I Completely Missed October?

As I was going through the pictures I need to order, I realized that October came and went without a word. October gets its own blog, because it is one of our favorite months. Just down the street from us is a wonderful (and free) Pumpkin Patch. (Thanks for the entertainment, Hall's Pumpkin Farm.) We are there every weekend in October.


The girls love riding around in the wagons and eating popcorn.
There is a small hay maze for the kids. It is supposed to work like a maze, but all the kids run on top of the hay. I loved these action shots of hay jumping.
I laughed aloud when I saw this next picture. I wanted a sweet shot of my angels and me. "Hold still! Smile! Look happy! Hold STILL!!!" This is what we got instead. It is not staged, it's completely real. (Best family picture so far this year.)
The best part of the pumpkin farm is the short hayride they have. Everyone piles on bales of hay in a trailor. The farmer pulls you in his tractor. First you go to feed the donkeys. The farmer gives you bread and the donkeys eat it with their lips. It's pretty cute. Then you go to the cows, which is my favorite part. If you have never hand-fed a cow, it's quite an experience. They have insanely long tongues, which they use to scoop up the food you give them. You have to act fast, because the tongues are very slobbery. In fact, on a windy day, big lines of cow saliva fly through the air. Where else offers flying cow spit?


This Halloween, Hannah dressed as a pig,

and Abby as a princess.
At Abby's school carnival, the first thing they want to do is the cake walk. Mike tries to talk them into waiting because we don't want to carry their cakes around all night, but they insist that they will be responsible for the cakes. (Yeah, right.) So we buy tickets for the cake walk, and while we wait in line, I lecture the girls on gracious losing. "There are 20 people trying to get one cake, girls. You probably won't win one, and that's okay." In one ear and out the other, you know. So the cake walk starts, and when the music ends, Abby's number is called. Abby wins! In that split second, I see the massive delima. Abby has won a cake, and Hannah has not. Hannah bawls loudly about the injustice of life while Abby gleefully picks a delicate pink dog-shaped cake. While I'm consoling the loser, the worker says, "Now for round two!" Abby leaves the game with her prize, and I begin walking a sobbing Hannah around the circle again with 19 other losers. I offer a silent prayer begging for a second cake. Folks, God answers prayers, because when the music stopped, Hannah's number was called. Those poor 18 other children had to watch both my children win. True to Hannah's personality, which was suddenly purely delightful, she picked a monkey.
Hannah soon got tired of holding her cake, which became my property, but all night long, Abby proudly displayed her masterpiece. She saw several familiar people, and each time she did, she held out her cake for words of admiration. Each time someone fawned over her cute cake, Hannah frantically ran to me, grabbed her cake, and held it out to the admirer. When the friend left, the cake was mine again.

We love and miss you, October.