October…summed up

Here’s a little bit of October from my cell phone.   Not much to it, but it was fun!

West Farm…with Jack and Sam

West Farm is always such a fun time.  This year we are going twice and I can’t wait. I didn’t get good pictures of the animals since so I tried to do better with the pumpkins. I love pumpkins! Picture after picture, I could not get one that wasn’t blurry or blog worthy but this is the best I could get.  Daddy was out of town so we didn’t get a fall family photo this time. I promise they enjoyed the hay ride but it sure was hot!This year, there was a new giant tire-sand castle-slide that was a huge hit.  Kendall and Jack were princess and prince of the mountain for a bit. These two couldn’t get enough of all the sand.Or the slide…The corn box was a lot of fun for Kendall, Jack and Sam, although Ethan wasn’t too sure. Excuse his ragamuffin look, he wasn’t feeling quite himself.  I took some pictures with my phone but nothing compared to my sister’s that she took with her nice camera. Please see her blog for a bigger selection, there is a video and two posts. Thanks for taking all the great pictures, as usually, Seester!!

Ice cream cone Christmas trees

My mom shared an old idea that she used to do as a kid with Kendall and Jack and they both had so much fun with it.  Cover an ice cream cone with green frosting and decorate with red and green M &M’s, how easy.  Kendall wasn’t sure what to do with the M&M’s to start with but it didn’t take long, after sampling a few, to figure it out. And then, oh my, she wanted another iced cone all to herself….to eat like corn on the cob. I was a little iffy due to the mess it would make but then I thought, “sure go ahead.”  It was a treat to watch her examine the cone and see how she could get the most icing off.  What a cutie!! Thanks for sharing your holiday craft with me Grandma! It was fun! The trees made a nice final touch to our first gingerbread house.

Random fall photos

Soooo, since I missed posting our October fun, I’m doing it now…all at once. Enjoy!!

We went to the fair for the second year, and Kendall LOVED it.  She did not want to get off of the carousel and had so much fun petting ALL of the animals.  She even fed a few, by her choice. We rode an elephant and of course she had to touch it too.  She patted him nicely on his back.It was so much fun to experience the fair through my baby girl’s eyes.  She took it all in and I can’t wait to go back again next year.  Kendall also wanted her own bag of cotton candy before we left, although I should have said no being that she only ate some of the pink and was done. And here is lil’ miss in her Halloween outfit.  Not really a costume but good enough for this year. We tried just three times to take a picture with her witch mask she colored in school. LOVE IT! I almost forgot to add in our zoo trip.  I wanted to take Kendall to Boo at the Zoo but the timing didn’t work out to stay until the festivities began.  We made it there in time to see a few animals before all of the trick or treating started and we had a blast. I took some pictures of the animals we saw (monkeys, flamingos, koi) and some in the aquarium exhibit but they didn’t really turn out to be blog worthy.  Here are a  few that did. I’m hoping next time we make it to the zoo there will be more animals to see and I will have more camera participation from Miss Occupied.  Most of the animals were “sleeping” to prepare the zoo for all of the kiddos to trick or treat.

St. James Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin picking time again! St. James United Methodist Church is so close to home and always has such a variety of pumpkins to choose from.  They did not disappoint this year.  There were grey ones, white ones, tiny and large ones and even a few that were white with an orange lace look to it.  Very unique!This year, Kendall was even more obsessed with the pumpkins then last year.  She tried to pick a few up and she loved going up and down the aisles looking at all the different colors.  When she saw the pumpkins with discolorations and bumps, she would point and loudly say, “ewwww!” We walked over to the pile of hay, and oh boy, was it better than a toy any day.  Kendall decided to pick up handful after handful of hay and take it to “hide” the pumpkins.  She had a blast covering the pumpkins (even though the hay didn’t “hide” the pumpkins very long) and running through the hay.  She was so involved with the hay, I was lucky to get these pictures.  How cute is she? These are two of my favorites for sure! And, before we left, Kendall had to line up three mini pumpkins on the palette. Do you see the two closest together in the left picture? She has number three in her hands.  We also stopped to smell the flowers.  The pumpkin patch visits are going to become more and more fun each year. I already know it!  Next year, Ethan will join us!

