pumpkin carving fun

At the beginning of the month we picked up a couple of pumpkins at Austin's pre-school field trip. We decided not to carve them so early (we knew it would be a moldy mess after coming home from our trip to California). However, they did need a little "something". I found some "face" stickers I had tucked away in our Halloween decor the year before, so right before bed one evening the kids stuck faces on the pumpkins and we put them in the front of the house on display.

After returning from our trip to California, we knew we wanted to carve the pumpkins before Halloween night, but the only day available was the day before!

After the "de-gutting", Mikayla and Austin designed their pumpkin faces by drawing what they wanted them to look like. I told them (as the one with the carving knife) that there was no guarantee that it would turn out that way! But it sure was cute watching them draw the faces!

Mikayla loved "popping" out the parts of the face!

Not sure this is what Mikayla drew as her pumpkin face,
but it would do...

After a quick change for Mikayla to get ready for the musical Pinkalicious, Austin & Mikayla showed off their HAPPY pumpkins!

two little jack-o-lanterns sitting on a porch...

field trip to the pumpkin patch!

At the beginning of October, Austin and his pre-school class went on a field trip to Lee Farms and headed out to the pumpkin patch. I was so glad that it was earlier in the month than later, so we wouldn't have to miss it with our 10-day trip to California in mid-October (shhhh...don't tell Mikayla she missed her class pumpkin patch field trip while we were gone! I still don't think she knows!)

Field Trip to Lee Farms
October 4, 2011

{climbing the hay bales with his friend Sofie}
{mmmm...apple cider!}

{it's so heavy, Mom!}
{two pumpkins ready to take home}
{hay ride}
I love being able to accompany Austin on these little outings! It gives me joy to be a part of these special moments with him.

capturing the moments

About a month ago, I took the kids to a local park to try and catch some sweet moments of them together. It was gorgeous outside and there were so many beautiful colors of leaves! I like to try to get some "outside" pics of each of the kids when they've turned another year and then hang them in our entryway year after year...

{someday I need to get more frames as they get older,
so I don't have to swap the pictures out year after year}

Normally I have a friend take them or I pay for them to be taken, but this year I decided to try and get a couple of them using my own novice photography skills. As many of my friends say...all you need is one! I got a couple of good ones of Austin as his official "4 year" picture and some of the kids together, so I was pleased!

And then we headed to the playground...

And called it a night...

There's always one (or two) in the bunch...

out with fall and in with winter

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving time with your family! We were able to celebrate it with my dad's side and got to see some family we haven't seen in quite some time. It warmed my heart to see all of the kids running around together...and the grown ups lazying the day away together. It was the first Thanksgiving that my parents have been to in many, many years, so it was extra special to us!

The Fall decorations are coming down tomorrow. Last year, I got a slow start on the Christmas decor, but that's not going to happen this year! I want to be ahead of the game...unlike when I decorated for Fall. Before I started taking down my Fall decor (what little there was of it), I decided to snap a few pictures to say goodbye before I packed it away for yet another year!


And, speaking of bringing in winter...we had our first snow of the season last Tuesday! It wasn't much, but that didn't stop the kids from wanting to bundle up to go out and play in it. 15 minutes later they were back inside ready to get warmed up again...it was fun while it lasted, I suppose!


P.S. I extended the giveaway at my Stuck on Stampin' blog until Sunday! Head on over to enter to win some fun Stampin' Up! goodies!

Fall decor and more!

Wow! November has just flown by. It seems that the last 2 weeks of being sick here at our house (either me, Ryan, or the kids) has stopped us from participating in some Thanksgiving traditions that we started last year. I've seen some super amazing ideas out there this year, but I never got around to any of them! How sad! And now with Christmas fast approaching, I'm feeling rushed to move onto the next holiday. However, I do have a few {simple} plans for some special Thanksgiving activities this week, so I'll share those hopefully later on. Although it may be after the holiday.

I figured it's still considered the Fall season...for at least another week, so what better time than TODAY to share with you my Fall decor for 2009. (Although I do know many who have already started decorating for Christmas, but I won't mention any names! *wink*)

~ Fall Decor 2009 ~
{click to view larger}

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Last year, we had the pleasure of hosting Thanksgiving at our house! This year we get to give that pleasure to someone else and are traveling to Ryan's parents for Thanskgiving Day. I had a lot of fun with the decorating portion of last year's hosting experience. The food part? Let's just say I'm glad it was a joint effort between 3 families. Our turkey turned out great, but the mashed potatoes? Don't even ask...

Because I never got to share the Thanksgiving table from last year, I thought it would be appropriate to share for any of you getting ready to host your own Thanksgiving this year! I especially like to keep things simple and last year's table wasn't any different.

These were the place settings at each guest's seat.
I did happen to blog about these if you'd like to take a look!

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On Sunday, I held a 4 for $10 Christmas gift giving event.
It was a small group of stampers, but we had lots of fun!
Visit Stuck on Stampin' for more information on
each of the projects we made below.