Happy Halloween Part 1

Here's the crew...Elmo, the little Daisy and Mr. Dinosaur. We went trick or treating with my good friend Sarah, her husband, their son Connor and Sarah's parents on Saturday night. It was a blast and as you can see everyone had a great time.
People really go nuts here decorating for Christmas and this year we learned that they also go nuts for Halloween. We very quickly walked by a couple of houses that were super creepy. Graveyards with real people dressed up as ugly zombies, skeletons popping out everywhere, creepy smoke blowing, chopped up body parts in the driveway, super scary sound effects...I would have taken a picture but Rob and I were so creeped out that I didn't even want to take a picture! We did take Jaedyn up to one house that had a scary man handing out candy. Jaedyn was very hesitant and couldn't take his eyes off of the guy, but he did manage to get a piece of candy from him and then very slowly shuffled his way away.....

I realized yesterday that it's been a long time since I have posted Jaedyn rocking out on his drum set. He usually plays about 2-3x a week for about 30 min to an hour. It's still his favorite activity and his passion for it has not diminished at all...in fact I think it has grown! Here's a clip from the very talented rock star to be.......

Them boots were made for walkin'

We decided to bust out our kite at the park last week. Jaedyn was pretty excited for a short period of time, but honestly I think Rob had more fun than anyone. The wind wasn't perfect which meant a whole lot of effort trying to keep the thing in the air...a perfect challenge to keep Rob busy. Ashlyn ditched the kite and decided instead to get some exercise pushing the little green bus around the field. She's becoming quite an expert at her push toys and in fact has started walking. She's taken about 7 steady steps by herself and will be cooking around in no time.





Jaedyn and I attended a birthday party at Old Poway Park last weekend as well. What a FABULOUS park! Tons of HUGE trees and trains to ride. We had a blast and here's proof that we actually do have leaves here in SD...they might not be colorful, but it is definitely a leaf!

Last week Jaedyn had a harvest celebration at his school. It was a fun day doing where the kids learned what it was like to be a farmer. They made crazy hats, shakers for the hoe down, hanging lanterns, and milked the pretend cow. I got to leave Ashlyn at home with Rob and helped in his classroom which was so fun.

Jaedyn's classmates ( a few are missing)



Snack time...pumpkin cookies w/ frosting and orange slices. Jaedyn is sampling the frosting...



Praying before snack time...


Playing with a friend..


Farmer Jaedyn milking the cow.


Possibly the cutest hoe down I have ever seen!




As you can see Jaedyn was in deep concentration trying to get the steps right. He was the best hoe downer there!

Boogy Down

Ashlyn loves to dance...(and apparently Rob was very hungry!)







A little Led Zeppelin to stir things up in the Crockett household!

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

We made our way to Bate's Nut Farm (mystakingly called Nate's Butt Farm on a regular basis) last weekend with some friends of ours. They have pumpkin fields, pumpkin patches, live blue grass music, a corn maze, the lamest hayride I have ever been on and a whole lot of bees!!! A long, but fun day with the kidlets.








"Hey you! Get out of my corn field! "


From left to right.....Jaedyn, Ashlyn, Cooper and the invisible Riley (just about an impossible photo to take w/ all 4 of them looking through the head holes)

Getting ready for the hoe down..

This week's events.....

At the Quail Botanical Gardens they have a kid-friendly percussion section which Jaedyn really enjoys. A cool drum, a very fun xylophone and some hanging bamboo which Jaedyn turned into a trumpet.








Super cool tree house......
Ashy wondering what on earth daddy is doing.

This little leaf bug which Jaedyn named Lenny hung out on our condo for a few days and didn't move an inch. He finally moved and we found him on our garage door (which is no-where near our condo) hanging out a few days later. Apparently he likes us.


This little praying mantis came for a visit as well.....




The view from the top of Battle Mountain. This is looking westward toward Lake Hodges which is literally drying up by the second.


This is looking eastward off of Battle Mountain. There's Mom and Dad Brill's future home....right over there in Oaks North. :0)





This was the first official hike with Ashlyn in the pack. She did great and as usual, even though she was completely exhausted she fought through the sleepiness and managed to stay awake the entire time (unlike her brother.....he fell asleep in the pack instantly every time) . Now that Ashlyn is in the backpack Jaedyn gets to be an official hiker. He did great although it took us about double the time to get up the mountain as it usually does!