Fall Fun

I'm a recovering listaholic. You know those adorable themed lists on Pinterest (15 fall fun things, 20 things for the Christmas season, etc)? I ATE THEM UP. Somewhere along the way, I had FOUR kids.  And, you know what? I can't keep up. And I don't care. Because, guess what I discovered? The fun still happens even if there isn't a cute list. Shocking, right?! Clearly the timely blogging about said fun things doesn't happen because, again FOUR KIDS. Here's some things we got up to during the fall. 

We bought cute pumpkins at Trader Joes because they were cute and cheap. Then we took the kids to a pumpkin farm (not a patch with fun activities, an actual farm) to pick out some pumpkins for carving later in the month. 

But then one night we decided to go to a pumpkin patch, not for pumpkins, just to play. It was dark and chilly and we basically had the place to ourselves. Which was perfect because then the kids could ride the zip line as much as their hearts desired and do all the other fun things there because we basically had the place to ourselves.

We took the kids to a kid friendly haunted house in our city's museum. It was mostly a success and the kids left with far too much candy for it not even being halloween yet.

Isla made a pumpkin character from a book for school. It's bad kitty from Happy Birthday Bad Kitty, in case you were wondering. Also, all the hot glue started popping off on the way to school. It was a bit of a disaster until I learned Isla's teacher had a hot glue gun already plugged in at school to fix mishaps like that.

We carved pumpkins. Connor carved his all on his own, Isla drew hers and had Ian help cut her's out. Callum wanted a piece of candy carved and I carved it out...I'm not sure if it was a success or not, haha! 

I may be y-e-a-r-s late to the trend, but I picked up a big pumpkin and carved two holes for Willa to sit in. And, well, just look how cute that turned out!

All the kids dressed up for Halloween. The three older ones had parades at their schools that morning. That evening, we trick-or-treated in our neighborhood before coming back home and passing out candy. Then Isla's bestie came and Isla went back out trick-or-treating again.

Just because there was a certain dog poop in leaf pile incident a couple years ago doesn't mean I don't like fall leaves. It just means the kids no longer can freely play in them! But, I still plopped Willa down in some for a cute picture. 

We ended the fall season by going to my grandma's house for Thanksgiving. I always love having my kids see my grandma and know it is so special for them to even have a living great grandparent. It was a sweet, sweet time. And before you get on me, yes I know technically it's still fall. But, as soon as Thanksgiving it over, it's Christmas season to me...yep, Christmas is a season all of its own! 

All this fall fun happened while also celebrating both Isla and Connor's birthdays and Ian and I managing a trip to Nashville for a few days. We really did manage to have a fun filled fall, even without a beautiful Pinterest list reminding us what we should do.

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Halloween

Halloween was an insanely busy day for us. Like nonstop. It was all fun, but it was still crazy. It started with the kids halloween parade at school in the morning. Above is them all dressed up and ready for school. Isla decided the day before halloween that she didn't want to be a mermaid, the costume she had picked out at the store, but would instead use her witch costume from last year. I tried for a second to change her mind, but really didn't care. But now I have a costume with the tags still on it that I don't know what to do with. Oh well. Moving on. 

The halloween parade at school is slightly chaotic because the whole school participates in it at the same time. Isla gets really excited to see us when she is walking in it though, and I totally love that. Connor is more reserved, but still smiles and waves at us. After the parade, I went straight to Isla's class for her class party. I led the bingo station and must say I did quite the good job ;) Then I had a little break between parties to run to Target and pick up candy for the trick or treaters...nothing like waiting until the last minute, right?! Then back to the school for Connor's party. His was less party and more art project with a bunch of food involved. The kid who sits next to him was absent, so I got to sit next to him, which was nice for this pregnant lady because I felt like I did far too much standing up that day. Then it was off to get Callum with 20 minutes to spare before turning back around to get the kids from school. 

Straight after school on Wednesdays Isla has ballet. Since she had been looking forward to costume day at ballet since they announced it a couple weeks ago, I knew we couldn't miss, even though I would have loved a little reprieve in our schedule. She had lots of fun. Then it was home for dinner and wrangling everyone in their costumes to go trick or treating. I literally had to shove Callum in his costume while he screamed hysterically. Then we showed him people give him candy and he gets to put it in his bag and he was totally cool with the situation. 

Trick or treating was a lot of fun. Callum could easily do it this year and would come running back to the street after yelling, "I got candy!!!" He also did a status check of his candy after every house. He was REALLY, REALLY into the candy. He is also the only child that has asked for his candy constantly all day every day since. 

Once we were done trick or treating, we came back home to pass out candy. Well, Connor and Isla excitedly did from our front porch. The 400 pieces of candy I got only lasted about an hour...we get a lot of people coming into our neighborhood. Which really, that was good because we could then turn off the lights and put the kids to bed at a normal time. So, talk about a win! 

^^ I told you she gets excited! 

^^ This was the picture from right before we headed out to go trick or treating. Everyone full of hope and not all crazy yet, haha! 

