Annual Pumpkin Carving

Every year I say we don't need to carve pumpkins because it's always the adults who do all the work and the kids don't even do much, but every year we still end up doing it, simply for the sake of tradition. We got the pumpkins free this year and they were small, so we finished all four in an hour after bathtime the other night. At least Leah and Andrew were more willing to get their hands in their and scoop the gunk out a little more this year. And they had specific ideas about the faces they wanted to carve.

Jacob wasn't so sure at all what he was supposed to do. We kept trying to get him to stick his hand in but he didn't know why he would do that. Then we gave him a spoon for scooping, but of course spoons are for eating. Finally we touched his hand to the gunk so he could feel it. He only said it was yucky because everyone else was saying it, but he didn't seem to mind touching it.

The disgusted faces are really exaggerated in these pictures-- they really didn't think it was that bad!

And here are the finished products. They are attempting to make the same face they carved on their pumpkins. Jacob's is a cheese grin. Leah's had an LOL emoji.

We've had so much rain and wind the past week we were never able to actually light them up so I have no pictures of that!

Warm Fall Days

We have been enjoying quite a few warm weather days, considering it's October in Vermont. We have learned to soak them up while we can because winter is long & hard, so we have been outside as much as possible.

A couple weeks ago, we went to a Fall Festival at a nearby church (where our friends from Homeschool Group go). The weather actually wasn't so good then, it was a little rainy, but we still enjoyed being outside. They had free pumpkins, free food, bounce house, petting zoo, face painting, and tons more. The kids had a great time! We put face stickers on our pumpkins there and plan to use them for carving later next week.

We went downtown for a library trip one day and ate lunch by the waterfall. The kids love to climb around on the rocks.

Another day was so windy we decided to fly a kite. We got it up super high!

And then recently we enjoyed some time at the park where Andrew has his taekwando class. It was so nice we even played more after Andrew was done with class.

Jacob still talks about this "biiiig slide". He has a love/ hate relationship with it. He climbs to the top and then gets scared and climbs back down the ladder. Then he'll go down and realize it's fun but still get scared again the next time he climbs up.

Jacob's new favorite thing at the playground is hanging on the swing on his tummy.

Apple Pickin'

This fall has brought us some amazing weather! We had such a good day to pick apples-- although actually it was extremely warm. The kids all got their own bag and we decided to fill them with four different kinds (gala, golden delicious, ginger gold & cortland). They did so well and didn't complain much at all, even when we walked up a huge hill and kept walking through rows & rows of orchard. Of course they ate some of each kind as we went along, but we managed to take enough home for several pies and desserts. And I even got some great photos.

 It appears that this picky dude is actually eating a fruit. But in reality, he took a bite and then just carried it around the rest of the time (along with the tractor he insisted upon bringing along). So, still no fruits for Jacob.