Making Pumpkin Bread with Na Na

Conall's school was out for a teacher meeting on Thursday and Friday, so we headed to Na Na's on Thursday for a visit. Conall and Caitlin brought along Caitlin's pumpkin, a sugar pumpkin, to bake and to use for making pumpkin bread. They both really enjoyed taking the seeds out of the pumpkin and preparing it for pumpkin bread.

Hard work!

Na Na helping

Working together

No pumpkin baking would be complete without Conall wearing his Harry Potter glasses!

Harry Potter and the Little Pumpkin

I survived! I survived Conall's intense excitement over Saturday being Halloween -- complete with the up-before-dawn waking and his total fascination with Harry Potter and using "spells" on me.
After the Accelerated Reading Day at school on Friday, Conall's poor T-Rex costume was left to hang in the closet. I think this may be the last year I buy his costume early. So, we ended up with a pumpkin and Harry Potter.

Jana, Tristan and Logan drove down from Conway to Trick-or-Treat with us. Due to a peanut allergy, this is the first year that Tristan has been Trick-or-Treating. I think he may actually have been almost as wound up as Conall. Maybe.

Tristan, Conall, Logan, and Caitlin

Kanton, August and their parents also came over to go Trick-or-Treating, as well as Aunt Amy. Unfortunately, daddy ended up with a migraine from his sinus troubles and didn't get to go with us -- and he was all dressed up!

Stu and August in their skeleton costumes

Before we even left the yard, Conall had lost his wand in the leaves. I found it later in the bathroom, which makes me think it had been there all along. Then, Caitlin fell down and broke her kitty cat Halloween flashlight (Stu thinks a new bulb may fix it).

We had a nice size Trick-or-Treating group, but once again, Caitlin was the only girl. This may have worked to her advantage, because many of the people whose houses we visited gave her twice the candy as the boys. One older lady gave the boys their candy, and as Caitlin went to get hers, she said "Here you go, honey. You can have extra because you are so cute."

 Trick-or-Treating

Caitlin has gotten to the age where she is too old for the stroller, but the hills in the neighborhood are still a bit much for her. Caitlin, Aunt Amy, and I tagged along behind everyone else. Caitlin would not let us her carry her and would only let us help with her bag for a few minutes at a time -- she seemed to think we wanted her candy. She kept saying "I coming" to us as we climbed hilly driveways and the boys ran on to the next house. We skipped some houses because Caitlin was so worried about catching up to the boys. She was one determined and stubborn little girl.

At one point, Aunt Amy offered to help Caitlin with her heavy candy bag. Caitlin said "You have candy -- I gave you candy." And, she had -- every time we'd offer to help with her bag, she'd try to give us a package of candy instead. I really think Caitlin thought we were trying to take her candy.

At another house a lady told Caitlin "Look at that Jack-O-Lantern. You make such a cute Jack-O-Lantern." Caitlin "Uh-huh, I a pumpkin".

A lady at one house was handing out fliers about her missing cat. Poor lady, the cat has been missing for 5 months. It was a black and white tuxedo like Derby, so the kids were pretty interested. The lady asked Conall if he could make the cat reappear since he was Harry Potter. Conall, exasperated, threw his arms up in the air and said "I lost my wand! I can't!"

I think my favorite part of the whole night was when I asked Caitlin if she'd like me to carry her. She was obviously tired and stumbling. Me --"Caitlin, you look tired, do you want me to carry you?" Caitlin -- "Mommy, I not tired. I fine. I happy. See my happy face?" as she pointed to her face and her big grin.

Aunt Amy, Caitlin, and I were the last to make it back home. I had Conall's treat bag because he actually was tired and asked me to carry it. He ran inside as Amy and I were in the yard making sure Caitlin didn't fall down on her way to the door. We had put the candy container out on the porch before we left, since Stu wasn't feeling well. When we got up to our door, Caitlin stopped to Trick-or-Treat from our candy!

Conall was so frustrated with Caitlin because I had his candy bag. Caitlin was determined to put that candy in her bag even though Amy and I kept trying to tell her that she was home and could have whatever she wanted once we got inside. Caitlin was so tired that we weren't sure if she knew we were home -- she was just doing what she thought she was supposed to do!

The kids had a blast and slept well. Conall fell asleep while I was reading Harry Potter to him. Caitlin snuggled down into all of her bunnies and went to sleep. Can you believe this is the first year that neither one of my kids has puked on Halloween? Poor Jana didn't escape it, though, Logan puked in the car on the way home.

Soccer, Coffee, and Pumpkin Patch

Conall stayed the night with Na Na and Po Po last night and then they brought him home this morning for his soccer game.

Po Po reading Harry Potter to Conall

We all went to the wet, cold, muddy soccer game and then headed back here for the guys to watch the Razorbacks. The girls headed out for coffee.

Caitlin at the soccer game

Conall with his team on the field

After the Razorbacks won their game, the guys wanted to watch more football. So, Na Na, Conall, Caitlin, and I headed to the pumpkin patch. Boy, was it wet and muddy! The bridge taking you to the property was covered in shallow water. It was an adventure getting over that and to the muddy parking lot. Na Na and I felt for the farmers -- a good portion of the pumpkin patch was in standing water.

You can see the standing water in the back of the field

It was cold, wet, and muddy, but we all had fun. We skipped the hayride because of the wet weather, but the kids enjoyed seeing the goats, donkey, and pigs. Conall even got to pet the donkey.

