Happy October 31st!

In honor of halloween, a few days ago, we finally got around to carving the pumpkin that we had spent so much time growing!

 Eden and Ryder make a great team:

She likes to clean it out and he likes to carve:

For Ryder,  it was all about using the carving knife:

 Eden was pretending that she was making cookie dough:

 Ryder was very determined to do the whole thing himself:

The kiddos are excited to dress up tonight for Trick-or-Treating!

It's a pretty sweet life...

The making of Robin Hood and Maid Marian!

For Halloween, Ryder requested to be someone with a bow and arrow and she wanted to be a princess, so we went with Robin Hood and Maid Marian.  So far, this is the most creative I have gotten on the kids costumes and to be honest,  I thought it would be such a pain, but it has been so much FUN!

Here is the making of Maid Marian for our Eden Marie:

I found this blue and green fabric on the remnant shelf for $5 at Joanne's.  It was a little over a yard and was the perfect amount for what I needed it for:

(I had EVERYTHING else for her costume: the thread, ribbon, elastic, and everything for her flower wreath.  That made the project even better!)

 Every project is so much better when you have a helper...♥

 Until I had made the elastic band, it was really hard to get the length right and I had to keep trying it on her so there are very few photos of that process:

Since I didn't want to go with a complicated head piece, I decided to make her a flower wreath instead:

I kept the top simple with one of her shirts with a bib necklace that I have that had.
Here is the finished product of our Maid Marian:

Here is the making of Robin Hood for Ryder:

For Ryder's Robin Hood costume, I decided to keep the sewing simple with green and brown flannel and some green skinny jeans that he already had.

I splurged and got a hat on Etsy because I just couldn't get the felt to go right and I really wanted it to look better than what I was able to do.
We ordered it through the seller GoodsPlace, and Billie was amazing to work with us when I accidentally had the first one sent to the old house address and it got lost.  She made one specific for him and he was ELATED!
(Ryder looked at the picture on her shop and said, "That lady doesn't look very much like Robin Hood but the hat's really cool!!!" 
Oh that kid...♥

(Seriously, if you saw what I had attempted, it would have been one of those "Nailed It" pictures from Pinterest...♥)

Then I just used some scrap fabric for bag for his arrows:

 

So here is the finished product of our Robin Hood:

 

 

Sherwood Forest just got a whole lot cuter! 

Ryder's first hunting adventure!

After work this last wednesday, Kit took Ryder on an evening bow hunting adventure in some mountains by our house.  Ryder was ELATED!

Spy glassing was his favorite.  We will be getting this guy some binoculars ASAP.

 They hunted until after dark and didn't see any deer, but the memory for each of them of being there TOGETHER will not be forgotten by either of them.  They can not wait to get back out there and plan an overnight trip!

Ruby's on the pier

The other friday, after we picked Ryder up from school, we decided to have a fun lunch at Ruby's on the Balboa Pier.  The kids LOVED it!

Then we took the auto ferry back home...

 Ryder could not believe that our car could go on a boat!

It was a sweet afternoon with our family.  

I still can't believe we get to live close to all this fun stuff!