A Day in the Life

 One weekend this fall, we had the privilege of sharing the experience of an SEC football game with some friends from Cali. We wanted them to get a true feel of the seriousness of SEC (or more specifically, Alabama) football.

 

From Dreamland barbecue to Bryant-Denny Stadium.

From Eli Gold to Alabama fashion choices.

From cheerleaders to the Million Dollar Band.

From hocking tickets to over-sized bronze statues.

You know, the basics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think they got it.

 

 

Winter Yellow?

This was taken in front of the hotel about 3 weeks ago.

Winter is headed our way.

Halloween 2011 Recap

This was the year for Potter costumes!

 Here is the crew before going out trick-or-treating.

The kids had several opportunities to dress up so there was more than one costume worn.  Dylan was a cowboy and batman but not "inny yon" like he said he was going to be for the last two months.  Trek went from Mad-eye Moody to Spidey.  Joe stayed with the Harry Potter theme but swiched from the Slytherin house to the Gryffindor house.  Jono wouldn't let us help with his costume but based on what he came up with we declared him Lockhart.

Bring on the candy!

We also did some pumpkin carving with some friends.

Didn't they turn out great?!

Pumpkin seeds were saved for roasting with this recipe.

How was your Halloween?



At the Pumpkin Farm

This has been an annual trip for us since moving to California.

Bishop's Pumpkin Farm.

Aren't these pumpkins beautiful?!

It is quite the operation.

They have talking chickens that say things like:

Why did the rubber chicken cross the road?

'Cause he wanted to stretch his legs.

Ba dum chick.

What is a chicken's least favorite day of the week?

Fry-day!

Ba dum chick.





The big kids got to try out the corn maze for the first time.

I made Jono go with them.  I am directionally challenged so put me in a corn maze and you won't see me again until the new year.  I probably shouldn't have revealed that tidbit.  It could probably be used against me.

There are animals to pet and feed.  The piglets had not been born yet and that is the only time pigs are ever cute so I purposely neglected to take their picture.  But the goats were pretty sweet.

 

We accessorized a couple shirts for the occasion with puffy ghosts and iron-on letters that I had found on clearance last year.  Amazingly, I was still able to locate that stuff to use it.

Trek was so proud of his letters.  He kept saying "O-O-B spells boo!"

The finale was trying to get a cute family shot in the giant pumpkin patch...

So maybe not.

It was a good day with the fam even if they wouldn't cooperate for the picture.

We came home with several sugar pumpkins for baking.

Any pumpkin recipes you'd like to share???

Last Minute Costume Ideas

We happened to be in Ukiah for their annual Pumpkinfest!

It was cute.  They had a hometown parade where all the local peewee teams and dance classes and karate classes had a float.  And--what a stroke of genius to do this kind of thing in the fall instead of a Christmas parade.  You know the temperature is guaranteed to drop below freezing if you even think about scheduling a Christmas parade.

If you are looking for a last minute Halloween costume, you might find some inspiration in the following pictures.

1. Mariachi band member  2. Shriner  3.  Scary Hobo Clown  4.  Zombie Roller Derby Girl or Super Roller Derby Girl  5. Any Star Wars character  6. Super-serious Dirt Biker

There was other entertainment.

We watched our lost balloon fly away.

We played in the bounce houses.  Always fun.

Climbed the rock tower.

With the very foam-muscled purple superhero. 

I would have thought he was the LSU Superfan but he didn't have a cape. 

And that, folks, is costume suggestion number 7.

Autumn Brown

Thanks to Jono for filling up the wood shed so we'll stay warm this winter.

He takes such good care of us!

Autumn Orange {the pumpkin harvest}

I wanted to wait to harvest the pumpkins when we had all the kids there at the same time.

Amazingly, that was hard to do.  My kids aren't that old.  It's not like they are driving themselves places.  We might have to re-evaluate.  I like us together.

They each picked one and carried them over to the hay bales.
Dylan picked the squash because they were easier to carry but it's all squash really.

Yea! That was fun.

Then we played with the camera a little.

This one of Abby...Jono put his sunglasses over the lens of the camera.  She's pretty much amazing in any tint.  I'm allowed to say that, right? She is my daughter.  I can be just as biased as I want.



I love this series of Joe.  He was trying to bury himself with the pumpkins. 

He's such a goofy kid and a lot of fun when he's not trying to be Mr. Tough Guy. 

The last picture is his favorite. 

Of course.



Oh!  One last Autumn Orange...

the holiday truck in Forbestown!

They grew their pumpkins up onto the bed of the truck.

And.  There's a goat.

Love it.

If you missed it the past couple days, here is Autumn Red and Autumn Yellow.

Autumn Yellow

YELLOW

Remember Jono's poem--Yeller Pianer? 

This is our yeller pianer. 

I love the how the angle of light changes in the fall.

We don't get a lot of color changes in the fall because most of the trees up here are evergreens.

These cat-tails around the lake are one of the things that does change.  The boys want to collect all the "corndogs" on top but those buggers are not easy to snap off!

And lastly...my sweet yellow vest that I scored at the thrift store is my new favorite thing for fall!

Zip Tie Spiders for the Kiddos

Here are the materials I started with..

old rusty bolt (don't worry my kids are up to date on their tetanus shots)

+

zip ties

+

googley eyes

You could use any small ring.  We were just using what we found around.

Put 8 zip ties onto the ring/bolt.

 It should look like this...

Scooch 4 over to one side and 4 on the other.

Bend in a couple places for legs and feet.

Add googley eyes and there you go--

spiders!

Who knew spiders loved to slide?

They do.

They really do.

I'm not sure at what age you grow out of zip tie spiders, but my 7 year old was not the least bit interested.

Instead, he made a "war tool".

Rusty metal and zip ties.

Yep--the enemy better watch out!

Halloween Wreath Tutorial

Here is what I started with:

plastic lids

+

zip ties

The zip ties I found at a Big Lots that was relocating--got them for half price which means the grand total for this project was a little over $1!!!  Oh yeah!

I cut the middle out of the plastic lids.



Start putting zip ties on the ring.  Pull them tight and slide them close together.

Cover the entire ring.

And, well, that's pretty much it.  Easy peasy.

This is my finished product...

I snagged a spider from the boys room and added a bit of orange berries left over from last year's wreath.

Boo-tiful, don't ya think? (ha. ha. ha.)

Parting Thoughts:

I had 200 ties to start with. 

It made 2 spiders (show you those tomorrow), covered the ring of 1 gallon ice cream container and about 3/4 of the smaller plastic ring.

My 3 year old was totally into putting the zip ties on.  I need to remember this for the dark days of winter.

one bag of zip ties = at least 30 minutes of preschooler entertainment