Pumpkins

Although we had to leave the pumpkin patch without picking a pumpkin we were lucky enough to find these beauties not to far from the farm.

As soon as we got home we got to work on making these pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns. 

Cut, scoop, repeat....

Some of us had more fun than others at scooping out the pumpkin guts.  Sadi could do this all day...

Chase was busy constructing his very magical pumpkin face.

I got to help this beauty with all her teeth carving. 

Her pumpkin was in need of some serious dental work with his sideways teeth...

Kelsey made one scary smiling jack...

and Chase made one cool wizard pumpkin, Harry pumpkin Potter!

I am excited to light these heads up on Halloween...if we can keep those darn horses away!

A trip to the Farm

Yesterday we FINALLY made it to the pumpkin patch.  It seems as though cheer has been taking up all our weekends so it was nice that we finally had a bye week.  This year I found a new farm to check out that I was really excited about.  Although it was much further away from us, it had a really fun looking maze. We started off feeding the farm animals.  Sadi liked feeding the goats.

Chase was a bit hesitant to turn his back to this Emu who he was sure was going to give him a peck.

They had a cute little corn maze for the little kids which included a mystery.  Someone stole Farmer Joe's apple pie, and the tracks would show who the culprit was.

The kids navigated the maze to find scratching posts that they would rub with a crayon to uncover the tracks of the animals that stole the pie.

They had a big barn full of all kinds of activities including a cute puppet show.  The kids loved the hay bale slides.

There were a few corn boxes (like sand boxes) to play in. 

We had fun at the pumpkin shooting.

 It was a slinging good time!  Sadi was actually a pretty good shot at this.

We were on the lookout for some of the wanted criminals in these parts...

We took some "corny" rides on the barrel train.

Chase especially loved jumping and rolling in this hay jump.  This kid had hay everywhere!

There were so many activities to do, that we missed out on some because the wind picked and it was threatening to rain.  It was pretty cute that there were so many things tied to books throughout the  farm.  Some of the animals had been named after book characters like the llamas, Gandolf and Saruman.  They even had a Charlotte's web climber with "Some Pig" woven in the web.

We tried our hands at lassoing bulls. 

These two pumpkin heads were having a blast.

We decided with the wind getting stronger and the clouds getting darker to head to the corn maze before it got to cold.  

Before we arrived at the farm we had read about the "crime" you could solve within the maze if you wanted to become a Farm Scene Investigator. Farmer Joe had been kidnapped and you needed to find all the clues to solve the mystery.  It's played just like the game of clue. We had read about all the suspects on the way to the farm, and we all had made predictions on who done it.  Armed with our secret clue books we were ready to solve the mystery.

It was off to get lost in the maze...

We had to navigate the maze to find 6 clue stations that would eliminate suspects, weapons, and locations.

With each station we eliminated more and more suspects.

We finally found all six stations and found out: Billy the Goat kidnapped the Farmer, with a stick, and hid him in the tool shed.  They all earned their F.S.I. badges.

It started to sprinkle a little but we were not getting out of there without a hay ride (Sadi really was not going to leave without doing this).  We piled on and tried to not get blown away.

The ride was stopped at the haunted Halloween trees where the "creature" lies that no one on the farm knew what it was or where it came from...whoooooo!

As much as there was still to do, it was just way to windy.  We had literally eaten dirt on the hay ride.  That dark in the distance...

it wasn't rain.  It was dust...it was time to pack it up, without a trip to the patch to pick a pumpkin. 

Fall Hiking

This past weekend we headed up to Tahoe for a day to enjoy the fall foliage and a look at the Salmon run.  Apparently we missed the height for both of these.  There was a tiny bit of color, but most of it had already fallen and the trees were bare.

There were still quite a few salmon in the river...dead ones.  Not really that fun to look at.  Some were just fish heads from what was left I assume from the bears buffet.  We heard going down to the river (as we do every year) "there's a bear down there".  Every year we miss the bear by a few minutes it seems.  There were some fish to be seen in the underground viewing area but they weren't salmon, just some rainbows.

It was still a beautiful day to be out enjoying the scenery around the lake.  I never get tired of this view.

Disney Day 3

Our last and final day at Disneyland may have been my favorite.  We had promised both the kids we would do something special for them for their birthday's at Disneyland.  We rode a few rides together first thing and then each of us took a kid for their special time.  For Sadi this meant the brand new, just opened Anna and Elsa boutique for a fairy godmother makeover!  I had bought her an Elsa dress to wear this day as her surprise.

These godmothers could not believe how thick her hair was.  She really got the royal treatment having two of them to pamper her.  Just to give you an idea of how much hair this girl has, I saw 4 other girls come and go in the time they did hers...just saying, my job ain't easy.

 Nails painted, and makeup...wasn't sure about this part, but they made it very tasteful. 

 With a wave of her magic glitter wand and some magic words I can't repeat...

 It was time for the reveal.

 As they spin the girls around they all sing "Let it go".  This was her first look at herself.

The end result was amazing.  Shockingly this stayed in for a few days, and I have no idea what kind of magic bottle they used but no tangles!

We skipped around Disneyland just doing what Sadi wanted.  We stopped in the Tiki room for a pineapple whip..yum.

Then we had one special ticket to go meet Elsa!  We kind of ran into the line for this first thing in the morning.  You have to have a fast pass to meet her, and if you aren't in line first thing in the morning you won't see her.  They sell out in about 15 minutes.  Outside her house Olaf talks to you..pretty funny.

I think Sadi was star struck, she thought Elsa was so beautiful.  They both commented on how frozen her hair was.  They really kept in character and made me laugh as they talked about chocolate.

This was a dream come true for her, and she talked all day about how cool it was to meet Elsa.

 They may have given her some magical powers to freeze this place.

 Luckily we have enough love to melt it.

It was especially magical to have so many Disney employees address her as "your Majesty" or say things like "Oh Queen Elsa thank you for traveling all the way from Arendelle to be here with us".  Really made her day.  While we sauntered around we ran into a few characters like Tigger, who was bouncing to see Elsa.

And Rabbit who made fun of the person in front of us for asking where his pumpkins were...silly kid don't you know it's carrot season!

Chase was off with Dad trying to get into the Jedi academy.  He didn't get picked.  I told him it was because he was wearing the dark side shirt...he agreed.  He did get to ride California screaming over and over..no line.  He loved it!

We let the kids set the pace this last day and let them choose which rides they wanted to repeat.  Sadi was insistent we ride Indiana Jones.  Even with Dad driving the jeep Chase still was in the fetal position.  I still haven't figured that one out...1000 miles and hour and upside down?  Okay.  A few fake spiders on the wall.  No way.

 We cruised the river and saw some wildlife.

 Stopped in New Orleans for some Mickey shaped beignets...delicious, and hot!

Pretty sure these two pumpkins of ours had a great time.

We took them to downtown Disney so they could spend their last few bucks then headed back to the hotel.  They stayed up late that night playing with their new treasures.

 Finally it was lights out....

 I'm always so sad when vacation is over.  Back to the grind!