carving pumpkins

we carved our pumpkins last night. it was great because the girls did most of the work this year! i am so grateful for children who are growing up and becoming self sufficient. gracie really got into it this year. she scraped all the guts out with minimal help. i washed all the seeds last night and we'll give it a go on baking them. now i remember why i never did that in previous years--what a pain to dig through pumpkin guts!

this year if we didn't have puppies we could have actually carved them earlier in the week and put them out since it has been so chilly here. we hope it stays for halloween. we haven't had a cool halloween in a VERY long time!

lots of mushy guts!!
since gracie's didn't have a stem she decided to put a hat on hers. we got the idea from a book we read the other night that we LOVE called "the littlest pumpkin". it is one of our favorite halloween books that we read annually. (we put away all our holiday books and only bring them out during that particular holiday.)

this is how savannah felt about all the mushy guts!
savannah did the face all by herself. she drew out the face on a piece of paper and then copied it onto her pumpkin. she didn't get one ounce of help from me in the carving process! way to go savannah!

a little after dinner treat!
sarah decided on a "nerdy" pumpkin who was later dubbed "harry potter". (minus the lightning bolt scar of which she will probably want to put on today.)
my camera has this night shot feature and this is how they came out with it! cool huh?

from left to right: ron weasley, professor mcgonagal (sp?) and harry potter

SPOOKY PUMPKINS!

love the sunglasses that gracie added to hers. gracie said that hers is the mom and the others are her two babies.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

the pumpkin patch

the girls were off from school today for a teacher work day so i decided to take them to the pumpkin patch. the weather was perfect for it! there are a bunch of pics, but this is about the only time we get to take advantage of fall colors around here so i always take a ton of pictures. there are several that i didn't post if you can believe that.

the girls had a great time picking out their own pumpkins that we will carve later this week. we can't carve them too soon here in south florida or else they will rot! i learned that the hard way the first time i did that way back when i first moved here. and we keep them indoors so they won't get infested by bugs. well, and also the puppies would destroy them right now at this stage and i don't feel like cleaning up that mess.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

the "bumpy" pumpkin

gracie went around picking up all the pumpkins that were on the grass and put them back up on the slats. neat freak?

how about this one mom?

pondering the great mysteries of the pumpkin universe.

teeny pumpkins!

white pumpkins!

"can we blow this joint now?"

the pumpkin graveyard (seriously! if you click to enlarge the pic the sign in the back says it!)

and so the halloween fun begins!

here are the little ones one their first halloween adventure of the year.  our ward had it's annual trunk-or-treat last night.  we normally don't go unless halloween falls on a sunday, but my girlfriend talked me into going so we went and had a good time.  it also helps give us a dress rehearsal for halloween night.  brady lasted about 5 min as toto.  good thing we brought a back up.  he'll be staying home on halloween night!  this year sarah and savannah pretty much got their costumes from their own closets/dress up bin!  we love that!  happy halloween!

dorothy with "toto"

the gold medal gymnast

witchie-poo

trading candy! check out the pile the girl (taylor) on the right has. she went around 11 times!  her poor parents!

me and marybeth, my friend that talked me into coming.  notice our outfits!  totally NOT planned! we could have gone as a pair with our opposite outfits.  great minds think alike and have the same colors in their wardrobe.  too funny!!!!

quilting bee

the 2 big girls went to achievement days on tuesday evening and did some quilting. savannah asked if she could stay. she really wanted to do the quilting and was so excited that she got to participate. (she doesn't turn 8 until the end of jan) they both had such a great time and couldn't stop talking about it all night! thanks to shauna for the great pics and letting me steal them from her blog for mine! and thanks to the FAB leaders we have!

no pics of sarah but i just noticed you can see her in the background of this first one!

sarah back row: 7th from left

savannah front row: 3rd from right

is that a dog or a doll?

gracie decided that brady needed a nice stroll around the house. i'm not sure if he liked it or not, but the look on his face in these pics is funny!

love the socks!