Pre-Halloween

This weekend was a fun-filled, jam-packed ramp up to Halloween.  We started the weekend with Harry Potter Night at our local library.  You may remember this from last year, but in case you don't I will give you the highlights.  Each year for Harry Potter Night the library spares no expense.  Each child gets a custom made and individually named wand.  They get sorted into houses by the sorting hat and then the fun begins.  There are hunts for evil wizards in the Forbidden Forrest,  visits with owls,  searching for mystical creatures, playing "Quidditch" games, and more.  There were a lot more people there this year than last, but the kids still had a great time.

Next up on the docket was the last soccer game of the season.  This season has had its ups and downs but the boys played hard and we were particularly proud of Merrick's development of his defensive skills.  As much fun as the games are, I think the real highlight of the season for the boys was the after season party at the coach's house.

After the party we finally (after weeks of hoping to) made it to a pumpkin patch.  We tried a new patch this year and, while it didn't have quite as many things to do as our usual patch, was perfect for the amount of time we had to spend.  Some of the highlights that were different from our usual patch were pumpkin paintball shooting, tether-ball, and badminton.  The kids also enjoyed the usual hay rides, slides, cow train, and hazelnut house and we were all sufficiently dirty when it was time to go

 

As if that wasn't enough for one day, we wrapped up the day with a trunk-or-treat at our old church.  It was good to see some old, familiar faces and the kids got a haul of candy that should effectively up their sugar tolerance before the big day on Tuesday.

Whew, it was a busy weekend with lots of parties, a field trip and, of course, Halloween still to come this week.