Happy Halloween!

We started our Halloween festivities with our annual visit to Bi-Zi Farms.  This a local farm that sets up a huge number of activities every fall.  We always go with Emily's sister and brother, and their kids.  This means that the girls have their cousins along, which makes for a VERY fun trip!  This is a local farm that puts on a HUGE pumpkin patch each year.  They have a corn maze, tractor pulled wagons to go out to the fields and lots of kid activities.  Here is Karina climbing the hay bale pyramid.  It even has tunnels and passageways through the middle!

They have this huge pit, filled with corn kernels, a bit like a sand box.  This is a big draw with the kids, and we returned to it many times during the afternoon.   Gabriel is a bit wary of new textures and feels, and doesn't like to walk on sand and such.  Initially he wanted nothing to do with this corn pit, but by the end, he was in there with the rest of the kids!

The farm also has a barnyard animal display.  They have quite a variety of animals out: pigs, turkeys, calves, a donkey, chickens, rabbits and the list goes on!  Here Karina and Gabriel are checking out a few pigs.

And now a turkey...  He didn't look very happy.  Maybe he realizes that Thanksgiving was just a few weeks away.

They also have ride on tractor tricycles in the barnyard.  There is a lot of competition to get on one, so they watched each other carefully to get a vacant tractor.

There is an apple cider press, which Gabriel was fascinated by.   They would take bucketfuls of  these green apples, crush them, and put them through a press.  Gabriel wanted to eat one.

Gabriel liked watching the machine.

And he got seconds, and thirds...

There is also a pumpkin launch area, where you get two little pumpkins, and you can launch them with these huge bungee cord things, and try to get one in a barrel at the far end of the field.

It takes a LOT of strength to pull back the cords.  Here Eliana is getting a hand from Millie.

And...Go!

Karina got some help from Mommy...

Gabriel got put in the bin with the little pumpkins, but was not a fan of that...

After all that playing, we headed out to the pumpkin fields.  You can traipse around looking for just the right pumpkin, then you pick it, and haul it back to the wagon.  Here Eliana is trying to decide which one to take.

Look at all those pumpkins!

Gabriel tried very hard to find the smallest pumpkin in the field.  He was quite pleased with his tiny selected pumpkin.  He wanted to carry it himself.

A week later, it was time for the school carnival.  Karina decided to wear our cat costume - very fancy cat!

Soon it was time to think about carving our jack-o-lanterns.  Karina really liked posing with our pumpkin collection on the front porch.  

The first night, we just got the pumpkins prepared, cutting off the tops, and scooping out the insides.  

Even Gabriel got a knife/saw!  Not sure how safe this is...

He did like picking the insides out, and dropping them into the bag.  

Karina tried using the scoop, but for the most part, left this to Elvin to handle.  She refused to touch the gooey insides and had Elvin clean out both of her pumpkins.  (She had one from our trip to the farm, and she got another one because her preschool class also goes to the pumpkin patch.)

Eliana is able to do more and more things herself this year!  It was quite hard to pull up the lid for the first time because of all the stringy seeds.

She even pulled out the insides!

That's a lot of pumpkins to process!

The next day we chose our designs, and marked them on the pumpkins.  Our kids have learned about picking designs on the internet, and have no interest in drawing their own jack-o-lantern faces.  Here Eliana is making the holes to show where the design should be cut.

Gabriel was very interested in all the knives and saws, an needed a bit of help staying occupied.

Karina first pumpkin.  She chose a Hello Kitty witch.

Gabriel had a little tiny cat face.

Eliana was even able to do part of the cutting out of her pumpkin design this year!  She did a Hello Kitty as well.

Gabriel just enjoyed stabbing the little saws into the pumpkins.

Here is Karina's other Hello Kitty pumpkin, with Elvin hard at work carving it.

The finished products!

Halloween night we trick or treated at just a few neighbors houses before heading to a friend's house to trick or treat altogether.  Eliana was a Greek goddess, Karina was a purple ballerina, and Gabriel refused to wear a costume, just as we expected.  He was just himself.

Off they go to get some candy!!

Our next door neighbors are like surrogate grandparents to our kids, and oohed and ahhed over their costumes as they gave them some candy.

All our pumpkins guarding our house as we left for the evening!

The night turned cold and very rainy. It was actually pretty miserable trick or treating, but the kids were troopers.  It was the wetting trick-or-treating experience for us since moving here.  Gabriel insisted upon being held every single second of the night.

Out in the pouring rain!  You can't really see anyone's costumes, as all the kids were bundled up agains the cold and rain.

Back "home" after an hour or so.  Those are some very wet kids!  You can see how Gabriel felt about being put down for the picture.

Back in the house, the kids settled down to play for awhile.  Karina discovered some Lego toys, and was fascinated with them for a long time.  Perhaps an idea for Christmas?

Happy Halloween!!