Pumpkin Carving Party

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins tonight and the kids had a blast!  I mean seriously, they loved every minute... except pulling out the pumpkin guts, we all deferred to Dad on that one.  For the faces, we first sketched out ideas, they told us exactly what they wanted, their eyes and noses differed but both wanted jagged mouths, cuz they were scary punkins.  Then Eric and I did the carving and before too long, we had two awesome customized pumpkins.  We lit them outside on the front porch and the kids couldn't help themselves from dancing around and yelling things like "Happy Halloween" and "Trick or Treat" to the quiet neighborhood.  I love to see their excitement for the upcoming holiday, I love Halloween and I love that they love it too!

Three little pumpkins

Operation baby prep is well underway at our house.  We spent the weekend doing yard work, washing the sofa and dining chairs, dusting every surface imaginable, wiping down walls and doors, and washing windows inside and out all because we know these things won't happen for a while after baby comes.  And while none of these tasks put me into labor, there's a chance that I'll be induced at the end of this week, so we could be counting down the days in single digits.  We've still got a couple minor things to accomplish before baby arrives, like installing baby's car seat, packing a hospital bag, etc. but we are close, really close.  My days of all of my kids being able to feed themselves, dress themselves and being toilet trained are numbered.  I know I'll miss that, but I am ready to hold single occupancy of my body.  I am ready to sleep on my back or even sleep lying flat without heartburn flaring up, although I know I won't be getting enough of it (sleep).  I am ready to bend over to pick something up without groaning and squatting and reaching for something to help me back up.  I am ready to see the scale go down, that's for sure.  So although there are a lot of difficult things that accompany life with a newborn, I am now to the point that I'm willing to take it on.  Let's do this.

Pumpkin Patch 2013

This last Saturday we decided to take in some fall festivities and started out the day taking the kids out to the base to paint pumpkins and then continued on to the Avila Valley Farm to the pumpkin patch! The kids had a great time letting their creative sides out, Henry, who is not an artist, painted his whole pumpkin (this is unprecedented) and Lillie did a cute purple and black pumpkin.  And better that someone else clean up the mess than me, am I right?!? Then we kept the good times rolling by heading to the pumpkin patch. We went through the farm animals as per tradition before the kids and Eric braved the hay maze. It was CRAZY BUSY at the farm, so we passed on pony rides and tractor hay rides, because the lines were incredibly long. So I picked the shortest line, or so I thought, and waited to get us ice cream and olalaberry cobbler. I waited in line a good 45 minutes to find out that they were out of cobbler (BOO!) and after giving Lillie her ice cream she promptly dropped it in the dirt. But I managed to scrape most of the dirt off and we enjoyed the rest of our time there. The weather was perfect and it is such a fun place, I shouldn't have been surprised that everyone on the central coast was there that day. Unfortunately, Henry came down with the stomach flu that evening once we were home, which was too bad, poor little guy. Sunday morning, though, he was back to his goofy, wild self. I'm so glad that, even though going out in public and standing for longer periods of time, was the last thing a 37.5 week pregnant woman wanted to do, I still did it and soldiered through the crowds to make memories with our kids. This is normally my favorite time of year and I don't want them to miss out. Good times.