Pumpkin Carving and Halloween

We have to wait til pretty close to Halloween before we carve pumpkins because they tend to get moldy and gross pretty quickly.  When I finally told them we could carve pumpkins on Saturday after soccer they were quick to clean up and make it happen. 

 Dillon desperately wanted a dragon on his pumpkin so we found one but I ended up carving most of it for him so he got to carve Daddy's pumpkin.  Next year I just need to load up on pumpkins.  The farm I got them at had them on sale for a dollar so I could easily have gotten everybody two.

 When trick or treating roller around the kids were SO excited to go.  They had so much patience while we took pictures.  Dillon was a "dragon ninja", Carson was a "hungry werewolf" and Kayda was black widow.  If you asked the boys what they were they HAD to have the adjective.  They couldn't simply say ninja or werewolf!

They came back after about 45 minutes and took a little break sorting candy.  Then they went back out but with me this time.  They didn't even make it all the way around our neighborhood.  They were worn out so we finished about 8.  They started about 6:30.  It was nice to have a pretty nice Halloween.  It sprinkled a little but Kayda is the only kiddo that even wore a coat this year!  If only every year could be this way.

They're slowly plodding through their candy.  We'll see if I end up giving a bunch away again!

I actually kept tally of how many trick or treaters we had this year.  There were 128!  Crazy!  We didn't run out of candy like several of the other homes did.  Part of that was the kids having stopped in the middle to sort candy.  Daddy took the candy they didn't want and handed that out too.  I think we would've been ok even without it though!  It was quite a night and the kids actually went to bed really well despite the excitement.

Pumpkin Patch

We lucked out and last Friday ended up being a nice day.  So after the walk-a-thon the kids finished up school then Daddy came home early.  We tried to tease the kids and convince them that we weren't going to the pumpkin patch but Kayda couldn't be fooled.  We like Maris Farms so much last year that we decided to go there again this year.  The only thing we don't like is the corn maze, it just isn't set up well. The kids were SO excited when we got there.  We had already bought our pumpkins at another farm but we wanted to go for the activities. When we got there I told them the condition was that they had to have their pictures taken and be good about it. They held up their end pretty well!

 Once again they thoroughly enjoyed the giant wood box.  I can't remember what it's called.  It's around 8 ft tall and maybe 5 ft wide and 5 ft deep and it's an obstacle course that they crawl through essentially.  They loved it and did it at least three times.

  Of course we had to play on the jumping pillow... a few times.

 Daddy got in on the action!

 Carson was riding in the little section alone so Dillon decided to join him.  Dillon just barely fit.  Without the disadvantage of smaller wheels (like on their bikes) Carson kept up with Dillon no problem.

 Carson wanted to ride the big one with Mommy.  Considering how you're situated to pedal it was quite a feat.  He had to straddle my legs with his feet sticking out each side and then he would bounce side to side as I pedaled.  It was probably like an amusement park ride! Fortunately Daddy helped us up the little incline because there is absolutely no way to pedal very effectively with a 5 year old bouncing around on your thighs.

 The tug of war only lasted one time.  The kids against Daddy.  Daddy won but it was fun watching the kids try.  Dillon ended up on his stomach!

 They added human foosball this year.  Dillon was enamored with it.  While Carson and Kayda moved on to the new zip-lines Dillon kept on playing foosball.

 Then Carson didn't want to stop the zip-lines.  He would've ridden them all evening if we'd let him.

 Kayda, Carson and I "raced"  I think the next pictures are pretty fun because you can see each of us hit the stop in turn!

 We had to do the pipe rollers again.  The kids worked hard to get them up the incline and touch the poles at the end.  Carson ended up sliding in the bottom of it a few times because he couldn't keep up.  There was one time he AND Kayda were down but Dillon kept plowing ahead while they slide in the bottom of it.

 Kayda desperately wanted to do the corn maze.  The boys stopped after the first half but she and I finished it.

 Back to foosball!  Our family played against another family and we definitely won!  The kids had a blast playing this game.

 Carson really wanted to go back to the jumping pillow so made sure to stop by there for the last few minutes before it closed.

It was a great day, exhausting day.