Carter Mountain and Halloween festivities

Last weekend we went to Charlottesville to pick apples at Carter Mountain. A yearly tradition. Thankfully it wasn't nearly as cold as last year!

The Tuesday before Halloween was our trunk-or-treat. It was rainy, so we had a chili cook-off and then trick or treating from room to room in the church. Afton was Wonder Woman, Sam was Spider-Man, Dan was Bob Wiley, and I decided to be the Chiquita banana lady with Eli as my banana.

After we got home, I asked Dan to take a few more pics of me with Eli since I knew we wouldn't force him to wear the banana costume again on Halloween. I made it pretty quickly and did really account for how he would get in and out. We had to stretch it a lot to get him in it!

The kids were so excited for Halloween - especially Afton. She had been talking about it FOR.EV.ER. After dinner, they got suited up and ready to go. Jerry guarded the bowl while we went out.

After we'd been to about 6 houses, Sam and Afton were running down an aggregate driveway and they tripped over each other and came skidding to a stop on their hands and knees. Afton's hands and one knee were pretty banged up and bloody. She was screaming her guts out, and she asked Dan to take her home. I stayed out with Sam and Eli, but Sam was pretty sad, too, and told me just a few houses down that he wanted to go home, too. I thought Halloween was ruined. Fortunately, when we got home, Dan had a pep talk with Sam and they decided to go back out and get a ton of candy so that Sam could split it with Afton. That's just what they did. Afton and I stayed home and watched Disney shorts on netflix and an hour later, Sam came back with a full pumpkin and tons of candy to split. He dumped it all out and they each took turns picking a candy until all of it was divided. I don't know how, but both of their pumpkins were almost full to the brim.

And man, our neighborhood was good to these kids. I think they each got at least 5 full-sized candy bars. That only ever happened to me once growing up!

Sidenote: Some older kids came and knocked on the door and when I answered it, they just stood there staring at me. They didn't say anything. So I stood there staring back. Waiting. Nothing. So I put my hand up to my ear like, "Hello? You gonna say anything?" But still, they held their ground. Finally I caved and gave them each some candy. Defeated. What's with that? At least say, "Trick or treat!"

Most of October

I think that my use of instagram has been the downfall of my blogging. It's a lot easier to just put a picture up on there with a short caption and not fuss with the blog, but I must prevail!

Fall 2015

The kids still dress up a ton. Coincidentally, they were these exact things for Halloween, but this picture was taken a while ago.

 Eli loves baths/bathtubs.

 Our pergola is done! This is before Dan put the porch swing back up.

 We watched a lot of soccer games and practices.

Sam scored two goals in the same game! It was amazing.

Eli had his 9-month check-up and shots.

 Afton lost her first tooth! And Sam lost a few more, as well. The tooth fairy brought Afton $1. Sam got $1.50 for his most recent tooth.

 Eli was being fussy and I needed to go to Kroger, so I gave him a cardboard tube and he chewed on it the whole walk there, around the store, and back home.

I, Kristen Durst, grilled for the first time in my life. Chicken kabobs and pineapple. I decided I don't like grilled pineapple, but the kabobs were on point.

 Mom came and we went to Hollywood Cemetery. This grave was intense. A scaled down cathedral or something.

 Sam will read anytime, anywhere.

 We got a new pet. The kids named him Jerry. He is an outside dog and loves to terrorize the neighbors.

 School pictures came back. If you look closely at Afton's eyes, it looks like she was almost crying.

 And Sam looks really old in his picture.

 While Dan was out of town on his man date, Afton threw a major tantrum. About doing her hair in a bun. I did, but it wasn't good enough. She wanted me to take it out, so I did. Then she cried FOR.EV.ER.

 Eli observed some Mousetrap.

 Afton's class has a "class pet" named Scruffy. Each child takes a turn bringing Scruffy home for the weekend and taking care of him. At the end of the weekend, they have to draw a picture of their time with Scruffy and tell about what they did. I couldn't resist taking a picture of Scruffy at church. He was very well behaved.

 Sam loves to play chess with Dan. I think Afton took this picture.

 There's nothing Eli likes as much as eating paper. Specifically toilet paper.

Despite our best efforts, inevitably someone leaves the bathroom door open and Eli makes his move.

 Afton's tooth started coming in.

 Park time. Love this picture.,

 Afton wants to be a horse when she grows up.

 We went to a super cool playground about 30 minutes away from our house. It has a few playhouses, a big wooden playset and a zipline.

We got family pictures taken a few weeks ago. We wanted a picture of each of the kids alone, but the only one the photographer got of Eli that turned out well also has a teddy bear in it. I didn't want to use that one (for Christmas cards) so I took him back out and snapped a few more. Here are some of the "out takes."

 He looks so concerned.

I need to darken them a little bit.