Fall Festival

Yesterday was the Gray family fall festival. It's an all day event we do each year, packed full of activities. We had a lot of fun but went home exhausted! We went to bed by 8:30! We started off by canning applesauce. I really liked this, but it took a lot longer than we had planned and my feet ached for a break. In all, we bottled around 60 jars. Brian and I took home 24. The kitchen smelled like apples! Everybody had the chance to help, even Jackson and Zoey. Grandpa held Zoey, while she picked up on apple at a time to get washed in the sink....since that process took too long, she got ousted by Jackson, who had more fun throwing the apples in the sink to see how much of a mess he could make!

After lunch, naps, and a game of football for the guys, the kids hunted for party favors in a hay stack. We tried to be organized about it at first, but it ended up turning into a free-for-all. The loved it! My mom went overboard on surprises, but what are grandma's for-right? I love this picture of Jackson throwing the hay everywhere!

After all of that fun, we had our Halloween inspired meal: Meal in a pumpkin, lady fingers, witches brew, spider web dip and fall chips. It was fun to put together as well as eat! And wait! The day wasn't over yet! There's still more. After dinner, we dressed up in costumes, had a pinata, fortune telling, and other fun games. I didn't get all the pictures of everyone dressed up like I wanted, but my mom was a witch, my dad was a Sultan, Addy was Tinkerbell, Jackson was a dragon, Zoey was a turtle, Jordan and Taraleigh were Fred and Daphne from Scooby-doo, Liliane was a fairy, Carissa and Braxton, Chloe and Parker were candies: Blow-pop, M&M, peeps, and a tootsie roll, and Whitney and Rusty dressed as an old couple! Did you catch all of that? If I didn't name someone, it's because they didn't dress up (Brian and I included).