Happy Halloween

One of the things I love about living in North America are the holidays. It all starts with Halloween and then there seems to be another holiday to look forward to every few weeks until Easter. And then after that summer is just around the corner. We've had a great time with Halloween this week and the kids are now getting excited about Ella's birthday and Thanksgiving in November.

We had fun this week carving our Halloween pumpkin. Sam chose the stencil off the internet. It's so happy - just like Sam!

On Thursday night we went to a Halloween party at church. The evening included a chili cook-off and prizes were given for the best three. I won a prize for the best tomato-less chili (it was the only one!). I made Lizzie Maughan's white bean chili from a cook book that the RS sisters put together while we were in Chicago. It's a recipe we love and make often.

Chris, Ella and Sam at the Ward Halloween party.

Owen getting into mischief!

Friday night was Halloween. Here are Sam and Ella with their friends Malcolm and Myla setting out to go trick-or-treating. They came home with way too much candy!

Yesterday we drove to Columbia, South Carolina and took the kids to the zoo. Sam has been mentioning the fact that we didn't go to the zoo almost every day in his prayers lately so we thought we had better go! The weather was just perfect and we had a really nice day out.