Fall Photo Fun!

Last Sunday we had to run out before church to hit the local pumpkin farm to pick out our pumpkins to carve. We had been invited to a pumpkin carving party Sunday afternoon and it was a BYOP affair (Bring Your Own Pumpkins). Somehow we never found a moment to get out as a family to pick out the pumpkins during the week so Sunday morning was "it" - pumpkin picking time! We got the girls in the car and headed out to our usual pumpkin farm stand only to find that they were all gone! Apparently with the heavy downpours we had earlier in the season many of the pumpkin patches were a wash and pumpkins were somewhat scarce this year from some growers. So, we drove down the road a piece and stopped at another local farm stand - one that I had driven by many times but had never ever stopped at. As it turns out we liked this farm stand location better, there were better places for photo ops with the kids, and the prices seemed a bit better than our usual place. I think we may have found a new pumpkin patch for our yearly pumpkin purchases!

Here are a couple of photos from our excursion that morning:

After church we drove out into the "hilltowns" to go to the pumpkin carving party. We ate a lot of great food, hung out and chatted with some friends, the kids had fun playing with the other kids there, and we managed to get two of our five pumpkins carved. Rick had made us some great pumpkin carving tools from some PVC pipe, a bit of wood, some wood glue and a variety of different sized saw blades that he picked up at the hardware store. They worked like a charm and he has plans to make more because he ended up giving away our set to our neighbor who was also at the party - he wants to make a new set for us and probably a few more sets to give away.

Here are all the pumpkins we carved:

My snarl-faced one on the top step, R's creation on the second step, "Boo" and A's creation on the third step, and Rick's on the bottom. If you want to see a fun time-lapse video of Rick creating his pumpkin check out this video! The video was actually viewed quite a bit on Halloween night and he got a fair number of comments....YouTube is a strange little world.

And now the much anticipated pics of the girls in their Halloween costumes! Ha Ha.
The first pic was taken on our way to a Halloween party at our neighbor's house on Saturday night. A wanted to have face paint on that first night and also wore the paint when she trick-or-treated with her school on Tuesday morning (her school is on a college campus so all the kids come dressed in costumes and they go to a bunch of campus offices to sing songs and get treats...very cute). However, she decided the paint was too itchy so she didn't end up wearing the face paint for the real deal on Tuesday night.

R and A Saturday Night:

R, A and E on Halloween Night:

The weather was GORGEOUS on Halloween night. We really lucked out this year and jackets were not necessary. I hate when you have to get the kids all bundled up over their costumes for trick-or-treating - and I hate walking the neighborhood on dark, freezing cold nights! So, this year was truly a TREAT. The moon was shining bright and had some spooky looking clouds that were floating past it. We saw a ton of kids out in the neighborhood and I think the main roads in our neighborhood had close to if not more than 150 trick-or-treaters. We are on a dead end street at the back of our development so we don' t get nearly the same amount of traffic as some people do - good in some ways (don't have to buy as much candy) but disappointing in others (not seeing a ton of cute kids in their costumes)!

We have been taking advantage of the nice weather of late and getting outside for playtime and for walks. The girls love to take E for a walk down the street in her new wagon. Her first trip out went smoothly and she stayed seated for the entire ride, however on our second outing she decided it would be fun to crawl around the wagon and pull to a stand over and over! I ended up having to carry her while R pulled an empty wagon for the half of the walk.

A few pics from our walks:

Hope you enjoyed the photo update of our fall fun. It's my favorite season! Cool, crisp air - clear blue skies with bright foliage in yellow, red, and orange - pumpkins - apples - leaves crunching underfoot - warm, cozy sweaters - comfort foods - what's not to love?