Willy Wonka, and the Happy Halloween

We had such a fun Halloween this year. It's the first time we've ever really had a "theme" for our kids costumes, where they all matched, and it was great fun to see it all put together. So without further ado, here's the Bayly's attempt at recreating the movie.

 A neighbor lady made Dany's blueberry, and the two Oompa Loompa costumes for us, after seeing a version for kids online. Shout out to Becky Shingleton, and her creative sewing skills!

Oompa Loompa #1

The Blueberry (aka Violet Beauregard)

Oompa Loompa #2

We bought Maisie's costume and added a few touches ourselves, such as the gloves and walking stick.

Willy Wonka

Some people didn't know who they were, but most people recognized them, and it was fun to see them get such a kick out of it once they did realize who they were. Especially tiny Finn with his green hair and white eyebrows :).

In the morning we went to the school costume parade, where an Oompa Loompa got to hang with Iron Man while they waited for their siblings to pass.

I love that Owen looks delighted with Rory despite how grumpy she herself looks.

Then we saw a vampire, a mummy, and Indiana Jones, respectively.

The pictures are kinda blurry, as they were all on the move, but you get the idea. Indiana Jones even had his own soundtrack :).

After the kids got home we carved our pumpkin. We let Maisie and Danyn collaborate on the design, and they chose a spooky vampire kitty.

Not too shabby.

Later that evening, per our yearly tradition, we all met up at Grandma & Grandpa Rogers' house, and took a big group photo. It went shockingly well this year, I must say.

Then Granny treated us to the annual "Spooky Dinner". I swear every year she gets more and more creative.

Spider Quesadillas

Worms in Dirt (Hotdogs in Blackbeans)

Bloody Finger Cookies

Scabs ( Quite tasty actually)

Brains

Spider Web Guacamole

 The five little ones couldn't really eat any of the tasty food, so they just chilled together while they waited for everyone to go Trick or Treating.

It was a great time, and we really enjoyed our kids enthusiasm. A crazy, nonstop day, but definitely one for the books! Happy Halloween!

Baby Bear: A Love Story

From the time Rory was old enough to express a preference, she has chosen a specific stuffed animal to be her companion.

Baby Bear, as she called it, was never far away from her, and received countless washings to keep him clean after she dragged him everywhere with her.

She loved that bear more than she loved anything else, including treats of any kind, and many a bedtime was delayed until we could find Baby Bear because she refused to sleep without him.

But like all good love stories, this one has a tragic ending. One day at preschool, a "bring your favorite bear" day in fact, Baby Bear was lost. We're not even really sure how it happened, he was there one second and gone the next. We searched and searched to no avail. Rory was sad. She misses him, and even her parents miss him a little on her behalf. So sad to have such a treasured item from your childhood ripped away so abruptly. I've even prayed it will miraculously turn up, but to no avail.

Farewell, Baby Bear. You were well loved. I hope wherever you are now, that's still true.

Family Pictures

The last family pictures we've taken were when Rory was barely a year, so we figured we better get some new ones that included Finn. This turned out to be more difficult that I would have thought, as many things seemed to be working against us. We'd asked Kevin to take the pictures, as we really liked the ones he took four years ago. His schedule is pretty full, but we managed to work something out for this past Sunday. Teag had to fly, but was supposed to be back by four, leaving us plenty of time for outdoor pictures before the sun went down.  The weather was looking good, partly cloudy, but decent temperatures.

What actually happened was Teag's flight was delayed and he didn't get home til 5:30, the weather was all but overcast, and the kids were anything but cooperative. But I was determined! After all the time it took to coordinate outfits, do hair, clean kids, and line up schedules, I wasn't about to bail on it because of some difficult circumstances!

And honestly, I probably would have been better off waiting until another night. Here's one of the rejects.

Finn's crying, Maisie's grin is forced, Dany looks bored, and Rory has no idea we're even taking pictures anymore. But the scenery sure looks good! Thankfully my brother is a pretty talented guy, and was able to get us some good shots. And here they are, for your viewing pleasure.

