Trick or Treat!

We call it Beggar's Night here. It is always a set time and day. This year, Zoey picked out a Japanese Kimono style outfit, but in non-traditional prints. Sort of a Japanese Rocker or something. She saw something similar in a costume magazine, so we just found a pattern and she picked out fabric. It turned out really pretty.





It was really cold though, and rainy. Kind of a bummer for her costume.





Max doesn't care too much, about costumes or candy, so we just put a jersey on him... It was already starting to rain here.







The kids wanted to trick or treat alone, so they did! We have a loop neighborhood and we know everyone, so it was fun to let them go. Besides the hail, they were excited about it all, despite what Max's face looks like...

Pumpkin Carving

We didn't actually carve our pumpkins after we bought them. We were so busy and then our town schedules our Trick or Treating (for Oct 30- don't ask) so I didn't think we would actually get to it. But, Hurricane Sandy brought us some rainy, windy, cold weather and the town rescheduled Trick or Treating for Nov 3. Weird, but all things considered, it worked out. Our actually Halloween was kind of uneventful, but Saturday, Nov 3 was fun.

Zoey designed and carved her entire pumpkin and then she carved Max's too after he drew on his! Mind is the one with the knife sticking out of it.


max starts off with a Sharpie. He always goes traditional.





Zoey uses actually pumpkin carving tools, you know, the little mini saw things with the orange handles. She was successful with two pumpkins. Mine broke (that sort of happens to me a lot) so I just used a knife.





Sawing away...


And Ross... Well, he busts out the power tools.





He did a good job though. he drew and carved this guy... Hi Patrick!



and here are our finished products... Mine is the one with flowers and Zoey's is a vampire Jack-o-lantern



Max's ...



Zoey's...


Mine... The light comes through both the whole and petals, kind of neat.


And Ross's


I don't have any lit pictures in the dark because our trick or treating was from 4-6 (still light out) and in the middle of it, it was raining and hailing (all that after our reschedule). We came in early and headed to some friends house for post Halloween fun.

other random stuff...

One morning I was sitting in the kitchen and looked out the window and the whole sky outside was crazy pink. It was so different than normal...



Sometimes the kids are pretty sweet. It was cold and rainy and they were snuggled on each other watching something on TV.

Pumpkin Patch, part 2

We had a really warm stretch right before Halloween (temps in the 70's), so on our next outing to the pumpkin patch, it was actually warm.

here is Zoey showing off her HUGE boot! I had to get at least one picture of it, much to her disagreement.




typical Ohio scene...


This was the day we were actually planning to buy pumpkins, but our first stop didn't have a ton of variety, or even very big ones (maybe we were too late).

See Max on the bottom? He didn't want to be a part of this... I think he is partly bummed about being the one of the bottom


And by the time he actually gets in the face hole, Ross was done smiling.



I just realized that most of my blogging words describe how I can't get everyone to look at me for a picture! I am documenting life here, so whether they look or not, I suppose I just need to take the picture and move on...

so, moving on... Pumpkins. They look way bigger in the picture. These are pretty small and were on a shelf like a Christmas tree.



Lots of the pumpkin patches are near old barns with stuff in it that the kids and Ross like to explore.




We moved on to another pumpkin barn the same day.



Max went straight to the hay bales...


The roof of the barn, it is over 100 years old.

the pumpkin patch, part 1

We went to a couple of different pumpkin patches this year. Ross missed it all last year, and fall is so nice here, so we soaked it all in...

Scouting out the pumpkins!






We are at Peifer Orchards in Yellow Springs. We only bought little pumpkins here because it was actually a little early, I thought, to buy the big ones.

Plus, Zoey and I just like to buy their apple butter and honey sticks!



How long do I have to hold this for you to take the picture?






One last dash through!


there was an old truck parked behind the little store...






This place has such a nice feel with open space and trees at the same time. You can go out and pick your pumpkins too but Zoey had her boot on, so we stayed and had apple cider slushes instead! Yum!