follow the yellow brick road

this halloween marks ten years (!) of handmade group theme costumes for the wheelers. honestly, i'm just as surprised as anyone that we've held on this long. the kids have had a blast dressing up together, and i've somehow managed to stay just this side of sane gussying everyone up.

for our tenth anniversary, we went all out to celebrate the occasion with some of the most iconic and recognizable costumes of all time and a gorgeous fall, in-character photo shoot. 

i fully intended the wizard of oz to be my swan song (i mean, lasting as long as friends and jennifer garner's marriage to ben affleck seems pretty solid to me), but summer and afton already have big plans for continuing on next year...

in the meantime, i've a feeling we're not in kansas anymore.

bonus! a quick look back at years one through nine:

the flintstones, little bo peep, alice in wonderland, the cat in the hat, star wars, saturday morning cartoons, super mario brothers, scooby doo, and where's waldo?

i'd like to publicly thank all the pins and needles and seam rippers that got me where i am today. and bryan, for being such a good sport.

happy halloween!

field trip (again!)

and can you guess where to?!

side note: one of the kindergarteners in caleb's class on tuesday said she loved my hair color because it was the same color as the sky. ^^exhibit a

sasquatch is big (pun intended) around here.

field trip!

pumpkin patching and farm learning for caleb's first kindergarten field trip.

(poor caleb got caught in the fog of my phone adjusting temps)

luckily, the rain was off and on for the afternoon, so we didn't get drenched the whole time, but! even if we had, five year olds in muddy boots just ain't got a care in the world.

cold camping

if your husband ever assures you that the middle of october is a perfectly acceptable time to go camping, do not, i repeat, DO NOT believe him.

the food may be delicious, the campfire roaring, the smores (which are, let's face it, why you really came out here in the first place) on point, and the children having the time of their lives, but you will be very, very cold.

trust me.

ice in the woods on a hike, anyone?

in his happy place.

hot chocolate a plenty.

also, if you so happen to passively observe whilst bryan is chopping firewood that in the movies, guys who chop wood are usually shirtless, be prepared for the fall out.

just sayin.

halloween preview 2017

there's no place like home.

#brothers

back when summer was the size of a pumpkin

october 2008.

october 2017.

ugh. i'm not crying, YOU'RE crying!

*runs off to eat chocolate and drown herself in ben folds music*

take me to the pumpkin patch

let the pumpkin spice everything officially begin!