I completely forgot to share about our time at the harvest festival that we went to on Halloween! A ranch about 15 minutes from us put on a fun family night with hay rides, pony rides, hamburgers and hotdogs, and a chance for kids to dress up and do some trick or treating.

I have to be honest... I haven't completely decided about where I fall on the whole "should Christians participate in Halloween?" thing. I go back and forth. Do I want to participate in evil and darkness and fear? No. Do I want to decorate or dress up with witches, ghosts, goblins and monsters? Not at all. Do I want to take my kids down the neighborhood and up to houses that have spider webs draped over their bushes and gravestones dotting their lawns? Nope. But... Do I think its harmless to dress up in fun costumes and have a little fun partying at "fall festivals"? Yes. Is it possible to find a middle ground in this? Maybe.  So... thats kind of where I'm at currently. This may change as I grow in maturity in the Lord. I want holiness without legalism, but I don't want to use avoiding legalism as an excuse to be lukewarm. *sigh* first world Christian problems? Probably. Just sharing some honest, inner struggles.

Whatever camp I end up being in, we did go to a fall festival this year with our 1 year old dressed up in a pretty pink elephant costume! And... we had a lot of fun!

Mark's family came over and we had dinner here at the house and got the girls dressed up for a fun time at the ranch. Here's Reaghan in her outfit - almost complete! I couldn't believe my luck when I was searching around in her closet for some shoes that would fit over this costume that had footies on it. Her pink crocs worked perfect!!! They had been a little too big for her all summer long so I had totally forgotten about them. But man, did that work out perfectly!

Here she is with her completed outfit. I was surprised at how well she kept the head piece on. She fussed a little with the initial process but once it was in place, that thing stayed on her head for another 2 hours. Ha! It was actually a win win because it kept her ears and head warm as the sun went down and it got a little chilly.

Cousin Brooklyn dressed up as an itsy bitsy spider.

Cousins that snack together, stay together.

The girls loved the glow bracelets that some people were handing out instead of candy.

We ran in to lots of friends there. My sister Erin was there too, walking around with a friend and her 6 (out of 8) kiddos.  : )

This may be one of my favorite pictures from the night... 

I love the way they walk together... the way she holds his fingers... the way he leans down and walks with small steps to match hers. <3

Someone was dressed up as Olaf and was, as you can imagine, the hit of the night with all the little kids. Reaghan hasn't seen Frozen yet, so she wasn't really sure what to think. Her face in this picture makes me laugh every time. She didn't cry, I think she was just really confused.

They had a small reptile hut open and this iguana out for petting. Sometimes this girl can be fearful, but other times she sticks her hands right in to a pool of rays or pet an iguana's tail without any hesitation.

I had to pull back her giant, floppy ears because I couldn't see her reaction!

Reaghan also went on her very first pony ride that night! I wasn't sure how she would do because she was a little bashful when we first walked out to the horse. (I guess a horse is more frightening than an iguana?!) but after she saw me pet the sweet pony she was more than happy to sit up on that saddle while I held on to her and we walked around the ring. I was so proud of her. haha

The quality is poor, but I love how tiny she is on top of this princess pony in this video.

We then waited in line over 45 minutes for a 5 minute hay ride. Probably not our best decision of the night, but the girls had fun running around in the little field where we were waiting and eating more snacks and didn't have any melt downs so, I'd say it ended up being fine  fun!

I couldn't get enough of her in this outfit. After looking through these pictures again to post them here, I'm seriously considering dressing her up one more time just for the fun of it. And maybe get a picture of her actually smiling ; )