October is one of those photo-heavy months that sneak up on you. (Also see March and/or April (yay it's spring and we're outside again and also Easter is in there somewhere!) and any month with a kid's birthday in it (February. Just February. All the pictures for us are in February.).) I mean, you kind of expect it in December what with the holidays and all, but October is a month full of fall things - leaf jumping! hayrides! pumpkin patches and apple orchards! - plus all that costume-wearing business. Midwestern Octobers are like walking into a ready-made photo shoot each and every day.
Lucky for October, I really like fall. Bring on the pumpkins and costumes, please.
Pumpkins for us this year meant pumpkin painting. Carving pumpkins with things like sharp knives and messy pumpkin goo and all that sort of stuff with two toddlers + a baby around didn't appeal to me. (GEE, why not?!?)
But paint + toddlers + pumpkins? Oh yes. Bring it on.
And they LOVED it.
(Clearly a masterpiece.)
(Serious Caden is serious.)
(Teamwork!)
Though it fairly quickly devolved into a body-painting session.
Which they may have loved even MORE.
Pumpkins ready for trick-or-treaters.
Candy ready for trick-or-treaters.
Kids ready to BE trick-or-treaters.
Nolan's face got more bewildered and desperate as the photo-taking went on...
...and...
...there we have it. Someone seriously needs to make a GIF of those last three, though. (Caden's face is just as priceless.)
Mario and Princess Peach don't like each other at all.
No, I did not ask them to stare off into the distance for effect. Once they spied a tractor working on building a new house nearby, there was no going back. Why would I look at YOU holding a CAMERA, mom? I had about 348 variations of the above shot.
Oh, Toad.
It was a little bit better for you earlier in the day, without costumes and siblings and sheer shrieking CHAOS around.
(Though, really, you should be used to that by now.)
Everyone had fun. Besides maybe Nolan during the picture-taking. Sorry, third kid. The older two rushed out, fully enthusiastic trick-or-treaters who banded together with some of the neighbors to canvass the neighborhood. (Though Caden was slightly confused and started filling up his bucket with candy from out OWN bowl before heading out. WHY am I leaving the house to go get candy when there is so much RIGHT HERE?!? Oh the things we put these toddlers through. It's really quite confusing, actually.)
Mario was lured back home by a bucket mostly full of candy ("I eat it all gone!") after trekking half the neighborhood, leaving Princess Peach to soldier on with the group.
A couple of Snickers and a Halloween episode of Daniel Tiger later, and the Princess arrived back home, too.
Pictured above: reasons for having kids.
Happy November!