...And Drew chose Batman (possibly because of the extra cool gloves). They were both decked out and ready to go catch some bad guys (and candy).
Here are all of the lifegroup boys at the beginning of Trunk or Treat at church.
And with a few more buddies while getting candy from car to car. I took Drew around to the cars while Ben opted to hand out candy with Daddy. It took him about an hour to warm up to being in a costume, all the loud noise, and all the people before he decided he was comfortable enough to go get some candy of his own. I just love their little personalities. They are each so special and unique in their own way. 
So the next day we figured we'd better get a move on and carve ourselves some pumpkins. Here's how you do it!Step 1: Pick out a really great pumpkin and cover the kitchen table with lots of newspaper
Step 2: Get your carving and scooping tools ready
Step 3: Pull off the top of the pumpkin 
Step 4: Pull out all the pumpkin guts and seeds and be sure to yell "Eeeewwwwww" really loud
Step 5: Run around the house all hopped up on Trunk or Treat candy while Mommy does the actual carving of the pumpkin, then come back for a picture and take credit for the jack-o-lantern
Step 6: Take it out to the front porch, stick a candle in it and say "ta-da!" for every one to see the cool pumpkin "you" carved. 
So here's where Drew's black eye came from (as seen in pictures below and a few soccer pictures earlier). We had saved the pumpkin seeds to roast them when Daddy came home. That night after dinner we were getting all the stuff ready to make them. Now, the boys help me cook pretty often....they love to be a part of whatever is going on....so they know the rules and they are used to sitting on top of the counter. I turned my back for literally a split second, so I'm not entirely sure what happened. But from what we gather, we think that Drew shifted how he was sitting, then Ben shifted just a little bit, which made Drew lose his balance, and he fell right off the counter. The eye was pretty bad, I'll have to say. And we were all pretty upset about it. We called all the right people and the good news was that he was and would be just fine. The bad news was that it was going to look pretty gruesome for a couple of days. And it did. Poor buddy. But he is such a tough little guy and doesn't ever let much get him down for long. We gave him the option of not participating in the next Halloween event, but he wouldn't hear of it. He wanted to be on that stage. So....off we went to the Parade of Bible Characters. This year, we did it as a lifegroup again. Initially we thought we'd do something cute with the first family tree. You know, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Seth and a tree. But then - as I was talking on the phone with Jen about costumes - the boys heard me saying that they'd be Cain and Abel. And they got SO upset. Lips started quivering and they started crying. I didn't ever say which one would be which, but Ben said to me "Mommy, I don't want to get dead." And then Drew said "And I don't want to be a bad guy!" Bless their hearts, I felt so bad. I didn't realize they would even think about it that way. I guess they've been paying attention afterall.
So we found another story to do. But that was the end of Ben wanting to go on stage to do it at all. Instead we did the Zacheus story. Drew was Jesus, Owen was the Wee Little Man, Jay was the sycamore tree, and Weston was the money that Zacheus gave back to all the people. I'm sure that it was an okay Bible story with good clues. But the truth is that Owen totally stole the show. That sweet baby marched right to the middle of the stage and proceeded to lift his whole costume up and show it all for the whole time. The audience roared and I'm pretty sure Jen was mortified. But it was a great moment. I'm just glad someone got it on video.
Next was the boys' classroom party at school. They first got to go to the craft table and make pumpkin picture frame magnets. 
And then got to enjoy many Pumpkin-themed games around the room. Here are all the Batmen.
And here are all the boys in their class (except Ben, who was not in the picture taking spirit at all.). 
Daddy even came up to the school to celebrate with us!
Drew with a couple of his girlfriends, Emma and Ava.
The whole class (minus Ben again...see above for details).
And one class picture (albeit amid tears) WITH Ben in it! One day he'll thank me. But I assure you it wasn't that day.
They trick-or-treated to Miss Pat's office to get a piece of candy, and each class gets to parade their costumes to all the other classes. After all that we all came back for some treats. 
It was such a fun party, and Miss Fisher has a great group of kids in her class. Actually most of the kids in the class were together last year in Miss Betsy's class too, so they already have some pretty strong friendships. And no Halloween would be complete without Trick-or-Treating in the neighborhood. The last couple of years the Belvilles have come with us to go around a few streets here. But this year they were moving on Halloween weekend. So instead, we met up for dinner and brought Brax home with us so the three musketeers could collect candy together. (Oh, and as a side note, yes-Drew opted to change his costume to be a UT basketball player. He's got the uniform on underneath the track suit. And in this picture he couldn't look at the camera because he needed to make sure I got a picture of the #1 painted on his cheek.) Here we are before we head off.
It was a really fun Halloween....maybe the most fun I've ever had. They really enjoyed it this year, and truly there is nothing more fun than watching your children enjoy something.
Happy Halloween, little spooks!
We definitely made the right decision to postpone the party by one day because the next evening was just perfect. The farm wasn't even that muddy considering all the rain we'd had. We had a bonfire for everyone to roast 
After each of the kids rode the horse, she taught them each how to lead. Here is 
Even all the little ones got to ride as much as they wanted (even if they couldn't keep the helmets on). Owen got a little extra help from his Daddy.
Martha Ann, Daisy, Ben and Josh down at the sheep pen.
Time for a 
Cousin Becca and 
Looking down from the arena
Then - as if all that wasn't enough - Tricia took all the kids into the stables and they all got to paint the ponies! She wrote "Happy Birthday Ben and Drew" on it, and they all got to paint him as much as they want and put their 
All that was left to do after that was take a picture with the pony and Patrick the pig. That was a little difficult since Ben doesn't like to be the center of 
But with a little 
Here they are each blowing out four candles.
And here they are licking all the icing off all the props on the cake.
I thought we were all done with all the excitement, but Tricia went way above and beyond for all these sweet kiddos and pulled out little horse-sticks for each of the kids to pretend to ride on in the arena. 
Once it finally all came together it turned out to be a really special day. Drew and Ben had been looking forward to their farm party for weeks and would ask every single morning if it was the day for their party yet. They loved every minute of it and we were so happy to watch them enjoy it so much.