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Pumpkin Carving

We carved our pumpkins on Monday evening in what I will say was the most calm and successful pumpkin carving attempt we've ever had. Of course, I do realize that as the kids get older, things like this will just get easier and easier. But, for instance, Connor did pretty much all of his on his own. He cleaned it out, came up with the design and cut out most of the design all on his own. It's Darth Vader, in case you are wondering. Now, Isla's creation, though successful, wasn't without a few bumps in the road. She wanted to do a cat and drew on what she wanted. The problem was, there would be no space for light to come through anywhere except the nose. I convinced her to make the whiskers larger, so light would come through, and after she did the first one, she declared her pumpkin ruined and ran off. I continued to finish the whiskers and she came back just as I was starting on making the nose larger. And that's when she said it actually looked good...haha! She then got back in the spirit and helped with the eyes. So, all was well in the end. Now Callum, he had a zest for anything sharp and I had a great fear that the sharp object in his hand would somehow end up cutting me. We settled on him enjoying himself with a poker and his pumpkin has about 500 micro holes all over it that you cannot see. But when my brother came over on Tuesday, Callum proudly declared to him "I make holes!" so I will call that a win. 

Now for a bunch of photos of the actual pumpkin carving. 

^^ I tried getting Callum to hold the pumpkin piece up to his mouth, but all he was actually doing was biting the back!

^^ He kept going back for more, so it must not have tasted bad. 

^^ If you look close, you can see her original drawing that she wanted to do. 

^^ Happier now that the cat pumpkin is back on track.

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Pumpkin Love

We went and picked out pumpkins yesterday. I really just wanted to get some to decorate our front porch and mantle, but was surprised the kids were excited to pick some out as well. Connor and Isla each picked out a pumpkin for carving and we picked one out for Callum as well. Of course, they wanted to carve them yesterday and were a bit bummed when I explained we have to wait a couple weeks because otherwise the pumpkins will go bad before halloween. 

Isla spent a bunch of time selecting the perfect little white pumpkins to make a snowman out of and has been obsessed with it ever since...including showering with it last night and asking that we make clothes for each of the little pumpkins! It was a quick and easy trip. One in which Callum quickly lost interest in the pumpkins and instead wanted to explore the farm...check out the tractors and look at the animals. But this was an actual farm, just with a pumpkin stand set up on the side of the road, so not exactly the perfect spot for Callum to just run free, but he still had fun and the farmer was nice enough to let him drive her gator. 

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It's Still Fall

Fall doesn't end until December 20th. But it seems like most people skipped fall this year. As soon as halloween was over, everyone switched to christmas. So many people I know decorated their homes for christmas as soon as November hit. I even saw trees lighting up some windows on my street. It's kind of crazy.

But fall is still here. And since we have gotten almost no rain, all the leaves are still so beautiful and crunchy. They are fun to walk in. They are fun to play in...as long as one knows for certain it's a clean leaf pile. Yeah, we learned that one first hand a couple weeks ago. Dog poop and kids...YUCK! 

Callum absolutely loves leaves. Like LOVES them. Every time he sees even just a few, he grabs them and throws them in the air. It is really quite cute. Plus, we have taken to running the stroller through all the leaf piles on the way to school. All the kids laugh...and all my neighbors are probably looking at me through their windows with scorn on their faces for messing up their leaf piles. Oh well, you only live once, so I may as well mess up some leaf piles for fun.

Now don't get me wrong, I love me some christmas. I even decorated our house the day after thanksgiving. But, I also have an adorable December baby and it really seems that christmas can't arrive until after his birthday has been celebrated. This little guy will be two come Saturday, and once he is properly celebrated, let the christmas festivities commence!

Even then, you will still see me running through all the leaf piles, much to the distain of my neighbors.

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Pumpkin Carving

Like so many other parents out there, we spent some time this past weekend carving pumpkins. And like some of those parents, I totally failed at taking a picture of both my kids pumpkins...oops! 

The kids designed their own pumpkin faces. Both of them went with rather simple designs. The hardest part was Isla's pumpkin was thicker than the carving knife, so we had to get a little creative. But neither kid had intricate or hard designs. Also, someone mentioned to me that good ole hairspray inside the pumpkin would help preserve it, so I decided to give it a go. So far, three days on, they are holding up...and obviously they are pretty much to the finish line at this point. 

I have to admit, though I have dissed how hot this fall has been, sitting outside in not too hot and not too cold weather to carve our pumpkins was pretty dang nice. Plus, it's given us more time to enjoy the backyard remodel, which we go out and play in everyday since getting the amazing fake grass...I seriously love that stuff. I wonder if they are looking for a spokesperson because I would totally sing them praises. 

Happy halloween! Have a safe one out there. I know my ninja, witch and astronaut are pretty excited about the day's festivities.

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Oh, hey fall

Fall feels like it sort of snuck up on me this year. I really think it was because we had the market the first weekend and Isla's birthday the next weekend. So, I've been left feeling like I'm playing catch up. Gone are the days of me taking my kids to play at the pumpkin patch numerous times a week. Now we are lucky to make it out there once in the whole month. 

Since having kids, fall has taken on a new meaning for me. I used to not like it. It ushers in winter, my least favorite season. Because of that, it landed on my bad list. Whelp, three kids with fall birthdays later, fall is a season of busyness and celebration. It's also a time filled with the "hard" decisions of choosing a halloween costume, pumpkin patch visits, pumpkin carving, halloween parades and more. And, let's be honest, I can get on board with the beautiful leaves. They may be messy, but they share are pretty. 

Fall is now a special season, albeit a busy one in our household...in the span of seven weeks, not only do we have all three of our kids birthdays, we also have three of our parents birthdays and a nephew's. Talk about a busy season!  

I am liking fall so much, next I may try to get on board with winter. That will be a hard sell though. It has nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with the short hours of daylight. I love me some sun! But, I am no longer going to diss fall for ushering in winter.

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