Happy Halloween!!

What better way to celebrate a holiday than with a photoshoot? Here are some pics of my two little skeletons. I'm pretty happy with how the photos turned out since it was past naptime for both of them. . .

















And once Daddy got home, he headed out with Henry to meet some neighborhood friends for trick or treating. From what I hear, Henry did a great job and was set on doing everything himself. While that made for a slow walk around the neighborhood, I'm proud of him for being so independent. Owen and I hung out at the house and greeted the trick or treaters. Here they are on the way out the door (Owen joined them for the picture). . .



We hope everybody had a fun and safe Halloween!!

Pumpkin Patch Adventures - Part I

In a moment of foolishness (or perhaps laziness), I decided it would be best to just wait until the end of the month and post all our pumpkin patch pictures in one post. 5 pumpkin patches and hundreds of pictures later I now realize that post would so big that most of you would fall asleep before reaching the end. So here is part 1 of our pumpkin patch adventures and hopefully part 2 will soon follow.

Pumpkin Patch #1 - The Flower Farmer
The first weekend in October we headed to Canby to meet the Sohlman family for their annual gathering at this pumpkin patch. We hopped on and off the train around the farm as we visited the farm animals, explored the hay pyramid (dark mazes and all) and of course checked out the pumpkins.










Henry and Colton checking out the goats




Henry loved all the chickens running around and took a peek at the rabbits


Henry even made friends with a goat. Henry was able to find a little food in the machine and the goat was eager for Henry to pass it along to him before the chickens could get it.





Henry loved making his way through the hay mazes in the pyramid. I thought he might be a bit scared in there because it was pitch black, but it didn't seem to bother him at all. Although he did keep asking, "Are there chickens in there?". We weren't sure whether he was afraid there might be chickens hiding in the dark, or disappointed that there weren't any in there. But either way, I was quite happy that we didn't meet up with any farm animals in the dark as I was crawling through the mazes!







Henry loved checking out all the pumpkins and seeing how many he could lift. He decided the ones he wasn't able to lift made good seats, so it was a win-win.








Henry and Harper





And of course the small fish pond (missing the fish, but with a very nice waterfall), was a huge hit with the toddlers.







So much fun, thank you Sohlman family!!

Pumpkin Patch #2 - Fir Point Farms
It was a bit wet the next weekend, but we put on our rain boots and explored all the fun activities around the pumpkin patch.

Henry led us through the sunflower maze . . .







Henry and Daddy took a ride around the farm on the barrel train while Mommy and Owen waited and looked for the perfect spot to take pictures.








Owen snoozing in the front pack while Mommy waited for the train to make it's way back







Henry took a few turns on the big slide, pointed out the pigs and took a tour of the nut house (he loved digging and rolling around in there, I was sure one of us would have to crawl in there after him, but he did finally decide to come out on his own with the bribe of a hot dog for lunch). . .











After some food, we explored the corn maze. Around the middle of the maze (when it's as difficult to get back to the entrance as it is to get to the exit), Henry decided he'd had it with walking and wanted to hitch a ride on Mommy and only Mommy. With Owen in the front pack, I tried out a few different ways, but can't say I was disappointed when we were finally able to convince him to "let" Daddy take him the rest of the way. For long distances, 1 boy at a time is definitely my limit, time for this mama to start working out!


Henry loved being the one to hand over the tickets



And of course there were more pumpkins . . .







Pumpkin Patch #3 - Fiala Farm
Weekend #3 in October led to pumpkin patch #3 for us. We were a bit late getting out that day, so it was just a quick jaunt out to a smaller pumpkin patch. This was our first time there, and what it lacked in activities (although there was still plenty to do), it made up for in charm. The owners (or at least, what I presume were the owners) quickly greeted us and gave us a quick rundown of what there was to do. They handed us a pair of clippers and sent us out to the field to cut our own pumpkins right off the vine. After picking out our pumpkins (of which they had every variety you could think of), we headed to the wash bins to rinse the mud off of our treasures. Henry had lots of fun wandering around the rows of pumpkins with the wheelbarrow and I think the bins filled with water speak for themselves.











Stay tuned for part II of our pumpkin patch adventures . . .