Trick or Treat

We actually had Trick or Treat on Halloween this year!  Baylor wanted to be many things before he settled on Iron Man.  My favorite two were: a pumpkin patch- he wanted to wear the clothes with the leaves on them (camouflage) with pumpkins and leaves hanging on the clothes.  Then he wanted to be a Jack-o-lantern.  He wanted a costume like a sandwich board with a jack-o-lantern with lights on it.  I even bought the battery rice lights for it.  Then he wanted to be a ninja.  So I finally bought him a costume, took it home, and he said he changed his mind already.  So Lori met me at the Halloween pop up store and he picked out Iron Man.  Lori bought him a light up helmet that shoots little darts and talks.   For ToT the darts said at home but the lights came in handy. 

We went with the girls of course.  Natalie was Super Girl and Vanessa was a witch.  They went to the little, neighbor lady, Kitty, across the street first.  She loves having the kids come over since we do not get kids in our end of town. 

We went up the road to the neighborhood of big houses for our usual route. This year the weather worked with us (last year was freezing cold) and we hit many more houses than in the past.  

It did start to sprinkle towards the end and we all rushed to the cars before the witch melted in the rain  

Baylor was not really interested in his haul and but ate some Skittles on the way home.  

Hello Jack!

Tonight was pumpkin carving night.  He has been looking forward to this for weeks, since pumpkins started showing up in the stores. He has one pumpkin we bought in September that I let him paint and then Lori bought Ironman things to put in the pumpkin.  It has held up but he really wants to carve.  We washed two of the sad pumpkins and spread out the sheet on the floor.  He wanted one happy, smiling face on his pumpkin,  I was allowed to make a scary face on mine. My babies smiling for Mommy! 

He was really excited to start carving and I was trying to steer him away from another acupumpkin like we had last year. 

He really tried to carve and use some of the other tools we have.  And of course I let him. 

He did get the knife in but really had a hard time controlling it.  He is only four but very determined.  

I tried to gouge out an outline of the round eyes he wanted.  He managed a few millimeters of actual cutting and I helped him with the rest.  

He wanted a H shaped nose and he drew the mouth and I followed his tracing.  

He was very pleased with his work!  

And then he was done I made my scary Jack.  

I think they turned out great.  

And their seeds are now roasting in the oven. One pan with sugar and pumpkin spice and the other with seasoned salt.  Yummy!

First Frost

Saturday we had a nice hard frost in the early morning so I ran out to take some photos of the beauty.   The horseradish needs a good frost before harvesting so I was happy it was time to get digging.  

The verbena was beautiful. 

I loved the scarecrow's shadow on the side of the house.  

The last of the sunflowers. 

And the Sweet Annie heavy with seeds. 

Around lunch time we headed for our annual trip to the apple farm.  We were looking forward to the giant corn bin and I was very disappointed to find a foam bin in its place.  Baylor was only mildly disappointed and then made the best of it.  He did enjoy it and really wanted to take one of the foams home with him.  I really had to tell him that would be stealing and all the things I could think of  to steer him away from taking one.  

One photo op is the school bus.  

..

We also always take a photo on the barrel horse and this year he discovered the rope and the calf.  

He was up there several times for quite a bit of time roping the calf.  

This year they had this ring on a string game were the object was to hook the ring on a hook on the post.  I could not do it and Baylor enjoyed it until it whacked him in the face.  He was literally running rings around the swinging ring and I was not very surprised. 

He cannot close one eye yet so when he wants to look with one eye he holds his left one shut.  

After the eye whacking with the ring we went inside to buy our apples and ice cream. He ate black raspberry for his first selection.  He posed with the scarecrow and asked for his photo taken.  He is such a poser now and pulls faces all the time.  

I am not sure why I did not notice the huge shadow right in his face when I was taking the photo.  I really should pay a bit more attention. We bought two bags of apples one with eating apples and one with baking apples.  And we also bought some more ice cream and an apple cider.  I picked salted caramel and he picked orange pineapple.  

We went out to rope the calf some more and I found the bin of 'sad' pumpkins for $1.00 each!  So I picked the four here on the driveway.  Four dollars for pumpkins the same size as the $15.00 pumpkins.  They are warty, off center, and perfect for carving!  Who cares if they are sad, they will carve just the same.  

We also bought one white pumpkin just for fun.  

The pumpkin on the left was the one Baylor picked at the pumpkin farm (over $8.00) and the one on the right was bought at the Weis for $5.00.  We gave one of the pumpkins to the preschool for them to carve with the kids.  

So after we got home Baylor and I dug up the horseradish.  I planted it in new spot this year and they really loved it and grew lots of roots. 

All cleaned up and ready to grind!  

 Which made lots of horseradish! Thankfully it can be frozen!  And shared with family and friends!  

Pumpkin Farm

This weekend was the trip to the Reynolds Farm with Amy, Julie and Cullen.  We were hoping to have Tara, Julie and Lucas join us but Julie and Amy had to change the date at the last minute.  We were sorry they could not make it but I know they still had a great pumpkin adventure. Baylor and I were remarkably on time (our two families usually run on lebian time which is about 10 to 30 minutes late) so we took a few photos before they arrived.  

When I parked I spied a car I recognized and looking around I confirmed it was the one I thought it was.  Julie and I meet through another two mommy family.  Over the course of time, we both disconnected from them but we remained close friends.  I really did not want to cross paths with them and I preformed an avoidance game.  I did not want to accidentally make eye contact and have to say Hi, how are you? because I really did not want to know.  But the boys were clearly happy to see each other and ran into each others arms.  They have been friends since Baylor was 10 months old and Cullen was almost a year old.  They are only 6 or 7 weeks apart.  I love they are such good friends.  

Of course the first thing they both wanted to do was ride the barrel cars.  

And then ride the tractor wagon up to the pumpkin fields.  They think they are picking out pumpkins but it is really a photo shoot.  

And then off to play in the playground. This was where I had to do my best avoidance moves.  Julie and Any humored me but Julie said whenever they run into each other around town Beth just ignores them anyway.  First we feed the goats.

Raced on unwieldy tricycles. 

Bounced and jumped on the hay. 

Raced up the hay mountain.  

Ran though the maze. 

And when strategy did not work, cheat and run over the bales. 

Then I took him to the Corn Cannon, three shots for $1.00. He could do it himself he said.  

And on his third shot he hit the deer.  The man running the canons gave him a high five and said Baylor was the first to hit the deer that day,  

Afterward we went to Waynesburger for delicious lunch.  Cullen rode with us again this year and I loved hearing the boys chattering with each other.  After yummy Gyros, onion rings, Waynesburgers, french fries  and milkshakes we headed to their house so the boys could play more and Julie and Amy could watch the Ravens/Steelers game.  They are each a fan of one team and had their team shirts on.  At Waynesburger someone commented on their shirts that it was a fight waiting to happen.  Cullen rode with us again and the boys yapped the entire way.  They had a good time playing and we left after the game. (for posterity's sake Steelers won in the last few seconds, Julie was a happy lady) The next morning when I was waking Baylor up, I asked him if he had a good day yesterday.  He said it was better than good, it was awesome.  I would have to agree.