Pumpkins!!

We'd never missed our annual pumpkin patch picnic until last year when schedules were just too crazy so we were super excited to have the gang together this year. It's such a nice thing to eat and play among the pumpkins. We had ghost shaped nutella sandwiches, fruit, cheese, chips and juice. We even had fancy Halloween cookies for desert! They kid ran in the hay maze, made silly faces for pictures and even pulled each other in the wagon. I love these kids so much! Happy Fall! Happy 5-years-olds! Hurray!!

Speaking of growing up and fun traditions, the kids each carved a pumpkin this year. I thought they did an awesome job! Riley insisted on a scary skull and Isaac wanted to do a ship wreck, but ended up with a zombie face.

Pumpkin Picking! 2014

It's always an event to pick the family pumpkin. We'd done our prerequisite viewings of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and decided on the subject for the big pumpkin. I was determined to get to the pumpkin patch on the first try, unlike last year. We decided to go on a weeknight after dinner. I gave the kids a pep talk about how the pumpkin patch is not a playground. I needed them to follow the rules this time. They were amazing! I was so proud. It's so nice not to be the mom with the wild, screaming, running kids getting dirty looks, phew. We got a big beautiful pumpkin and each kid picked a smaller one. Riley also found this small unusually shaped pumpkin that looks like a large acorn. She plans to paint it. Miss Roo conquered the tiny hay maze after a few tries this year! Both kids were rewarded with lollipops by the sweet people at the pumpkin patch.

I was rewarded by myself with a pumpkin spice latte on the way home. Riley had a terrible time with the idea that we were not going to carve the pumpkins immediately. Good thing she had skeleton pajamas and Halloween books to comfort her. Here's a hint: the plan for our pumpkin was inspired by Riley's birthday trip. It's going to be amazing! I can't wait.

Halloween 2013

Ghost Pancakes!

Isaac as a winged baboon, Riley as G'linda, Me as China Girl and Mike as Oz the Great and Powerful

Pumpkin Time!

We've had It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and our arsenal of pumpkin themed books on rotation since late September, but we had a lot of trouble getting to the pumpkin patch this year. In the past we've always gone at least twice every October. Something about being 4 and and almost 11 or my recent surgery or the unseasonably hot weather has really upset the balance around here. We'd get everyone in their pumpkin shirts and ready to head out the door and there would be a meltdown. Worse than that on another attempt we got everyone all the way to the pumpkin patch and the behavior was so bad we had to leave pumpkinless! I started to feel like I'd lost my ability to parent effectively. Mike tried to tell me it was because we get them too excited about stuff before we do it. Yeah, right like I'm going to stop doing THAT.

All total there were two failed family trips to pick a pumpkin, a missed get together with friends at the pumpkin patch and a foregone fall carnival due to one child or the other's bad behavior this year. It is so depressing to sit home enforcing consequences. Anyway, in the end I got my head back on my shoulders a little better and dismissed Mike's ridiculous fantasy of a night time pumpkin patch visit in favor of (duh!) a late morning one. The up side to sitting home enforcing consequences was that once that had happened a few times (for each kid) things got better.

Here was our long awaited trip to the pumpkin patch.

Later that day (aka after her nap) Miss Roo carved her first pumpkin. Isn't it funny how things balance out like that? I had a lot of fun helping her do it, but it made me miss little Isaac. He played on his computer and then when he was told to join us outside ran around the yard with the dog. He wasn't at all interested in the pumpkin carving. I think we've only got a handful of holiday activities as a family left. Sniff...On the bright side aside from refusing to touch the pumpkin guts Riley was a natural! I think her pumpkin came out great.

Isaac and I carving his first pumpkin 2008

Riley carves her first pumpkin 2013

Pumpkin Patch Picnic

We have a yearly tradition of gathering our Mommy group friends together for a picnic in the pumpkin patch every October. This was our 3rd annual pumpkin patch picnic. I made pb&j's and cut them into pumpkin shapes for the occasion. Cute and delicious (if you like peanut butter). Last year I was only up to bringing fruit snacks so I felt really good about my sandwiches. I can't believe they're all 3! We met when we still gave these kids ages in weeks and now...well they're growing up.

