Happy Day Farm

We went to Happy Day Farm on Sunday. We started at the pumpkin patch. 

The kids looked everywhere for the perfect pumpkin! Gillian loved all the little pumpkins. 

Finally we found a big pumpkin for the family, a little one for Gillian and one for John too!  

Then Aunt Missy, Uncle T and Mackenzie arrived and we checked out the rest of the farm. There was all kinds of fun stuff to do!

Hang out on a big rocking chair. 

Climb a tire mountain. 

Play in a giant box of corn!

Climb on a giant spider web. 

Test our strength!

Race rubber duckies. 

Try to rope a cow!

Ride some bouncy horses. 

John ran through a little corn maze (like 12 times). 

Do some bouncing. 

And go for a hayride. 

We got on the hayride and Gillian said "Where's the hay?" Hay or no hay, Mackenzie loved the hayride. We took the hayride over to the petting zoo. The kids got to see pigs, horses, llamas and chickens. Mackenzie loved the chickens. But John got to hold one!

It was a fabulous day at the farm!

Pumpkin pickin

Today we took the kids pumpkin picking. We met Mimi, Uncle T, Aunt Missy and Kenzie for lunch and then headed to tbe pumpkin patch. John was determined this year to find the perfect pumpkin. I take that back. He is always determined. His rules for a perfect pumpkin are "1) it's orange, 2) it's not too big, 2) it has a handle, and 4) it has no holes." Gillian was not looking for a pumpkin. "I already got one. On my field trip. You know, I got a pumpkin." 

The kids searched the whole field to find the best pumpkin. John found his pumpkin and I asked "Is that the one you want?" He said "There's only one part I don't like." And he pointed and some dirt on the one side. "But Daddy says we can clean it off." We also found a pumpkin for Gillian. And then the kids found a pumpkin for Aunt Missy!

Then we went to check out the animals. Gillian did not like feeding them. But she liked to pet them. John fed all the animals and was very diplomatic with his food. "I want to make sure everyone gets some!"

John liked all the animals except the emus. Gillian was excited to see the llama. Eventhough John said "It's an alpaca!"

Overall we had a great time pumpkin pickin!

pumpkin carving

before carving

Tonight after dinner we decided to carve our pumpkins.  Before we even started, John said "Can I get some gloves?  Because I'm not getting my hands dirty."  We found some gloves for him to wear.  And we started with Gillian's little pumpkin.  I helped her with the big parts.  I thought she would be like John and not want to get her hands dirty.  I was wrong.  She wasn't afraid to stick her hands into the pumpkins. 

While Daddy was preparing the big pumpkins, we asked John what kind of face he wanted carved into his pumpkin.  He said "I want him to have three eyes and two noses.  And big shark teeth.  I want him to be really scary!"  We also asked Gillian what kind of face she wanted for her pumpkin.  She said "I want him to have two eyes.  And not pointy teeth.  I don't want the childrens to be scared!" 

By this point Daddy finished prepping John's big pumpkin and it was time for John to start pulling out the pumpkin guts.  He was hilarious.  He said "The insides of pumpkins are disgusting!  I'm glad I'm wearing gloves.  Cause I'm not touching that stuff."  Gillian mocked him and said "I touch it!" 

After awhile John got more comfortable and took off the gloves and helped to clean out his pumpkin.  Gillian and John both told Daddy exactly what they wanted their jack-o-lantern to look like and Daddy carved away.  I think they all came out really good.

a big pumpkin

Today we met Mimi, Poppy, Uncle T and Aunt Missy for breakfast and then went pumpkin picking.  If you remember, last year (check out last year's post: pumpkin picking) John had very specific criteria for the perfect pumpkin.  The pumpkin had to be round, not too dirty and a stem.  This year, he wasn't that specific.  He was just looking for a pumpkin. 

However, Gillian wanted a BIG pumpkin.  She looked at every pumpkin and she kept pointing out the biggest pumpkins.  She found one when she was searching with Aunt Miss and she tried to move it herself.

