

Calla as dracula lady, Liberty the strawberry, Hunter the ninja, Luke the Skywalker, and Snow White...

Yep, the streets here in Liberty Village are this crowded on Halloween!  From 6-8 it's crazy.  Our neighbors passed out more than 1000 pieces of candy.  Most houses run out.  At the houses with cool decorations, you have to wait in line for your treat.

Loved this costume.

The kids got tired and cold pretty early on, so after an hour or so they were done.  Here they were checking out their candy!

Not sure what Luke was doing here with his starbursts... some Jedi move maybe?

 
A few nights before, we carved pumpkins with the Willeys.  Ella's pumpkin is the happy face in the middle, Luke's is the skeleton guy to the left of that, and mine is the ghost on the very left.  Baby Olivia was super cute checking them all out!  She loved them.

We made haunted houses again this year.  Jake and Matt ended up finishing them after the kids lost interest.  

There was some intense decorating going on!

And last but not least of Halloween pictures, my mom sent me the cutest little spider cupcake holders, so we made cupcakes one day to put in them.  So fun!  

Hope you had a great Halloween! :)

Pumpkin Patch!

 Going to the pumpkin patch means:  riding ponies, making our way through corn mazes, running around in the pumpkins, trying decide which pumpkin is the perfect pumpkin, eating treats, getting balloons from the balloon guy, and spending time with awesome friends.
Because I ♥ fall pictures, here's this year's pumpkin patch excursion...  

Ella loves her little friends.  She would play with Liberty and Amelia all day every day if I let her.  

  

Luke thought he was pretty buff picking pumpkins up so easily this year.

These donuts really are the devil.  So good.

 Red candy apples...  probably the messiest treat ever for a messy little cutie.  Good thing we got it right before heading home!

We've been doing some other fun Octoberish activities, too.  Maybe those posts will make it up before Nov!  We'll see.  We are going to carve pumpkins tonight.  Should be fun. Last night we had the dental squadron Halloween party and we went to a little party at the community center last week.  Monday Luke gets to dress up at school, and Monday night we're getting together with neighborhood friends for a chili/cornbread Halloween bash while we give out candy to the herds of kids that come tromping through this neighborhood.  Trick-or-treating on base is nuts!  Hopefully our candy supply will last longer than ten minutes.   

Bruges

Jake and I drove over to Belgium for a little overnighter last week (Columbus Day through the next day).  Here are the highlights and favorite pics!

*It was the first time we have taken the car over to mainland Europe.  We went over via Euro Tunnel.  It's about 1:45 to Folkestone from our house, (where you drive your car onto the tunnel train) and then 1/2 an hour later you get off in Calais, France.  Once in France, it's about 1 1/2 hr drive to Bruges.   Crazy and creepy to think that you are in your car, in a train, in a tunnel, under the ocean.
Here are some pics of where the cars load onto the train, and one I took from inside the car once in the train.

Once you get off in France, you drive on the right side of the road again.  Jake doesn't seem to mind switching back and forth between driving on the right and left.  I'm glad I wasn't doing the driving.  Afraid I'm going to pull out in front of oncoming traffic!

*  We stayed at Hotel Ter Duinen.  Isn't it cute?

View from the front of the hotel..

*  Pretty sure Belgium is the land of bikes.  They are everywhere.  Signs with bike rules are everywhere too.

* The Belfry!  We climbed up the windy staircase to the top.   Good way to burn off some of the Belgian food we put down.

Here's the view from different sides of the top...

And here's the clock interior...

* Lots of old buildings around the Grote Markt.  Here's another cool building they call Stadius (town hall).
I like the good looking guy standing in front of it.  :)

Not digging any of the pictures I'm in on this trip.  Ignore the crazy winded hair and check out the cute markt buildings in the back, k?

Cute horses at the market square..

*Went on a walk at night down to the market.  The Belfry is pretty cool all lit up!

*  I guess Bruges is well known for its' lace.  They say a lot of it is imported from China now- go figure.  But, there are still a few places that make it in town.

*  Can't go to Belgium without trying a waffle!  I was excited to get one, but planned on being disappointed.  I figured it would taste like any 'Belgian' waffle from home.  Not so.  They are more dense and the flavor is different. Deeeelicious. We got all kinds of goodies on ours.

Probably not safe buying waffles from stores that have open windows like this.  Jake totally could have licked all those and no one would have known... haha.

*Um, yeah, so we were on a food kick while there.  Totally worth it though, because how often do we visit Belgium?  And it is all so tasty.  More motivation to run when returning home!  So, another thing on the to do list was try their frites.  Belgium invented fries.  They were good, but I think the dip was what made them extra good.  We went to Fritierie 1900 to try them and they had tons of dips to choose from.  This was their 'special sauce.'

* Tried Flemish beef stew for dinner one night, along with pumpkin soup at this place.  Zeer goed!

* Chocolate!  Another must while in Bruges.  I'm not a big foodie, but I'm pretty sure I can tell the difference between good chocolate and not so great chocolate.  This place has some great chocolate, and I don't think you can top the selection anywhere.  Pretty much every other store is a chocolate maker.

They had some of the cutest chocolate shapes and animals.  And some of the craziest... I didn't know that chocolates were made to resemble so many body parts.  Sick.
                                                                                                                                   

*Checked out the Basilica of the Holy Blood.  Saw what is supposedly a venerated relic of the Holy Blood collected by Joseph of Arimathea and brought here during the crusades.  Click on this to check it out.  Interesting place.

*Went on a boat tour of the city.  Had a fun tour guide, but we could only understand what he was talking about like a quarter of the time.  Cool views of the city from the canal though!  

*   Walked around the city and checked out the shops.   It was nice shopping without two little people who don't enjoy being at the store!  

These guys were putting on quite a show along the side of the road.  Forgot to change the setting on the camera, so it's kind of blurry. 

A little of the shopping area..

 And, one more picture.  Just because I like it.

I'd like to go back for a day trip sometime.  Fun place.  Thanks for a great time, Jake :)