5 Little Pumpkins

Hayrides, Pumpkins, Campouts, Leaves and Costumes!

I am in shock that it's November. Really and truly, September and October have just flown by. With two kids in preschool now, my tutoring, Ben's soccer and Jeremy's ongoing busy work schedule, the days are just speeding along. Hopefully the long cold winter will do the same, I'm already looking forward to spring! Not only will I be ready for the warmer weather, but hopefully springtime will bring our daughter home from South Korea as well.

October brought so many fun activities for our family. Ben's first soccer season wrapped up and he was beyond proud of himself when he received his trophy and an award for Best Defense. Never scored a goal, but really came out of his shell and started going after the ball. He says he can't wait to play again!

Jeremy went with his mom, dad and brother Matt to Indianapolis for a Colts football game. Thankfully the Colts won, and it was something Jeremy had wanted to do for a very long time.

Ben has become a true camper, sleeping in our tent in our yard once with Daddy and again with Daddy and a buddy. He loves the whole camping experience: flashlights, glow bracelets, fire pit, roasted marshmallows, sleeping bags, playing in the dark, etc. During the month of November at his preschool, his classroom is going to have a pretend campsite set up, so I'm sure he'll be an expert!

We were blessed to have a visit from friends whom we hadn't seen in a very long time. I grew up babysitting for the Barnes family, Andrew, Anna and Libby. They were the ring bearers and flowergirls in our wedding 10 years ago. We were so excited to have a visit Anna, Libby and their mom!

We celebrated the fall season with a trip to Blooms and Berries Farm, which is here in Loveland. We got to take a hayride, pick pumpkins and play games. Then the boys got to go with Jeremy to Pumpkin Night at their preschool and carve their pumpkins and play games. I worked the tattoo station and the kids were all adorable! So fun to see cousin Izzy and Uncle Justin there along with Ben and Sam's classmates!

I guess it's the teacher in me, but I've been so excited that both boys are old enough now to really partake in some fun activities. We've made pumpkin bread, candy corn candy (because the store bought kind has either eggs or nuts in them), decorated the house for Halloween, made ghosts out of milk jugs to light up in Halloween night, made ghost suckers, painted and carved pumpkins, played in the leaves with friends.... I'll be sad when they're too old to do these things with me!

Halloween was a great time for our little Buzz Lightyear (Ben) and Woody (Sam) from Toy Story. Sam completely got the idea this year and skipped/ran from house to house. He insisted on having his hat on to say trick-or-treat every time. Ben was actually a little overwhelmed by all the excitement at first, but soon warmed up to the idea. We're so proud of both boys for handling Sam's food allergy so well on such a potentially dangerous holiday. We took all of Sam's candy he got from trick-or-treating and swapped it out for "safe" candy. Ben knows not to eat any of his nut/peanut butter treats when Sam is around. In addition to regular trick-or-treating we also got to trick-or-treat at our church's car show and went to a Halloween party with our playgroup.

Whew! I think we've exhausted the amount of fun one family can have in the month of October. We're looking forward to hopefully a more laid back Thanksgiving. We're excited to see Aunt Ellie who will be visiting from Spain and are starting to wait for that phone call from our social worker about a possible baby for us! She said late fall we might get our "match", we just can't wait to find out who she is!

Hope you and yours are enjoying this beautiful fall season!