Punkin's and Pumpkins

Another one of our family traditions is pumpkin carving with my little punkins. We all go together to pick them out (if we don't grow enough that year in our pitiful little garden). Picking out is super fun and later, closer to Halloween, comes the carving mess!

Some kids love the pumpkin gick... This girls does! Even when she was a baby, Madi would laugh and dive into the guts of her pumpkin. She really got into it this year as usual.

Brooke loved being creative, but NOT the pumpkin guts!

My boys knew exactly what they wanted for faces! They sketched them out first on paper. I loved their creativity!

Madi's pumpkin had braces, piercings, and crazy hair!

Q did NOT want anything to do with the pumpkin guts! He freaked out when Madi tried to put his hand inside... and if any seed got on him, he would get upset. This kid makes me laugh!

Ben's was a pirate and Connor's was just happy to be there.

Brooke went for a bat.

And of course, the Picasso of Pumpkins carved a globe for his. Brett acts like pumpkin carving isn't his thing... but then he really gets into it and shows us all up. Nice work huh?

We love Autumn!

Don't you just love jumping in leaves!

Costumes and more

I LOVE dress ups! I love playing, making and watching my kids have fun with dressing up. I'm a little crazy about Halloween costumes and really get into making my family costumes that match or something silly like that. This year we are dressing up as the Croods. (Funny caveman cartoon if you haven't seen it yet).

I was working on my husband's big furry caveman toga thing and had some extra fabric... I just couldn't let it go to waste. So I made some dress ups for the boys.

You know, just in case they feel the need to be Black Beard or something.

Traditions in the works

For the last five or so years, we have made caramel apples as a family as soon as October begins to look "Fallish." I wanted it to become a fun family tradition and something the kids will remember later. Last night, for Family Home Evening, we decided to make our apples. It's usually very messy, sticky and involves crazy toppings.

Unfortunately, we were short on time, I was short on patience, and the kids had plenty of energy that was being expressed in less than desirable ways. (How was that for saying.. they were being stinkers). So the short version is that they made a mess their apples, but didn't get to eat them because it was bedtime. And by the time we were done I was thinking, maybe they'll just remember the good parts about this and not all the hollering I did.

I mean, what's not to enjoy? "Sit down, hold still, be quiet! We are trying to have some family fun here!" It's always is funny later.

I love me a little shock value!

I hardly EVER straiten my hair... too much time and maintenance... and my honey likes me curly. But its funny to see people who know me look right past me without recognition. Once when we were engaged, my man asked a room full of people if they'd seen me (I was right in front of him with strait hair). Ha!