~~Fun Family Fall Pictures~~pumpkin picking & carving, halloween, and birthdays.

We went to Disney Live! Mickey's Magic Show, as a family, and it was a blast! None of us have ever gone to one of those shows, but it was highly entertaining and captivating to see! I think the magic tricks are fun, and I would love to know how they did the tricks!
We went to a pumpkin patch to get pumpkins, per Caleb's request. He wanted to go to the patch and pick out the best pumpkin. We only drove about 30 minutes away, and we could pick which ever one we wanted, and take our time. I love MN Grown Vegetables!
It was a big pumpkin patch, and the kids loved walking around looking for their treasure. I liked that their were wagons available to tote the pumpkins back to the van!
It was quite an experience, and the kids had a great time. Nathaniel didn't come with us, but we still had fun. Nathaniel was with a friend for the day.
Caleb loved riding in the wagon, too.









Time to go home. It was chilly outside, but that didn't stop the kids from getting their pumpkins. They had so much fun! Then, we went home and had hot chocolate and marshmallows.

A few days later, we had a night of carving pumpkins. It was a fun experience, and the kids had a blast!
They all loved digging out the guts of the pumpkin, separating the seeds, and cleaning out the pumpkins.
Cole loved eating the raw pumpkin guts and the seeds. He didn't seem to mind the flavors, and we didn't think it could hurt him any.



Mmmm....pumpkin goo!
Madelyn wanted a kitty on her pumpkin, so I drew what I thought a cat would look like, and did my best.

Caleb wanted a bat, so I drew a bat and carved that out for him.
I had a winking pumpkin with hair around the sides, and Terry had the traditional pumpkin with fang-looking teeth. I think his was the scariest. However, Nathaniel made his pretty interesting..and he was very creative!
Guts and glory come to mind when I look at his freaky pumpkin. :)
Cole's pumpkin was a silly face.
We separated all the seeds, cleaned them up, and baked them. They were delicious! Terry's special recipe.


Then it was time for trick or treating. The kids got to dress up in their costumes for church that morning. They each wore the same costume all day, except Caleb. Caleb was Spiderman in the morning, and a Power Ranger for evening.
Madelyn was a bumblebee (which she was last year...but I might as well use it two years, right?) and Cole was Jo-Jo the Clown.
It was fun to see kids handing out candy at a few of the homes.

The kids had a great time, but it really got cold outside.
Lena, our pugachin, was even dressed up. Nathaniel dressed her up in Maddy's Tinkerbell skirt, and some angel wings.





It was a fun day. We like doing Halloween because my kids love to dress up, and they love to get candy. That evening we celebrated Nathaniel's birthday, our friend's son's birthday, and the grandparents were over. It was a busy night!

We carved those pumpkins!

We have so much fun carving pumpkins every fall. This year, one of Terry's friends gave us 4 really nice pumpkins (for free) so we skipped the pumpkin patch excursion. It would have been fun to go pick out pumpkins, take a hay ride, get pictures picking out pumpkins...oh well. We will try that route next year. Can't really beat the free price of these pumpkins, either! We decided to carve pumpkins on Wednesday night, and it was fun! We even saved the seeds, and Terry made an amazing batch of seasoned baked pumpkin seeds. We looked up a few patterns for carvings online. Madelyn didn't really like the pictures of the pumpkins we saw. I am not sure why they somewhat freaked her out, but they did. There are some really creative people out there with their ideas! Speaking of creative, Nathaniel was really creative this year! He made a Rhinoceros! He laid his pumpkin down, had the stem as the nose, and had me carve out the rest of him!

He wanted to wear his costume while carving pumpkins. This year he is going to be an astronaut. It is kind of funny, he actually wants to be an astronaut someday. I hope that he will keep reaching toward that goal if that is his true desire. We got this costume from a neighbor friend. We are just missing the helmet. Oh well~~
What a great face! Sorry he is in his boxers. He just got out of the shower, and he wanted a picture with his finished Rhino!
Caleb had a great time picking out his "dog" pattern for his pumpkin. It turned out pretty cute! I will have to get a picture of the finished pumpkin. I must have missed getting the full picture of that one.
Caleb enjoyed playing with the carved out pieces of pumpkin.
Every kid needs to make a silly face while holding something close to their face, when they are young. Did you do this, too? I know I did!
Madelyn is really into making funny faces while she is smiling. She is so cheesy sometimes! She just cracks me up! We put on her "angel wings" from last year. I actually bought an angel costume for Lena (our dog) last year, she didn't like it, so Madelyn wore it. Really dog costumes fit small kiddos really well!

She is such a little goofy sweetie! She is a comic, and she knows it!
I love her little cheeks! So kissable! She didn't make any pictures on the pumpkins. Terry and I didn't carve our pumpkins yet...and I don't think we will get to it until next week sometime. It was a lot of fun, but I wish we would have had more time to do it...like a Saturday afternoon. We were a little rushed that night. But, it was fun nonetheless. I think the kids had a great time, too! If any of you are going out and about tomorrow night, be safe~ I think we will do some treating at family/friend homes, a few in a neighborhood, and then (hopefully) heading to a friend's house for a movie/gab night.