West Farm

Kendall and I headed to the West Farm Corn Maze with some of my CharlestonMommies.com friends this year.  We had about 9 kids total plus mommies with kids of all age ranges from baby to big kid.  Kendall had a lot of fun running around with Stryker and pretty much doing her own thing.  Last year, she was mostly in our arms or in the stroller but she did touch her feet to the ground.  She was less then thrilled with taking pictures this year but thankfully I had the help of a friend to capture some shots that Kendall wasn’t so aware of.  Thanks, Rachel!The animals were Kendall’s favorite.  She called each one by name all by herself.  We saw chicken’s, goats (which were her favorite), a huge pig, cows and a horse. I was too busy keeping up with Kendall and where she would put her hands to take pictures of all of the animals. Oops! This is Maggie, the pig.  There was a long pole you could put food down for her to eat and boy, did she know how to make that thing shake.  I don’t think she walked more then a foot away from the pole or lifted her head very long to enjoy all of us watching her.  Guess she was hungry. We did not attempt the maze again this year, but the hayride was a hit for everyone.  I’m not sure what Kendall was saying in this picture but I promise she was having a good time.  There was so much corn to ride around.  She loved bouncing on the big balls too, with my help.   When the hayride was over, I wanted Kendall to be able to pick out a pumpkin and decorate it with the rest of the kids.  Well, she checked them out for a quick minute however, she had her own plans that consisted of going back to see the goats.  We did leave with a small “puck-in” but it does not have any special touches on it.  Maybe next year.  I hope next year. Stryker went with us last year too.  I’m happy that a tradition has been started during the fall season and that we can all be a part of it as families.  I can’t wait until next year to see how many kids we can add to the fun.   Aren’t they cute?

Halloween “gouly” basket

Uncle Adam and Lauren gave Kendall her first Halloween treat last weekend.  The first thing she wanted to take out of the basket was the purple flashlight.  She wouldn’t let me put it back for a picture.  The flashlight has different cover pieces that project Halloween images.  Her favorite one right now is the owl. She carries it around as much as she can. I tried to show her some of the other fun treats she got but she wasn’t too interested.  Instead I showed her how to shine the flashlight on the couch and other solid colored surfaces so she could see the owl.  I wish I would have taken more pictures but it was time for breakfast after the amount of time she played with the flashlight. Thank you Uncle Adam and Lauren for my Halloween goodies.

Love~ Kendall

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Each year there is a Christmas Made in the South, arts and crafts holiday event at the fairgrounds.  This was my first year to go and I decided to take Kendall.  It was a little chilly so we weren’t there too long.  I wasn’t prepared for outside vendors, jacket wise, but there were plenty of things to see inside so we did stay warm.  Santa was there and I decided to see how Kendall would do with sitting on his lap.  She did great! She liked him for a few pictures worth and then was ready to come back to momma! Santa even gave Kendall a candy cane that we might try on bath night.  (Santa looked at me and Kendall looked at the elf with a stuffed dog). Oops!

And we have a pumpkin!

The afternoon that we picked out Kendall’s first pumpkin, we also headed up to Publix for a pumpkin carving kit.  Ryan and I don’t have many carving skills so we cheated with a stencil.  Once we decided on our picture and copied it to the pumpkin, daddy was hard at work making Kendall’s first pumpkin extra special.  Look at that concentration!I missed out on pictures as the work was in progress because the ladies were busy preparing pumpkin seeds for baking. Mmmm, they were good…the first night.  Then they were too chewy. 

I tried my best to get a few pictures of Kendall with her pumpkin but she wasn’t all that interested.  However, she loved looking at the glow of the candle from a distance.  We’ll try again on Halloween when she is in her costume. Here is a before and after picture.  Ryan proved to have some great carving skills. Thanks Daddy!Kendall enjoyed some playtime before bed after she checked out her pumpkin.