Trick or Treating!

Brandon and Ethan having fun trick or treating!
Benj (bob the builder!) checking out his stash!
Little Dylan!
Sharing the stash!
Angie and Scott!
Aiden's birthday cake!
Maddie
Ethan
It was so funny tonight to go Trick or Treating with the kids and see their various personalities coming out as they went. It took Maddie(almost 2) no time to learn to say "trick or treat" to everyone. She didn't quite understand that when she went up to the door and recieved candy, that she should then leave. She just kept lingering, wanting to hang out with them. We had to keep telling her "C'mon Maddie". Benjamin (almost 3) wanted to be wheeled in the stroller the whole time, and didn't want to have to walk any more than absolutely necessary to get the candy. Even though, it took longer for him to get in and out of the stroller, than it would've taken him to walk to the next house, he insisted on the ride. At first Maddie wanted to ride too, but she soon saw it was faster to run from house to house! I could tell Maddie just loved all the socialization of meeting new people as she went trick-or-treating. It was so cute. Then Brandon and Ethan were just thrilled to get candy and be dressed up! Little Dylan seemed to enjoy just staying in the stroller as we went from home to home. In between trick-or-treating we were able to go to friend Aiden's birthday party! Their whole family was dressed up and looked so cute! We all had a great time. When we came home, all the children inspected and taste-tested their stash! Ethan didn't even eat that much candy, but informed us his stomach hurt, so he must've eaten too much! Maddie took out a little candy, but would take one bite and spit the rest out or throw the rest away! That's how she keeps her girlish figure! Dylan(almost 1) kept trying to sneak into Maddie's stash, but she kept catching him before he could get any candy. Benjamin kept asking Maddie for candy and she'd give it to him. Brandon and Ethan were pleased with their stash! What fun for the kids, and what fun for the parents to watch!

Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point!

Benjamin and Dylan crawling in the wooden train!
Maddie and Ethan going down the slide!
Brandon
Ethan and Princess Audrey on the cow train!
Dylan and the pumpkins!
A great outing! Since the children are "off-track" and don't get to enjoy school Halloween parties, I decided we needed to have some fun! So, we hit the Cornbelly's! I was impressed with the great amount of activites available. We were easily there for 3 hours, and could've been there for another three hours! (It was just getting late!) It was great that Brandon (7) could have a great time as could all the other kids! It was impressive. It was a little pricey at $10 per person (under 3 is free), but our Thanksgiving POint membership once again paid off and gave us half off. So, all six of us got in for $15. Not bad for all the fun had by all! It was fun to go with my friend Jenny and her kids! We all enjoyed ourselves! It was cute to see all the kids having so much fun!
Maddie on the swing!
Brandon grunting as he throws the hammer down!

On the trampoline thingy's
The babies chatting!

Getting some AIR from Daddy!

Maddie in the air!
Benj in the air!

Halloween Fun as a Family!

Some of the Costumes!

Brandon or "Optimus Prime"
Ethan or Superman
Benjamin or "Bob the Builder"
Our little witch Madison
Dylan, the Tiger!
Since we love to dress up at our house, I was so happy to find the "Bob the Builder" and "superman" costumes at a garage sale for $2 a piece! Not bad. The others, I am sad to say, we had to pay full price for! Many of our other costumes are also garage sale finds, or else I would go broke with all the dressing up. I just love a good deal!

My Halloween Wish for the World!

My halloween wish for us all is that we can keep Halloween in our heart all year long. Does it really get any better than dressing up and eating lots of candy? Call me simplistic or simple minded as I probably am, but honestly, I just love this time of year! I love seeing the leaves change color, love feeling the leaves crackle beneath my feet. I also love the weather. Warm somedays, some days are a little cold---which means SWEATERS, which I also love. Who doesn't just love a black cat? Bad luck, Schmad Schmuck! There is no such thing. As far as I am concerned, 13 is a lucky number! All that Halloween exudes to me is happiness, definately not fear! Anyway, I am going to get as much mileage out of Halloween as I can. As you can tell, in the Woodruff family, we have been getting dressed up every day in a variety of costumes! (Although, my kids just do LOVE to dress up---pretty much every day, anyway!) Whether they are my own, or others, I just love to see the happiness of children as they dress up! If along with all of this you are also allowed to eat some licorice, swedish fish, or starbursts----more power to you. So, I am going to seek to keep Halloween in my heart all year round. (In case you don't know me that well, I am sorta' playing off the cheezy phrase of keeping Christmas in your heart all year round; with a touch of sarcasm. Although, I do just love Halloween!)