Caitlin sent me into the middle of a muddy patch to get the pumpkin she wanted -- a cute, little one.

Caitlin's little pumpkin

Conall finally decided on his pumpkin after dragging Na Na through the muddy fields. His was a big pumpkin -- it weighed 16 lbs.!

All in all, it was a wonderful Fall day! I am so glad that Fall is here.

Halloween Preview

Here's a sneak peak at Halloween

Funny Birthday Stories

Yesterday was my birthday, which is much more exciting to the kids than to me. It was a wonderful day, thanks to the efforts of my sweet husband and the kids. And, thanks to Aunt Amy and Na Na and Po Po for watching the kids on 2 different nights this weekend -- Stu and I actually got to go see two different movies in the theater!

At lunch yesterday, Stu brought me some lovely floral scented candles and some yummy gourmet hot cocoa mix. For the rest of the day, Caitlin kept bringing me her toys and saying "Here Mommy, this is for your birthday."

After Stu got home from work, we celebrated with cake and gifts. Conall asked "Mommy, how old are you?" I asked him how old he thought I was. Conall immediately responded "60". Great, thanks Conall!

Conall got a big kick out of giving mommy birthday spankings, including the "one to grow on". He told me he can't wait until next year when he gets to give me more!

Caitlin gave me a cat coin for my cat coin collection. Conall was really excited and told me it was "to buy another cat. We can get a kitten and name him Luke after Luke Skywalker." And he went on and on about this kitten. I'm sure Inkspot appreciated it.

Conall got me a white teapot that has vines on it and is reminiscent of a pumpkin. Before I opened it he said "Daddy and I went shopping and looked at a bunch of old junk, but we found you a teapot. Here it is."

Stu got me a beautiful sapphire and diamond ring, which he had originally intended for a gift for our 10th anniversary, but couldn't wait until December. Caitlin immediately wanted it! She kept trying to take it off my finger.

Stu brought me a flower arrangement with yellow and white daisies and other flowers. Conall had requested that instead of getting me roses (what Stu usually gets me) that daddy get me some "sunflowers." I think this is the closest they had. This morning at breakfast, Conall kept complaining and saying that he couldn't eat breakfast because it "stunk in here." I finally convinced him to smell the flowers, because I knew that was what he was smelling. He said "That's the stink -- real sunflowers don't smell like that."

Caitlin asked me this morning why my birthday was black. I was really confused and kept trying to get her to explain. Finally she said "your birthday cake was black." I laughed -- my birthday cake was a fudge chocolate Silvek's cake.

Caitlin's Winnie the Pooh Jack-O'-Lantern

Aunt Amy asked me to send her the photos I took of Caitlin's Winnie the Pooh Jack-O'-Lantern. Since she carved it for Caitlin, I thought I'd post it on the blog. It isn't the best quality photo, but it is hard to get a photo of a lit Jack-O'-Lantern. Here you go Amy!

More Pumpkin Carving

Aunt Amy came over today and brought two pumpkins with her. So, we carved four more pumpkins tonight.

Caitlin picked a Winnie the Pooh design for hers, Stu and I picked a skull, and Conall wanted another face. Kanton and August, from next door, also helped out. We put the boys to work digging out pumpkin guts and sorting seeds. I think the kids really enjoyed it -- Conall and Kanton kept trying to get us to carve all of the pie pumpkins, too.

Caitlin working on scooping her pumpkin

Caitlin "helping" the boys

Rolling up their sleeves

Making a "lid" for the Jack-O-Lantern

Pumpkin Carving

Conall's class carved a pumpkin today, which he named Thomas. He's been wanting to carve our pumpkins since he brought them home, but we have told him that we had to wait until closer to Halloween. So, when Stu came home tonight, we sat down and carved two of our big pumpkins. One of them was starting to get holes in it where rot was beginning, so we knew we had to carve it really soon or toss it.


This is the first year that Conall has actually wanted to help scoop out the seeds and goop. He also helped his daddy saw through the pumpkin (with a really small saw from the carving kit) and pull out the cut pieces. Caitlin really wanted to help, so I put her to work sorting out pumpkin seeds with me. The camera battery died just as we got the first pumpkin open, so I don't have any photos from beyond that. But, that's ok, because Aunt Amy is planning on coming over tomorrow after work to help carve the other large pumpkin and maybe one or two of her own.

Conall making a funny face while talking about pumpkin guts

Caitlin looks a bit in awe, doesn't she?

Conall digging out the pumpkin insides

Caitlin trying to figure out what they are doing and help

Caitlin beginning to sort pumpkin seeds, she tried to eat this one

Pre-K Pumpkin Farm Trip

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Pumpkin Patches of the Past

Conall's class is having a field trip to the pumpkin patch today. Just for fun, here are some photos from past pumpkin patch trips.

2004

2005

2006

2007

Fort Smith Visit

We spent some time this weekend in Fort Smith. As always, I wish the time spent there could have been longer. However, it was nice to get both the kids into their own rooms and beds tonight.
Here are photos from the trip.

Caitlin and Pop Pop. Can you see the family resemblance?

Caitlin and Conall playing with Pop Pop's hat

Caitlin wearing Pop Pop's hat

Caitlin and her puppy drawing

Conall drawing a pumpkin for Aunt Jackie

Pumpkin Patch Slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Motley Patch Photos

Here are a couple of photos until I get the slideshow put together and posted.