We found two pumpkins.  One nice round one and one that is lumpy.  I think the lumpy one will look really cool when Daddy carves it.  After we found our perfect pumpkins, we got a bag of carrots and we walked around to feed the animals.  Gillian was a little afraid to let the animals take the carrot out of her hand.  She would drop it as soon as they attempted to grab it.  After awhile, they both got more comfortable with the animals and Gillian would talk to them.  "Him's a baby and that's the mommy!"  "Them's like the carrots." 

 
After Daddy, Aunt Missy and the kids fed all the animals, I tried to get a quick picture of the kids in front of an inflatable pumpkin with a cat on it.  Gillian liked the cat from far away, but once we suggested that she stand in front of it, she said no.  But I got a really cute picture of John with the pumpkin.

Belated Halloween

Hurricane Sandy ruined the kids Halloween this year.  After the hurricane hit, the Governor postponed Halloween until Monday, November 5th.  We still dressed the kids up on October 31st, even if it was to run errands.  They had fun dressing up and we put smiles on a lot of people's faces that day.   

 

 

So the Governor postponed Halloween until Monday, however our town cancelled Halloween on Monday.  On Monday, Tinton Falls still had about 20% of the town without power plus the department of public works did not have time to clean the brush or branches up.  The mayor deemed it unsafe for the kids to go trick or treating.  The kids school reopened on Monday, and asked that all the kids wear their costumes to school today.  John was so excited to wear his costume.  He dressed as Flash this year.  In case any of you forget, John is super fast! And since Flash is the fastest super hero around, it just made sense for John to dress up as him for Halloween.  Gillian was a beautiful lavender fairy.  She loved being a fairy, but I think this may be my last year to pick Gillian's costume.  I packaged up two Halloween cookies per kid in both John and Gillian's classes and the kids brought them to school today too. 

I got to pick the kids up from school today (one of the perks of working from home when the office has no power) and I also got to talk to the teachers.  Miss Mary Ellen, John's teacher, told me that she put cookies in each of the kids pumpkin buckets and the extras we opened and used for snack.  I'm so glad they were able to use them.  Landon also stopped me in the hallway and said "I had one of your cookies today!  It was yummy!"  His grandma said "Oh, you're the cookie mom!"  I leaned over to Landon and whispered "We will have cookies for Thanksgiving too!"  He jumped up and down and said "YES!"  I am so glad that he loves the cookies too.  Anyway, John had a pumpkin bucket full of Halloween goodies (a glow in the dark sword, cookies, rings stickers etc).  Gillian also had a Halloween bag with all kinds of goodies.  Even though the kids didn't get to go door to door trick or treating, they still ended up having fun.   

Green Meadow Farms

Today John's class and the Dinosaur class went on a field trip to Green Meadow Farms. John told me all about his trip. "First we got on a bus! Adriana was in my group and my chaperone was Miss Denise." I asked him what happened when they got there. He said "Then we got to pet and feed the animals. We got to feed them on the inside." I didn't understand what he was talking about. He meant the inside of the fence. They got to go inside the fence and feed and pet the animals. I asked what kinds of animals he fed. He said "Cows and sheep and geese. And what says 'gobble gobble?'" I told him a turkey. He says "Yea a turkey and ponies." He kept telling me animals and I could hear Gillian say "I like ponies!" He tells me that they fed the animals and then they got to pick their pumpkins. "At the end we got to go on a hayride. And can I tell you something? I got in timeout by accident." Now it's been a long time since John has been put in timeout at school. So I ask him why he was put in timeout. He says "I accidentally hit Ryan." In my opinion you don't accidentally hit anyone. I asked him what happened. He said "He was pointing at me!" We had a long talk about how hitting is way worse than pointing. He then admitted "I hit him two times. One time because he was pointing at me. And another time because he wouldn't let me move the wheelbarrow." Again we talked about how hitting is wrong and that he would get no dessert and no television shows tonight as punishment.