A Wreck It Ralph Themed Halloween

When I made Hunter a Wreck It Ralph cake last year for his birthday, I was surprised as to how many people hadn't heard of, let alone seen, the movie. It's a Disney movie! Obviously it's one of my favorites too! Despite my annoyance with no one knowing the movie, we went ahead and had a Wreck It Ralph Halloween too. I sat down with the boys in August and asked them what they wanted to be for Halloween, and this was one of their ideas that I could actually do! 

 JP was the lucky one who modeled the costumes for me the day before. He wasn't thrilled about putting on Ralph's hands though so we were in the middle of a meltdown...Can't you tell? 

JP has been counting down the days since the beginning of October until his Pumpkin Party on Halloween at school. As soon as I packed up Hunter's backpack and explained what he needed to do to get his costume on for his parade, I helped JP get into his costume and off to his party we went. Not surprisingly no one recognized him, even when I said he's Fix-It Felix from Wreck It Ralph. 

 After lunch, we took a trip to Hunter's school to watch the costume parade and to check out his party. I was responsible for bringing some fruit to the party. I was going to bring oranges that looked like pumpkins, or the banana ghosts that I brought for JP last year, but I figured someone else would. So I instead brought cantaloupe and used cookie cutters to cut them into bats. (I was going to cut them into pumpkins, but I forgot about the seeds in the middle....) As his teacher was rearranging the food table, she looked at the bats I brought and said, "I think someone has too much time on their hands!" Then there was an awkward pause as I slowly said, "That would be me..."

 Anyways...JP enjoyed watching the parade. He couldn't take his eyes off the "guy without a head." There were a lot of original costumes there!

 Charlotte didn't get to watch the parade because I brought her inside in her carseat so she couldn't run around. And with a failed nap attempt, she missed out on lunch and instead ate while we watched. Hunter was so excited to be Wreck It Ralph, but I doubt many people knew who he was... 

 After the parade, we went back to Hunter's classroom to stop by his party, but his class was at recess. Just as we made it outside to say good-bye, the bell rang for them to line up to go inside. JP wanted to say good-bye to Hunter, so we made it over to Hunter's line before they went inside. Words cannot describe how sweet Hunter was to his little brother. My heart melted for 20 minutes. Hunter immediately took JP under his wing and told him exactly what to do. "We have to stand in a line, so you can hold my hand and walk next to me, or you can walk behind me." (Gah! We're not staying, but okay...!) Once inside they had carpet time where they sang a pumpkin song. "You can just sit right next to me." 

 Then it was craft time, so we tried to leave. "Jim, you can sit right by me at my table. Just stay right here and I will go and find you a chair." I'm pretty sure he stole someone's chair for his brother, but now that he had a chair, we had to stay a bit longer. It took a lot of convincing to get JP to leave, and to let Hunter let us go. JP really wanted to ride the bus home, but Charli really needed a nap soon. 

 When Hunter came home from school, we packed up in the car and drove to Grandma's work to do some trick-or-treating there. I only showed Charlotte once what to do with her candy and after that she helped herself to the candy and filled up her bucket before we left. On the way out the door, JP still hadn't grabbed any candy so I told him not to pick the kinds I liked or he might not get to eat them. On the way home, he held up a Kit-Kat bar and a Snickers and asked if I like them. I told him I loved the red on he was holding and would trade him something for it. He put both back in his bucket and pulled out a Reeces as asked if I liked that one. I told him if he gave me that piece now, I'd let him have a piece to eat out of his bucket, to which he responded, "No, I'm trying to figure out which candy you like, so I can trick-or-treat for them and give them to you." Seriously, how cute is that? This kid is going to make someone REALLY happy someday. 

 

Other than not dying Charlotte's hair, didn't I do pretty good?

 Charlotte has the energy of Hunter, but with JP's personality, which has been making it really hard to take pictures of her. 

 After we had dinner, which is usually halloweenies, but this year I switched it up a little and made mummy calzones, we got ready to go out. We had 3 trick-or-treaters this year...down 4 from last year. And one of them was Aunt Kim dressed as a pretty scarecrow.  A combination of a little face paint and being over-tired sent Charlotte into a series of meltdowns when Aunt Kim nicely said "boo" to her. We attempted to trick-or-treat on our street, but everyone was already gone at 6:00. 

 While the boys were attempting to trick-or-treat, Perry and I stopped by the one neighbor's house who was home and chatted for a while. I watched Charlotte side-step a good half length of their car, careful not to touch the car or step on the grass. 

