Thanksgiving Fun

Since we were doing Christmas with my family, Thanksgiving was a big Koford family event. Everyone was in town. We even had Alex and Loraine staying at our house! Because Thanksgiving break is such a short time, we had to cram lots of fun into a few days!

One of our adventures was to the Grapevine Mills mall to check out their little aquarium. For being inside a mall it was pretty impressive. It was dark in there so we weren't able to take too many pictures. Russell liked looking at the fish and was a pretty good sport even though he was starving by the end! 

Getting up close and personal with the fish

We also got to go as a family to the Dallas Arboretum again! There were still pumpkins that hadn't been sold or gone bad, so Russell got to enjoy them again. We also explored more of the grounds since they had the 12 Days of Christmas displayed in various parts. I didn't take any pictures of those... Oops. 

Family pictures with the pumpkins

Dave and Alex enjoying a break from all the walking. 

Ashlyn in the rose garden 

View of the lake from the Arboretum 

Russell explored and found a leaf to eat

This pumpkin is just my size

Relaxing on the fence 

Then it was time for the main event- food! Robin put me in charge of adding some decor to the table for the family to write on. I was nervous about making it look like it did on Pinterest, but it turned out okay. And dinner was delicious of course!! Love thanksgiving food!! 

Russell wanted to play with the pumpkin decor

Courtney had a fun idea to make shirts to wear while we enjoyed our post-dinner activities and dessert. They were fun to make and see all the different creative ideas!

Had to have a classic Koford family selfie

Russell the Pumpkin King

Russell and I were lucky enough to tag along with his GBear to the Dallas Arboretum. They had their fall pumpkin displays all around the arboretum. There were some pretty funky looking pumpkins. We spend 90% of our time in the Children's garden. They had little pumpkins everywhere and nice soft hay perfect for practicing HIS walking skills.

Russell growing in a pumpkin patch!

Happy pumpkin king

Why are you taking so many pictures?

Walking to give GBear a hug

Hay!

What's that?

Take me there!

Signs don't lie

He got caught!

This one is strange!

Cinderella came too!

Found water to play in!

Love this cute Pumpkin King!

Halloween 2015

Thanks to the high standards set by my sister Megan, Halloween costumes are a big deal in our family. This year I hadn't just had a baby, so we were able to put some more thought and effort into our costumes. The hardest thing is finding a costume that Stephen will agree to wear! So pretty much I let him pick the family costume theme and just hope to find/make costumes that will work... (I did veto his Halo and Star Wars ideas).

After lots of deliberation and internet searching our costumes were decided: Guardians of the Galaxy. Since there were only 3 of us instead of 5, we had to chose which character to be. I would have loved to have someone dress up as Groot, but that would have been very complicated. So we were Starlord, Gamora, and Rocket Raccoon.

Our super family

He's ready for action

Attack raccoon

What a cute raccoon face?!

(It's practically impossible to put stuff on his face!)

After 3 different Halloween events 

I got really good at putting on the makeup! 

Russell didn't know what to think of all the Halloween activities...

Then he discovered the candy...

And he was very happy!

Another joy of the Halloween season is decorating the house!

We had some ghost haunting our pictures!

Spiders also invaded!

I go to be artsy and paint a little.

Used my Cricut to decorate the whole house! 

It's also a Mikesell tradition to carve pumpkins. My dad has always carved amazing ones each yer. Last year he decided to make it a competition. Since Beth won last year, she got to chose the theme. She chose Tim Burton. Stephen and I found some fun ideas for our pumpkins. Mine took longer than I thought it would, but I won!! Woohoo. Now I just have to figure out next years theme... 

Stephen's pumpkin

My 1st place pumpkin!