October has been pretty great around here: crisp enough to feel like fall, yet warm enough to enjoy plenty of outdoor fun. We kicked off the season with a trip to the pumpkin patch.
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First ride on a tire swing;
holding on sooo tightly! |
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| Hayride (actually, just a trailer, but still fun) |
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| Troughs full of corn = hours of fun! |
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| Picking our own pumpkin |
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This is the one Jane picked out for herself.
She was so proud, though I found it slightly
lacking in aesthetic appeal. |
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| Mommy's growing a pumpkin, too! |
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| "I wanna see the picture." |
Next stop: carving the pumpkin!
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| Goopey, squishy pumpkin guts! |
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Jane's patience ran out before she (Richard) got past the
eyes and mouth. |
The following weekend we went to a festival in our neighborhood called Music and Molasses. It was a fun walk into the "olden days" when it was common to see a donkey on a rope turning a mill to grind up sugar cane, which was then boiled over an old stone oven to make molasses. There were people pickin' blue grass tunes, and one musician even played music on a saw blade!
My favorite quote from the day was when I pointed out a live turkey to Jane in the "petting zoo." She took one look at the unattractive creature and said, "I like turkey the food." I didn't have the heart to tell her it was the same thing.
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Adventurous enough to sit on Giant Smokey's foot,
but holding her ears just in case. |
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Eating a mini campfire made out of food
(grapes = rocks; pretzels = kindling; celery = logs; etc.) |
Jane had two Halloween costumes this year. One was a firefighter, which she wore to a little pre-Halloween carnival. Jane has been very interested in fires, fire hydrants, fire safety, etc. lately. One day she asked me if fire comes out of fire hydrants. I thought that was a great assumption for someone who may not understand the etymology of the word hydrant yet. ;)
The second costume was Tinkerbell. It cracks me up how much she loves Tinkerbell, because she only knows her from pictures on her underwear and spotting her on various toys at Target. "I'm Tink," she kept saying the whole time she was wearing her costume.
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| My favorite part was getting to put her hair in a little bun. |
Jane got to wear Tink to school the day before Halloween for their "Pretend Parade."
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Gathering each class onto the stage was like herding cats.
The ratio of teachers to students in order to accomplish
this feat was about 1:2. |
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After Jane's class was in place, she spent her whole thirty
seconds of fame staring at the crying boy. |
Last, but not least... Halloween night! This is the second year that we have hit the streets with several of our dear neighbor friends. We are determined to bring back Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Although our crew was pretty huge (with grown-ups possibly out numbering kids), we only saw one other trick-or-treater the whole night, ha! But our candy to house average was about one in four, so not too bad.
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| The Barretts sported a Cowboys and Indian theme |
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Richard found enough stuff in our dress-up box to go as
a hippie of sorts. |
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And I rocked these leg warmers, since they were the only
previously owned costume that still fit me. |
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We let Jane open one piece of candy while
we were trick-or-treating. Somehow it took
her about three houses to eat one Reese's cup. |
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| Look at all this CANDY!!!! |
