Happy Halloween!

I've always kind of enjoyed Halloween, even though my opinion of the holiday has soured somewhat after living in Russian and Bloomington, where it's more or less just a poor excuse to get plastered.

But, as always, kids make everything better! I think Lauren and Rachel genuinely enjoyed themselves this year, and that makes me happier than I ever was going trick or treating myself as a kid. If you can't tell (even though I'm sure you've already heard), Lauren is Madeline. Rachel got the hand-me-down ladybug costume, but still so cute.

These pictures (above) are from Saturday, when we had our church trunk-or-treat. Today, on Halloween proper, we carved up the biggest pumpkin we've ever had (26 lbs for $10!!). I have to say I'm very proud of the result--I think I've graduated from novice pumpkin carver to journeyman. Check it out!

Fall Festivities

So we've done a bunch of fun things outside this month enjoying the beautiful fall weather.  Here are the highlights:

Fall Sunday afternoon walk

We like the really big leaves

Down on the Farm

Luckily the farm had 4 rocking horses as well as real animals,
Lauren had to try all of them, twice.

Headed out to the pumpkin patch to find our perfect pumpkin

All the pumpkins there were rotting or huge, and Lauren really wanted a clean
pumpkin.  Whenever we would look at one she would say "Oh this one is dirty
lets find a clean one." But they didn't have any so here we are with
our whopping 26 lb. (dirty) pumpkin.  

And of course making our fall sugar cookies, yum!

Quality control over sprinkles