Cole, Alex, & Anna Grace

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Pumpkins, Football, and a Perfect Fall Evening

The boys have been growing pumpkins in the backyard since July, but so far none of them are ready to pick. So, with Halloween just a few days away, we finally had to make a trip to buy pumpkins.




Cole and Alex chose big carving pumpkins, but Anna Grace had her heart set on a little pie pumpkin. We tried to explain to her that she could not carve such a little pumpkin, but she did not care. She liked the little ones. We decided that she could paint hers instead.

We invited some friends over for a little football and pumpkin carving party. They brought some yummy taco soup and pumpkins for their kids and we made a bunch of other finger foods to eat while we watched the football game.

The girls painted pumpkins....



...and the boys started cleaning out their pumpkins during the first half of the game.





We had perfect cool fall weather for pumpkins and football.


During the second half of the game, it was time to finally start carving the pumpkins. I bought kits with little saws and carving tools so that the boys could carve their own.


The evening ended with cups of hot apple cider while we admired the work of our little pumpkin carvers and celebrated a win for our football team.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Busy!

You can tell that we have been very busy since I have not posted in a long time. I have lots of ideas for blog posts, but I don't ever seem to have the time to write about them. Here is a glimpse of some of the activities that have kept us so busy recently.

The kids had "Crazy Hair" night at church.




Cole was too cool to make his hair look crazy, but Alex and Anna Grace had fun with their crazy hair.


Alex was awarded the "Art Award" at his school.

Each one of the activities teachers (art, music, and PE)gets to pick a student from each grade level to recognize per quarter, and Alex was chosen by the art teacher this time.


My mom and I have been busy sewing cute outfits for Anna Grace.

This is the adorable outfit that my mom made for her recently.



We took a trip to Stone Mountain Park. Anna Grace and I wanted to go to the Rice Festival, and the boys wanted to hike up the mountain.





We were having so much fun that we decided to stay for the Lazar Show.



Anna Grace had a blast dancing to the music on the lawn before the Lazar Show started.



Now, we are busy getting ready for Halloween. The boys' pumpkins are growing very slowly, so I think we will be making a trip to buy some Halloween pumpkins this weekend. We will also work on our costumes since the kids have to wear them to several different activities in the coming week.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Will we have pumpkins?


Cole and Alex decided in early July that they wanted to grow their own pumpkins for fall. They picked out several types of seeds, carefully hoed an area of our old garden, and planted their seeds all on their own. Since then, they have been watering and fertilizing their plants in hopes that their pumpkins would grow for Halloween.


Their plants have had beautiful yellow flowers for over a month, but they were getting discouraged that there have been no pumpkins... until last week when they noticed that some small pumpkins started to grow. The pumpkins seem to be growing very slowly, but Cole and Alex are still hoping that they will have a pile of homegrown pumpkins to fill the front porch for Halloween.


Secretly, I am getting worried that they will not be ready in time for Halloween. When I go to the grocery store and see huge pallets of pumpkins already for sale, I am wonder if Cole and Alex will have Thanksgiving pumpkins instead of Halloween pumpkins. I really hope my two little boys will not be too disappointed if we have to buy our pumpkins to make into Halloween jack-o-lanterns.



These are a few quick pictures I took of Anna Grace when she and I sneaked outside to get pumpkin pictures.