October is such a fun month. I love getting ready for Halloween and squeezing out every drop of fun I can before the big day comes. This year my mom was in town in the middle of the month (she came for my grandpa's funeral and stayed a few days after). One morning we met her and my grandma at Garner Village to do the witch scavenger hunt and have lunch.
It was our first year going without Ryan and I really missed that little guy! I think Brady missed him too. For all his life Brady has been Ryan's little side kick- taking cues from his older brother- and what Ryan thought was fun, Brady thought was fun. It's been interesting to see that dynamic change and sort out what really interests Brady and what he was only interested in because Ryan was there. The Witch Scavenger Hunt was definitely one of those things. Granted, it was cold and super windy and kind of miserable outside, but Brady didn't really even care to find any of the witches, let alone 15! We spent most of the time browsing the shops until Brady asked, "When can we go home?" At which point I thought, "Now would be good. I'm doing this for you after all." And so we did. We left and ate the picnic lunch I had packed at my grandma's house and it was great. Sometimes it's best to just go with the flow.
Camden dressed up as a duck for our trip to Gardner Village and said his first word, "duck!" while we were walking from shop to shop. There is a little pond amid the shops and they had ducks. It was so cute to see him get so excited and yell, "duck! duck!" while wearing a duck costume. Kids are the best.
It happened to be Fall Break for some of my mom's visit so Ryan was home from school for a few days. We went to Jaker's Pumpkin patch. It's been our little tradition now for four years running. It's gotten so big since the first time we stumbled upon it back in 2011. I love that it's free and I always buy my pumpkins there out of gratitude for all the fun we have!
The corn pit is always a hit. Camden was especially enamored with the petting zoo. They have a kangaroo!
It was kind of busy when we went over Fall Break, but we actually went back two more times before the season was over. Once we met Lindsey and Rick and the Smiths and then we went again with my neighbor, Loraleigh and her two littlest boys while Ryan and Lukas were in school.
There are these big slides, much to big for Camden- as was confirmed when I sent him down all alone, my bad! Instead of going down the slides, he was content sitting on the hay and watching the big kids go down. How cute is he?!
We carved pumpkins the Monday before Halloween. I knew we were pushing it doing them four days in advance, but Ryan and Brady's pumpkins survived until Halloween! They are now rotting and shriveled on the front step but they served their purpose and will go out with the trash tomorrow.
The boys had a blast designing and carving the pumpkins. They each came up with their face design and then I helped carve Ryan's and Zach carved Brady's. What a fun tradition.
Ryan had a big pumpkin he picked out at Jakers. On Monday night he said he wanted to carve Mario. Seeing as we didn't have a pattern or a printer to print one off, we decided to hold off on carving that one for one more night.
The next day Zach printed off a pattern at work and we carved the pumpkin that night. Brady and I cleaned out the pumpkin together. Camden was already in bed and Ryan and Zach were home teaching. It was fun to work side by side with Brady. He divided the guts from the pumpkin seeds and was very thorough! We had been munching on the roasted seeds from the other pumpkins all day, so I think that gave him a little extra motivation.
I was pretty impressed with how it turned out. I have to admit, while I was carving it I had no idea what was what. It was like magic once we lit the candle. All the sudden it all came together and looked awesome. The boys were pretty happy with it as well.
Here are Fischer and Brady in the corn pit at Jakers.
Zach took the kids and I to Cornbelly's this year. I didn't take a single picture. I thought it was fun, but there was almost so much to do that it was a little overwhelming- not to mention it costs an arm and a leg! I think for now, the free Jaker's Pumpkin patch suits us just fine.
Our ward had a Halloween party the day before Halloween. It was a chore to get everyone ready and out of the house. The party was a dinner comprised of a Chili Cook Off. I hope I remember to just feed my kids at home before the party next year. They all pretty much had rolls and a brownie for dinner. What kid will eat chili?! I was a little disappointed that the party wasn't more little kid friendly. Last year they had little carnival games, but they did away with those this year and just put on a Spook Alley instead. What you ended up with was a whole lot of bored kids wondering around the church- trouble waiting to happen if you ask me. The Spook Alley was too spooky for the little kids and they had nothing else for the little ones to do. There was a costume contest parade that my boys marched in, but by the time that was over every single one of them was asking to leave.
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| Dumbo, Knight, Red Power Ranger, Red Power Ranger and Captain America |
This costume is a winner, that's for sure. What is ironic is that we had to leave early because of him. If only he acted as cute as he looked! As we were leaving Brady said, "That wasn't even a party!" Ha ha, my thoughts exactly...
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| Zach and I "dressed up" for the Ward Party too. |
Lindsey and Rick offered to come hand out candy at our house for us on Halloween so we could all go trick or treating together. Their friends, Adam and Sara, ended up coming too so we had a fun big dinner with everyone before heading out.
Camden was clueless about trick or treating in the beginning- he just wanted to push the umbrella stroller- but once he caught on, there was no turning back.
The only picture I got of all three of them on Halloween this year. At least Camden is much happier this time around! I credit all the candy for that one.
Happy Halloween! Until next year....
3 comments:
Gah! Camden looks SO cute in that last picture.
How lame that there weren't any games at your ward's Halloween party. Our ward did chili this year, but they also had large dishes of macaroni, something else, and a bunch of tiny pigs-in-a-blanket for kid friendly fair. I think whoever was in charge of yours hasn't had kids at home for a while, or never has. Ha. Oh well. I bet the youth liked it!
"Duck" is a super cute first word. :)
Those are some mad pumpkin carving skills! I loved this post...smiled the whole way through. Your boys looked adorable in their Halloween costumes and the picture of Camden from the back dragging his Halloween bag is classic. SO CUTE! How did Camden react to Zach's scream mask? He looks pretty content in the picture. There is all this Halloween cuteness and then the very frightening and tall scary guy. And yeah, pumpkin patches and kangaroos go together like?????? Well, you got me. I don't see the connection :) But very cool to see a kangaroo so close up! Thanks for posting. I always enjoy reading!
Your pumpkin carving skills are amazing! I think I've decided you're pretty much a girl version of Curt--pretty amazing at everything. ;) Loved all the pictures!!
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