Pumpkin and Halloween Fun

We had our annual pumpkin painting/carving at Papa's house with nana, granddaddy, and all the cousins.  After Sunday dinner, the kids hunted for candy filled pumpkins in the yard.  Rocco racked up on some goodies!  

 Sydney and Rocco really got into the painting.  They were the only two this year who painted a pumpkin.  The rest of us were busy carving. 

 I chose an owl pattern for this year's pumpkin.  I prepared the stencil work, and .....

 Jason did the cutting. 

 And look at our end results.  Blues Clues pumpkin was carved by Ben for Sydney.  JJ and her parents carved the only 'real' pumpkin.  Allison carved out the words "Trick or Treat", and ours is the last pumpkin on the right. 

 Drew worked on an All American flag stencil. 

 On Halloween day, Rocco dressed up as Luigi.  I was Brainy the Dwarf.  I know he wasn't one of the original dwarfs in Snow White, but all of the teachers chose a made up dwarf while our principal dressed as Snow White.  Our assistant principal was the wicked witch.  It was a lot of fun.  Thankfully, I was able to go on Rocco's field trip with him.  His class went to an assisted living home to trick-or-treat.  His kindergarten class missed science, so it all worked out that I missed very little teaching while I was gone. 

On Halloween night, we met at the bank at 5:30.  Most of the cousins went trick-or-treating together.  JJ, Drew, Chloe, Colston, Rocco, and Sydney walked all downtown to collect a lot of treats.  Susan, Terry, BJ, Tonya, Carolyn, Barry, Allison, Jason, and I walked along with them.  It was a fun night.  Afterwards we went to Carolyn and Gary's for some hot vegetable soup, cornbread, and hot dogs.  It was perfect for the chilly night.

Rocco and Daelyn

My mom and I met in the town where I went to high school for a photo shoot.  We had two cute kids to work with...Rocco and my niece, Daelyn.  Rocco is 5 1/2 years old; Daelyn is 2 1/2.  Here's how some of the pictures turned out. 

To Cozumel

   

 This Labor Day weekend, we headed to Tampa, FL and boarded Carnival Cruise Ship Inspiration for a four day adventure.  This was my parents' first time on a cruise ship.  They had a great time. (My dad enjoyed all of the picture booths we stopped at.  We all bought too many pictures!)   Of course this was Rocco's first cruise, too.  When we got on the ship, he asked, "Are we on the boat?"  I think at first he couldn't fathom that the big place was really one big ship.  I was still in my first trimester of pregnancy, so I felt a little sick.  Thankfully I didn't throw up the entire trip.  That was a miracle, too, considering how we rocked back and forth.  It was just a relaxing get-away filled with fun waterslides (Rocco enjoyed them - I couldn't go down ;)   naps, our six o'clock dinner, and nightime entertainment. Sometimes we would go to a show; other times we were our own entertainment!

 Of course we took in a few strawberry slushies along the way!

Our one stop was in Cozumel.  The water was beautiful!  We took a taxi to Mr. Sancho's Beach. 

At this beach, we took in the ocean, swam in a pool, enjoyed the long swings, ate some nachos, and my mom even got a massage.