Pumpkin Carving

I love carving pumpkins.

I love sharing the experience with my kids.

I love having my husband help.

I love how serious Snug was.

I love that Little Monkey Man ate lots of pumpkin guts.

I love carving pumpkins.

Trick-or-Meeting

So you know me. Nothing happens "normal".
Snug was so excited about Trick-Or-Treat. About an hour before it was time to go he said "I can't wait much longer for Trick-or-treat. This is really taking a little while." He cracks me up.

Candy count for the week: 6 pieces that I am aware of

I made his costume this year. And between church, school, and events with friends, he wore it six times. Well worth it. (He is Woody)

My favorite part? A tie between the pull-string or the boots. Can't decide. But it was so fun to do. Thank you Grandmommy for finding the hat...it was great.

Candy count for the week: 0 pieces (Although a few people offered her some tonight...really?)

I got the kids all dressed and took them outside one at a time to get their pictures taken. My aunt has let me borrow her Cannon Rebel...and wow. WOW. I am forever grateful. I have been able to take pictures so much easier and so much clearer then before. Thank you!!!!

Up until the point we actually went trick-or-treating, things were great. And then the adventure began. Our next door neighbor was happy to see the kids and give them lots-o-candy. She kept giving them more until I threatened to bring them back to her house to go to bed :o)

Candy Count for the week: 4 pieces +several wrappers+the frosting he licked off the cake on the counter during nap time.

LMM was very funny. He "roared" for everyone. And said "Teet teet" when they came to the door. And "Hank hooo" when he got a candy. He loved the tail on his costume. It made a great "bat".

While our next-door neighbor was talking to me, Monkey Man got into his loot and started eating a piece (I only let gluten-free candy hit his bag) so he had chocolate all over his face...hands...costume. Lovely. All the pictures here are from before we went. I didn't take three children and a camera. I am only human.

I saw the night as an opportunity to meet neighbors I haven't yet. Which it was...kinda. I did meet a couple of new ones and that was great. But overall, our street was not great.

We moved here from a street that was mostly elderly people and most of them didn't pass out candy because it was too hard to get up and down many times in an evening. I would take the kids over and visit for awhile because they loved to see them dressed up. No candy was involved, just a nice visit. I missed that tonight.

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Here, the man across the street turns something like 95 this year. He was the most prepared for Halloween. He was excited to see the kids. That made me feel a little better.

So we went trick-or-meeting. And I want to say that we did meet a couple of lovely neighbors. There was even a lady who brought by candy yesterday because she knew she wasn't going to be home and that was so nice.

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But then there were the people who had no clue it was trick-or-treat. Or who were kinda rude about us being the new neighbors. Because they are community activists and they already know who we are and that we live there. It was weird.

At about the third house that actually knew trick-or-treat was happening, I realized two things. First off, we had seen nary another child. Secondly, LMM was biting and chewing all of his candy through the wrappers as I pulled him along in the wagon. From that point on I put his candy into Snug's bag and he yelled "MINE. MINE. MINE CANNY". That was very attractive. Perhaps that is why the neighbors don't like us. We are loud. But we are better than the house a few down.

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There is house four down from us with teens who are usually out smoking pot and drinking. Tonight the activity was revving their engines and racing around in their cars. We didn't visit their house. Maybe some neighbors are afraid that little dinosaurs who cry about their mommy taking away their precious candy will turn into pot smoking engine reving teens. I highly doubt it.

This is how I got the kids around. After our less than successful trip up and down our street (which I have to say for the record includes 14 houses including ours and several people were not home) we saw another child...on the street behind ours.

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With everything in me I wanted to just go home. But how fun is trick-or-treating if you don't see any other kids? Something about that is un-natural. So we went to the street behind us. People had pumpkins lit, and were standing ready at their doors. There were other children and laughter and even though I was exhausted, by this time pulling all three kids in the wagon...we did about six houses before heading back home.

I guess the street behind us got a "tips" sheet.

Coming Soon...

Costumes, pumpkin carving, and lots of fun....


...coming soon!

Why?

We have finally begun to clean up the leaves in our yard. And stuff them in plastic bags as our trash pick-up requires. (Which is killing me. Can it get more eco-unfriendly???)

While it is hard work. And it isn't helping me sore-throat-situation...the leaves are beautiful.

But why? Why is Little Monkey Man dressed this way?

Pumpkin Patch Barn

It's not a patch. We don't get to go out and pick them. They are pre-picked and sitting in piles and rows. I know, bummer. But over all....a great time!

We took Draycare on the road and headed to our fall pumpkin destination. I got the CUTEST picture of the kids all together...but unless you are my friend on Facebook I'm not going to share it because I try really hard not to post pictures of other people's kids on my blog without their permission. Every time. And it stinks because I had to exclude some great pictures. Which you aren't going to believe, because this post is forever long. You've been warned!

We did not bring this particular pumpkin home. The pumpkin picking out wasn't even that big a deal to the kids. They were more into the jumpy house, straw bale pit, and wildlife.

Wild life?

Yup. Best thing hands-down about our trip was the fawn. The tame fawn. The free roaming, can leave anytime it wants but hangs around the farm fawn.

#1 was so funny about it. He was really excited and took lots of pictures of it on his phone.

I didn't think it would let us pet it, but of course LMM just ran up and threw his arms around it.

This deer was like a dog. Sniffing everyone and very friendly.

"Gourd" was LMM's word at preschool a couple of week's ago...he exercises it liberally.

Front porch sittin'

The petting zoo is always a favorite, but I have to say the deer really kinda down played it this year.

Someone liked the straw pit! (Yes, I realize she has no socks on and her tootsies are purple. That was my fault. See picture below for remedy.

Babywearing...daddy style.

I tried all trip to get a good picture of the three of them. There was just too much to see. Plus, my Draycare kids wanted the boys to PLAY, not participate in a photo session! (I took pictures of them for their parent's too)

So we had a great time. But, oh man, that straw in your pants is a killer!