 Even though Kim stopped by our house, we went to her house to trick-or-treat to see her boyfriend Julian. Then we went to one of their neighbors. After doing those two houses, JP exclaimed, "Wow, we sure have done a lot of trick-or-treating!" Three houses total and he was ready to be done! But we went to Nanny and Papa's house anyways and the boys were excited to see Aunt Bobby there. 

After loading up on candy at Nanny's house, both Hunter and JP were ready to be done, but Aunt Bobby convinced them otherwise. Nanny came with us to take them to a few more houses, while Perry and Papa Craig stayed home to hand out candy, something neither of them enjoy doing. After going to the house across the street, Hunter checked out his basket and said to himself, "Okay...okay...that wasn't so bad." He apparently had to psych him up for it. A couple houses later, someone answered the door and said, "Who do we have here?" to which Hunter responded, "I'm Hunter." Hahaha, I'm pretty sure they were asking what you were dressed up as! After a few more houses, JP's basket was overflowing with candy, so much so that he was dropping it as he walked. Hunter's wasn't nearly as full. Reminded me of Easter this past year...maybe that's because they were using their Easter egg baskets...

Hunter sorted his candy out when we made it back and was very protective of it. Charlotte took her candy out one by one and then put them back in her bucket, one by one, over and over. 

I think it's also worth noting that this was Nanny's first Halloween where she's been able to hand out candy. Hunter was already a pro at it!

 And shout out to Kile's family! Remember when Hunter and JP dressed up as the monkey?! Casey is too cute, especially with chocolate all over his face. But check out him and his dad! Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat. Who would have thought this would be their last moments as a family of 3?! 8 hours later, Casey's brother, Dylan, was born! And I added another nephew to my list of favorite kids! 

Apple Cider Field Trip

Last week, on our anniversary actually, JP's class took a field trip to Fort Missoula to make apple cider. Both Hunter and JP's class did this last year too. I really wanted to go, but was nervous about bringing my new baby and another child along with. This year I signed up to be a driver and brought Charlotte along. 

This was the last time I made apple cider...36 weeks pregnant with Hunter. That's a good 6 years ago... From what I remember about that time, it was loud so I was curious about the press at the Fort.

 I've always been impressed with JP, and on his field trip he was no different. He's such a good listener! And I'll let you guess what color apples JP brought with him... Seriously, red was out of the question...

 (He dresses himself, can you tell?)

 Each child had the opportunity to put apples in the the top part of the cider press and then were able to watch them go down as another child turned the crank to grind them up.

 JP really enjoyed cranking the wheel!

 After his turn he and his friends sat nicely (for the most part) and waited for everyone else to complete their turns.

When all the apples made it into the press, they watched all the juice stream out into the pan below. For their drink at snack time, they each tried a cup of the cider they made. It was tasty! Before heading back to school, they took a little tour of the Fort and sat inside and old homestead.

 Here's a few shots of the press we used at my baby shower in 2008. It was operated by a motor instead of all done by hand. 

We made quite a few gallons of cider! The apple press is still at the house in Whitefish, and I think we need to bring it back to Seeley to do this again!

Fun at Mismo Gymnastics

About two weeks ago (because I'm so behind at blogging lately) JP's preschool class took a field trip to Mismo Gymnastics. Hunter's class went the previous the week, and just before that, JP attended a birthday party there for one of his classmates. By the time it was JP's turn to go for school, both boys were super excited because Hunter was able to join in as well. 

To begin, they did a few warm up stretching exercises and then they broke up into two different groups. 

 JP's group was first up on the bars where they had fun swinging and flipping over them.

 Although I believe JP was doing this obstacle incorrect, he had mastered the art of walking on bars. 

 Meanwhile, Hunter's group was practicing their balance walking across the balance beam. Hunter showed no fear when it was his turn to go across - he didn't even wait for someone to walk with him. He told me that when his class went to Mismo, he was afraid to walk across it alone, but not this time! 

 Hunter's group also practiced cartwheels, backward somersaults, as well as walking on their hands after hopscotch.

 Charlotte just hung out in the middle of the floor in her pajamas eating my lens cover.

 Eventually they switched sides of the gym so Hunter was able to hang out on the bars for a while.

 JP and his group were a little more skittish than Hunter's group was on the balance beam. 

 And they weren't understanding how to walk on their hands so they instead just stood on their hands like this for a while.

To end their time at Mismo, they had a little bit of free play in the foam pit, which of course was a huge hit!