Things to do with Grandpa!

It is so cute to see the kids with their grandparents. They love to spend time with both sets! Seeing my Dad with the kids reminds me of my childhood. My Dad has such a sweet,unconditional love and is so patient with children! He gets on their level and plays with them whole-heartedly. My Dad is just too darn cute with the kids. It warms my heart to see my Dad being great with my kids the way he was great with me!


Play piano together!
Give gigantic hugs! Let him take lots of video and pics of you (that's where I get it from!)
Ride him like a horse!
Make him laugh and smile!
Break his glasses! (Like I said, we are working on manners) Luckily, Benjamin did not actually break them as Ethan really did a couple years ago. We need to learn to take off the glasses before the rough-housing begins!
Dogpile!
Practice singing your part in the Primary program at church
Blow bubbles that he and Grandma brought for you!

Things to do with Pumpkins!

You can do what Benjamin likes to do as seen below----line up the pumpkins at the top of the stairs, and then kick them down the stairs one by one. With some luck, they burst! Benjamin has had some great luck with this game.
If you are Maddie, you can stand on the pumpkins and see if you can keep your balance. It helps if you can hold on to the pillar!

My Smiling Baby Girl!

I just LOVE having a daughter! Her smile lights up my every day! She just melts my heart!

A Visit from Papa!

Papa with all the kids. Dylan is just fascinated with his Papa! Benjamin with his hearty smile to match that of Papa's! Maddie is just loving her present! Brandon just returned from soccer practice, and Ethan a little bugged to have to leave a computer game for a picture!!!


Perhaps a little overwhelmed!
I don't understand why he doesn't visit more often? Do you? (I guess Papa kept singing to them and they felt the need to stop the singing! Manners is always a work in progress at our house!)
Papa reading little Brandon's sweet homemade Halloween cards! Brandon is my little tenderheart!
Well, the kids FULLY enjoyed their visit with Papa tonight! As you can see, they were all vying for his attention. He came bearing great gifts. He brought these musical toothbrushes for the kids that play a song as long as they need to brush their teeth. You can choose from Black Eyed Peas "let's get it started" or the theme song from Rocky---and many more. What a great little invention! He also brought some puzzles for the babies; which they loved playing with tonight! Here are some funny pictures from the visit tonight! It was funny, Ethan spent much of the night playing games on the "Post" cereal website, we finally had to tell him that he couldn't play on the computer anymore. Then Papa was able to get some Ethan love!!!

My Pumpkin Babies!

Brandon is getting so big!
Ethan
Brandon and Dylan
All the boys!
Maddie (after finally having a girl I love the cute stripe stockings! I also love the little shorts that are now built in the skirts for little girls!)

A Great Christmas Idea!

For those of you who like to make the photo calendars of your kids for parents and other family members for Christmas, here is a great idea that a group of us has been doing for three years. In order to save time & effort, we get a group of 6-8 people, to each complete 1-2 months of the calender. We leave spots for our 4 by 6 pictures! Then we put all the months together, and each take turns making copies of all the calendar pages with our own pictures! It is a great gift and a great way to collaborate with friends. It always looks so cute, and having so many creative people makes such a great calendar! This year I had the months of January and June, so I did a "snow fun" theme for January and "father's day" for June! Here are my 2 pages and one that a friend did. We are all meeting tomorrow night to exchange the pages and start the mad photocopying! Anyway, it is a lot of fun, and easier to all do the calendar together! I will continue this tradition. It is also nice to have a photo journal for every year with pictures of the kids to see how they have changed through time!

"JANUARY" of our photo calendar
"JUNE" of our photo calendar---I do feel like this is a little too busy!
Laurie Jo's "SEPTEMBER" page (I love this page!)