The Hopkins Family: Animals, Apples, Pumpkins, Halloween...Oh My!

Driving home from work this week, I was wondering what I could blog about. Not much has happened since I uploaded pictures from Halloween. Evidently I was giving myself way too much credit...I haven't blogged about a weeks worth of fun activities, including Halloween. Here is a little look back over the last month:

Animals
Ali had a couple weeks off school, so we joined our friends, Ashley, Braden and Dane at the Zoo to enjoy the great fall weather. The Indianapolis Zoo holds "Zoo Boo" and kids can dress up and participate in activities around the Zoo. Unfortunately, it's only on the weekends so we didn't get to partake in that, but did enjoy the fun decorations around the zoo.

The kids like exploring the pirate graveyard!

Braden and Ali posing

Squeeze in together!

Mr. Dane...love those big ole cheeks!

Brock checking out the penguins

Apples

Nick took a rare half day off work and we took the kids to lunch and Appleworks. This has become a fall tradition. Appleworks is an orchard about 30 minutes South of Indy. There are animals, pumpkins, apples, and a fun play area for the kids. The apples are delicious so I stocked up on some snack apples, as well as some to make a delicious apple pie. Really, the main reason we go are the apple dumplings. They are amazing!

Hello Mr. Llama!

It's not a perfect picture, but about as good as I will get with these two

(and Nick as the photographer)

Ali loves the tractor!

The kids and Mr. Scarecrow

Pumpkins
Nick's job every fall is carving pumpkins with the kids. This really started last year and Ali could not wait to carve her pumpkin this year. So, we had a pajama and pumpkin night. As you will see...Ali really just supervises the process...

Notice her hands on her hips...yep, we are in trouble with this girl!

A rare moment of sweetness

Brock wanted to make sure I saw his Pumpkin, too

The finished products

Last but not Least...Halloween
We started a tradition last year of trick or treating with our group of friends. We all meet at TJ and Kelli's house, go trick or treating and then go back for Chili, Hot Dogs, Carmel Corn and lots of good food! The kids love it and enjoy playing together in their costumes as much as trick or treating, which is a good thing when it gets cold out.