The Pumpkin Gallery

Now that Will and Caroline have gotten used to having their blowups in the yard, they have started giving people "tours" of their "pumpkin gallery". They act like they are museum guides and Caroline even carries a book with her like it is a guide book in a real museum.

I have been after Ben to capture it on video for several weeks and he finally did on Halloween. We are missing one spinning eyed pumpkin from the gallery, though, because it had been moved out to the front yard for Halloween.

Halloween !!!!

After much waiting, Halloween finally arrived. Will and Caroline wore their costumes to school and got to trick or treat during Special Interest. Their teachers also gave them little goody bags. Caroline's favorite item from hers is her pumpkin stamper. Will's favorite item was the gummy eyeballs. Right after this picture was taken, he ate them. YUMMY!!!

Before it got dark, we moved all of our jack-o-lanterns and one of our spinning eyed pumpkins out front. We also took our ghost and spider lights down from the fireplace and put them in the bushes in front of our house. Next, we put up the decorations that Will and Caroline made at school. Will made a giant jack-o-lantern and a green monster lantern. Caroline made a ghost and a bat. They were so proud of them. Finally, we set up our fog machine right by the front door. The fog machine is a new item since Will became fascinated with them after he saw one at Boo at the Zoo.

Grandma and Grandpa always come over to hand out candy while we are out trick or treating.

Once it got dark, it was time to go out and TRICK OR TREAT. You can see the spider and ghost lights in the bushes behind Will and Caroline.

First stop....our house....See the fogger on the ground and the decorations up above that Will and Caroline made at school?

After that, we went all over the neighborhood. By the time we got home, we were all exhausted.

Artwork

Last January, Caroline received an art easel for her birthday. Both of the kids LOVE to paint, but Ben almost never lets them because it is so messy. Daddy let them paint on Thursday.


Will and Caroline decided to make self-portraits. Too bad they also decided to paint Daddy's truck. Hopefully, the paint will come off. Here they are with their masterpieces.

Carving Pumpkins

Somehow, we ended up with eight pumpkins to carve. We started out with two giant pumpkins that we chose at the store. We added two very small "pie" pumpkins that Will and Caroline could carry around the house. Next, we went to After Dark in the Park at got two more large pumpkins. Finally, Will brought two medium pumpkins home from his field trip. I had been telling Ben we were going to carve all of them, but he didn't believe me. Every day, Will would ask if today was the day we were going to carve pumpkins. Two days before Halloween, pumpkin carving day FINALLY arrived. The kids were so excited, they could hardly stand it. Ben was looking forward to it until he figured out that I really wanted to carve EVERY single one of them. I don't know why he was surprised. I had gone to several stores collecting all kinds of different pumpkin lights several weeks before.


Here are the kids with the uncarved pumpkins.


Daddy started carving. At this point, he still thought he was only carving two pumpkins.




Will and Caroline both went to work drawing their designs on the pumpkins while Daddy was carving. Mom's job was to scoop out the pumpkin "goo".






Caroline wanted to pose with the first two completed pumpkins. Will told me that once the pumpkins are carved, they then become "jack-o-lanterns". I only made the mistake of calling them pumpkins after carving one time.


The final product. Notice all of the nice artwork on them besides what has been carved.

Boo at the Zoo

We decided it would be fun to take the kids to Boo at the Zoo this year. Since we have never been, we didn't know what to expect. The kids and I thought it was great. Daddy was disappointed because he wanted to see the animals and they had already put them to bed. We had bought our tickets at the beginning of October and Will and Caroline were really looking forward to going. We got there around 5pm, but it didn't open until 5:30pm. It was hard for the kids to wait to go in, but it was nice to be at the front of the line and not spend any time in traffic.


Will and Caroline started out waiting in their strollers.





Then they got restless and wanted to get out of the strollers. Caroline decided to do an impromptu dance.




The Stagecoach - I know I have other pictures of them in the stagecoach, but none of them are in costume.

The zoo set up a playhouse made completely out of hay. The kids enjoyed playing in it.



Will and Caroline really liked looking out the windows.





We all thought these giant carved pumpkins were really neat. These pumpkins were bigger around then both kids put together.




In the aviary, the zoo set up a long and winding pumpkin gallery.

Halloween Carnival

The Sunday before Halloween, our church has a halloween carnival with games, a bounce house, and a haunted house. Will and Caroline love to go to it. Unfortunately, we only got one picture of Will and Caroline playing the fishing game. This is always their favorite game.

Will's First Field Trip - The Pumpkin Patch

Right before school started this year, Will became increasingly upset because he didn't want to grow up and be a big kid. (At this point, I decided it was probably time to quit telling him I wanted him to stay my baby forever and never grow up.) We were able to convince him that it is okay to grow up and go to the "big kid" class by telling him about all the wonderful things he was going to learn. We finally convinced him it would by okay when we told him that being in the "big kid" class means he is now in the only class at school to get to go on FIELD TRIPS.

Finally, at the end of October, it was time for his FIRST field trip. The school normally goes to a local church's pumpkin patch for story time and each child receives a very small pumpkin as a souvenir. This year, the church wasn't able to accomodate our group when we called to make our reservation. Instead, the school was able to arrange for our children to pick pumpkins at a local farm. I was worried that it wasn't going to be as neat as the usual field trip, but it turned out even BETTER. This is a real working farm where they grow their own fruits and vegetables, not just some plot of land where they bring in pumpkins and scatter them around.

Not only did the kids get to pick pumpkins right from the vines that were grown right there, the owner also gave them a complete tour.

The Farm

Mrs. "Farmer" Took the Kids on a Tour

Here they are, looking at the pepper plants.

Which pumpkin should I choose? Will needed to pick two pumpkins, one for him and another for sister. He got carried away, though and tried to bring home four or five. Daddy made him put all except two of them back.

Here is one for sister!

Once the pumpkins were picked and the tour was over, the kids stopped to have a picnic. Afterward, Mrs. "Farmer" let the kids pick grape tomatoes right from the vine. Will knows I love tomatoes, so he picked a bunch and brought them home, just for me. I may not ask him not to grow up anymore, but he will always be my sweet baby boy.