I think traditions are important. Many of my fondest childhood memories are centered around our annual adventures and goings on. When I met these ladies and their then very tiny babies we saw each other once a week at least. Usually more frequently since everyone was still "home with the baby." As they've got older we still all keep in touch, but it's harder now that the kids have busy schedules as well as the moms. This is the event every year where all the kids are together at the same time. It's a wonderful and simple little event.

This year was really special for me just as a benchmark in my healing process. I shopped in the morning, then made sandwiches and then successfully enjoyed the picnic. It was a vast improvement from last year. Don't get me wrong at the end of the day I was feeling it, but it is progress. I just love my friends so much and being around their kids makes me happy. They really are a sweet, smart little bunch. I hope they stay in touch when they're too old for pumpkin patch picnics.

We even learned a song this year. We happened to be there on a day when classes were visiting and in between groups the nice lady came over and taught us "I'm A Little Pumpkin." It goes like this:
I'm a little pumpkin (point to yourself)
Look at me (point to your eyes)
I am as happy as can be! (smile big and sway with your elbows bent and hands bent at the wrist facing up)
Put a candle in me (hold an imaginary candle)
Light my light (light your imaginary candle)
But don't be afraid on Halloween night (shake your finger)

Boo!

At that point the audience says "AAAAAHHHH!" and everyone claps. It's great fun. They had sandwiches, cheese, fruit, crackers and then cupcakes in cones. They explored and even measured pumpkins. They gave each other wagon rides and sang. It was an amazing time. It was totally worth a late nap. Until next year, pumpkin patch.

All Our Pretty Pumpkins

I'd like to begin by confessing, despite a lifelong love affair with anything pumpkin, to being the world's worst pumpkin carver. It is simply not my thing. Here's one I carved myself in 2007:

Fortunately for me my husband's carving talents match my ridiculously high expectations. He always draws freehand on the pumpkins, which is necessary since our combined nerdiness usually makes for some interesting carving choices.

On our first Halloween (2008)we decided on Thor (the alien from Stargate) and a spooky tree. We always decide on what to carve before we pick the pumpkins. The only picture I have of the finished pumpkins they happen to be in the background of a picture of Isaac.

The next year, 2009, we had a new little pumpkin. We decided Magneto was the way to go carving-wise. Don't worry we put that one on a plastic chair.

The following Halloween, 2010, we did a Cheshire Cat with color changing led inside. I was Alice that year. Riley decided to be Alice this year, like mother like daughter I suppose. Curiouser and curiouser...

Last year was the most detailed carving job I'd ever since Mike do. We did Dementors descending on a terrified jack-o-lantern. Wonderful. Trick-or-Treaters were in awe.

As for this year, my lips are sealed. I will tell you it's Sci-Fi in origin and we'll be making used of the color change light again. Yay, Halloween!

Pumpkin Picking 2012

You never have to ask my kids twice to come to the pumpkin patch. It is quite the tradition for us. We always go to the same one. This year was slightly different because we went at night, but the kids had as much fun as ever.

It was surreal to remember Isaac too little to lift the pumpkin or Riley at the pumpkin patch a few weeks old weighing less than the pumpkin we took home that year. They're so grown up; in fact, they were a bit hard to handle. Nothing terrible just getting over excited, wandering away, piling my lap with unwanted pumpkins.

It's these yearly traditions that become the benchmarks for me. "Oh, it's our second Halloween in this house." or "Time for the annual trip to the pumpkin patch." That's what it is to raise a child everyday: they grow imperceptibly before your eyes. Then you look at a picture from a few weeks earlier or the Halloween before and you see it all at once.

I was quite pleased with our pumpkin choice this year. The kids were quite pleased with their coloring books and orange lollypops the sweet people at the pumpkin patch always provide. Everyone went home happy.