Adorable Finn, always with his tongue out

I had to include this one, I love her face in this picture

Love these colors, love her pose

Looking older and more mature

Even this family picture isn't perfect as far as everyone's poses, but is actually quite perfect if you look at personalities. Maisie looks a little self conscious, Dany looks like she's about to burst out laughing, Rory is defiantly jutting out a hip, and Finn looks as though he's somewhat ambivalent about being dropped in the middle of this family. But hey, the scenery sure looks good!

Just kidding. In all seriousness, I'm quite pleased with the pictures, I just wish we had a few more decent ones to choose from, where maybe, I don't know, ALL the people are looking at the camera and smiling.

Maybe when they're older :).

Visiting the Farm

Our computer unexpectedly died, so I haven't been able to post recently. As such, I have a few things to post all at once.

Last week the older kids were off for UEA, so Teag and I decided to drive up to Logan to take them to visit Uncle Natey, and Aunt Elle in Logan. To ensure that our kids didn't tear apart their house, we all packed up and went to visit the American West Heritage Center. It's a working farm full of cool buildings and typical farm stuff, and during this time of year they have some really fun Halloween activities as well.

The kids were stoked when they realized that pony rides were part of the deal.

We also got to take a mini train ride where we saw peacocks and chickens, and went through a tunnel.

They had giant stacks of hay bales for the kids to climb on.

Even Natey climbed to the top, but discovered the hay wasn't as soft as it looked when he barrel-rolled to the ground.

The thing we spent the most time on, however, was the giant slide. They'd built it into a steep hill, and the kids had a blast going down forwards, backwards, in tandem, head first, you name it. Unfortunately, it was also getting quite dark at that point, so we didn't get any good pictures. This should give you an idea at least.

We bundled up Finn, and he was a pretty happy camper for the most part, despite how he looks in this picture. 

Once the sun went down it started to get pretty cold, and the kids started running out of patience in the corn maze, but we thought the place was great fun, and think maybe we'll begin a family tradition of visiting there every Fall.

It was a really fun night, and we were glad to be able to spend it with Nate and Elle. We don't get to see them as often as we'd like, so any opportunity to visit is a good one! Thanks for hosting us guys!

Frightening

To quote my sister-in-law Meg, "This is what a Rogers Halloween party looks like. It's not quiet, but we like it that way."

Just imagine what next Halloween is going to sound like! Happy Haunting!

The Alpine Slide

Ahh, the Alpine Slide. I have such good memories of this place from my childhood. My family used to go with our neighbors every Autumn, and not only did you get an awesome ride down the mountain, you also got to enjoy the beautiful fall foliage. I haven't been since high school, but my mom decided to resurrect that tradition this year, much to my delight :).

This time they have a new ride, well new to us anyway, called the Alpine Coaster. It's very fast and engineered so that you can't come off the track, which is probably a good thing given how tight some of the turns are. Since we had three kids big enough to ride, we had to farm one out to Grandma :).

Maisie rode with me and spent the entire slow ride up telling me how nervous she was. Coasters are not her favorite thing, but I kept telling her to look at it as an adventure, something she was afraid of that she could overcome.

You can theoretically control your own speed with a handbrake, but they also don't want anyone crawling along the track and causing accidents with people behind them. Once we were towed to the top, I told her to hold on, and off we went! It was seriously one of the funnest things I've been on in awhile! Some of those turns you feel as if you're about to fly off the track, the tears streaming out of your eyes the whole time. But it took all of five seconds for Maisie to be screaming in delight along with me, and we both had a blast, as did our other two kids. I could hear Dany in front of us yelling at Grandma to "go faster!", and the first thing Rory said when we got back down is, "That's a fun coast-eh!".

Next up was the Alpine Slide, my old favorite. You ride a ski lift up to the top, a somewhat slow but enjoyable way to start the ride.

As you can see, the lift was Rory-approved :). Once you get to the top, there are four slides to choose from. This time Maisie got to go by herself, and as before, she was rather nervous.

I told her she could control her own speed, which may or may not have been a good thing. Let's just say the ride attendant let me wait an extra long time before we went down, and I still caught up to Maisie before the bottom. Halfway down Rory yelled, "This a fun swide!"

It was a great day; beautiful weather, lots of family, and a lot of fun, but we tuckered out our two littlest with all the excitement.

Everyone agreed it's something we should do next year as well. I can't wait to go back!