Pumpkin Patch

Well here I am playing catch up again with my blog. Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away and I have hardly posted about many fun things we've been doing this Fall. While I may forgo posting about some things that would otherwise be blog worthy to me if I was posting regularly I definitely wanted to post our trip to the pumpkin patch since it is always such a fun time each year. This year like other years we went with a few family and friends.

Brynn, Kyla, Amy, Lilly, Johnathen and Addisyn

YUM! Hot mini donuts!

Lilly with the pumpkin she picked

Kyla and her pumpkin

Tony wasn't able to join us for the pumpkin patch this year because he was in Idaho for the week hunting for one of these:

Halloween Phantom

We've been "HIT"! Okay, let me explain. It is October and Halloween is approaching. In our wonderful neighborhood this means that the Halloween Phantom is lurking around. Every year in October our entire neighborhood participates in the spirit and good fun of the Halloween Phantom. Monday evening after the girls and Tony left for soccer practice as I was cleaning up the kitchen I heard a knock at the door. I opened the door to find that the Halloween Phantom had left a bucket of goodies for our family. In the basket along with the goodies is a note explaining that we had been "hit" by the Halloween Phantom and we have 48 hours to "hit" three more houses or suffer the curse of the Halloween Phantom. We also place a sign outside our door that says "We've been hit" so that everyone knows the Phantom has visited our house. Kyla was excited to find out upon returning from soccer practice that we had been "hit". The kids in the neighborhood look forward to this excitement every year. It is just as fun to get "hit" as to then take your turn at "hitting" your three houses. You have to be very sneaky to play the part of the Halloween Phantom and the girls LOVE it!

Planning ahead I usually find some great items on sale after Halloween to include in our phantom baskets for the following year. It always pays off to plan ahead! We also had some fun making a few things for our baskets this year. Here is a look at a few things we did.

Halloween M&M Cookie's in a Jar

Mummy wrapped Hershey candy bars

A look into one of our baskets

Our baskets at a glance - the girls decorated the outside of the $1 pails

Kyla helping fill the cookie jars, wrap the mummies and assemble the baskets

Friend and neighbor Claire helping, needless to say we weren't able to "hit" her house

Garden Girls

This year for the first time we decided to plant a garden. My mom came over and helped the girls plant the seeds. The girls were so excited to check the progress of the garden whenever we went in the backyard. A couple weeks ago it was finally time to pick the green beans and snow peas. Kyla instructed Lilly to only pick the snow peas that were "puffed up". I can't begin to tell you how many times I heard Lilly excitedly ask Kyla "is this one puffed up sissy?". We just picked the cucumbers and the corn is starting to grow in nicely. It is definitely something we will do again next year assuming that Tony doesn't turn this area into a concrete pad for the hot tub he has been wanting.

"Is this one puffed up sissy" - Lilly

Lots of pride and satisfaction on that face