Carving Pumpkins

Pumpkin Guts

We waited until Jonathan was home to carve pumpkins. Peter and Charles did quite a bit of cleaning seeds out themselves. The past couple of years we've had Peter help but he wanted nothing to do with touching the inside of the pumpkin. He did better last year. This year he did great. He got right in there to help scooping and cleaning out. 

Erica and Charles, getting the guts out!

This year Jonathan had Peter draw a face on the pumpkin and he carved exactly what Peter drew. Last year, we picked designs and then Peter chose between the ones we picked out, but this year, it was all him. We used washable markers (genius because then if you decide you want something different, or if they make a mistake, you just wash it off and start over) and Peter just went to town drawing the face.

Jonathan is the best pumpkin carver

Charles, Peter and Jonathan hard at work

It turned out pretty fantastic. Peter loved it. It lasted on our porch for about 4 days, and then Peter took it into the woods and filled it with dirt. Needless to say, it didn't last too long after that. But, for those four days, our porch was full of Halloween happiness. 

Peter and his pumpkin creation

Pumpkin Patch- Wise Acres Organic Farm

Mid-October, Jonathan's parents came to visit the east coast. Jonathan has two sisters who also live on the east (one by Washington DC and one in eastern NC), so his parents came out and made their rounds to see all of us. It was great to have them visit, and the next couple of posts will be from their trip here. 

One thing I really wanted to do with Peter is go to a pumpkin patch and pick out some pumpkins for Halloween. We did it last year and had a blast, so I was hoping I could find a good place here. The pumpkin patch we ended up going to was fantastic! If we are living here next year, we'll go back for sure. We went to Wise Acres Organic Farm in Indian Trail. Entrance to the patch was free, and pay for the pumpkins and some of the activities. They had lots of different activities. Some of them you had to pay for, but there were lots of things you could enjoy without spending any money. 

Cousins on the barrel train.
Charles and George in the back car, Peter in the front. 

The crew was me, Peter and Ezra, Jim and OdaLisa (Jonathan's parents), Erica, Charles and George (Jonathan's sister and her two boys). Jonathan was down in SC all day doing tree clean-up from Hurricane Matthew. We missed him, but had a great time and was glad we could go on adventures with other Nelsons.

Peter, Ezra, Charles and George. 

The boys are a fun group because they are close in age so they all just go around together and play. They get a little crazy, but mostly they are delightful. It was fun to see Peter and Charles together on this trip because they have gotten old enough that they play together more than fight. There were so many things to do at the farm and we kept busy and stayed much longer than I thought we would because everyone was having a good time.

Ezra likes the wind in his hair.

4 person bike- George, Peter and Charles

Grandpa Jim with his grand-boys- Charles, Peter, Ezra and George

Ezra and Robin in the maze

Peter, Charles and Grandpa Jim coming out of the maze.
Pretty sure they made this shortcut to get out. 

One of my favorite parts of this farm was the back wooded play area. It was a forest area where they had cut down any bushy undergrowth and put toys and climbing structures throughout. So there was tons of play area, and loads of things to do while still having good sight lines and it never felt crowded even though there were lots of kids and parents milling around.

They had a zip line that Peter braved. 

This was the coolest swing! Peter and Charles loved it. 

We played in the forest area for a while, walked through a maze and then took a hay ride. The hay wagon was pulled by a big tractor. When we got off, Peter went and stood by it. It was positive it was my Dad's tractor (same color and brand, different sizes) and he was entranced. After the hay ride, we went to choose pumpkins. The boys were told that if they could pick it up, they could get it. So they looked for the best pumpkins and found some great ones.

Ezra eating chocolate covered pretzels
and enjoying the pumpkin patch.

Peter's pumpkin. He could barely pick it up, but he got it!

Peter, Robin and Ezra...getting a good family picture is getting harder and harder.

After getting pumpkins we headed over to the corn bin. This was one of my favorite parts of the day. They have a HUGE bin filled with dried corn, think sandbox only more awesome. It was covered from the sun, so it wasn't hot. The texture was fantastic. I sat on the edge to watch Ezra and put my feet in the corn and it was weirdly cathartic. I felt so much calmer letting these corn kernels fall through my fingers and burying my feet in them. The boys had a blast. Peter and Charles ran around the place digging and playing. Ezra didn't go too far, but he seemed to love the corn too. Someday when we are a little more settled, I'm going to make a corn box in our backyard.

Corn box baby.

Peter and Charles, digging and burying things. 

After playing here, everyone realized they were hungry. Grandpa Jim bought a pizza that we ate, and then the kids played a little bit more. I'm really surprised at how well everyone did. We ended up being there for about 3 hours (I think, maybe longer), and we had no meltdowns or tantrums. All the kids fell asleep on the way home, and some slept for a decent time once we returned home. It was a great trip. I'd love to go back and visit the farm again sometime. We had a blast and definitely recommend this place!

This is Halloween, This is Halloween

Family of superheros
(Jonathan as Clark Kent holding Ezra as Robin, Peter as Batman, Robin as Supergirl)

A few months back, Peter informed me that he wanted to be Batman for Halloween. It was a cute idea, but I was sure that it would pass in a weeks time and he'd move on to a new costume idea. Buuuuut, he didn't. And I was totally okay with that, because superhero costumes are really easy to pull together, and lots of fun to be for Halloween. It took us a while to decide on which superheros everyone else was going to be (I tried to convince Peter to be Batman and me to be Robin, Jonathan be Spiderman and Ezra a little spider...be he only wanted Ezra to be Robin) but we finally settled on our superhero family for Halloween. 

Superheroes can fly!

We checked out a few Batman books from the library, and once Peter learned about sidekicks and that Batman's sidekick was Robin, he knew that Ezra was going to be his sidekick. Peter initially wanted Jonathan to be the Hulk and me to be Wonder Woman, but with a little convincing, we went with Superman and Supergirl- their costumes are much easier to pull together and less green painting. 

Batman's coming to save the day!

Jonathan's parents were here a few weeks ago, and his mom helped with much of the sewing of capes and my skirt, which was a huge help. The costumes came together great. Jonathan's was by far the easiest. He already had a superman shirt, and he just wore it under a white shirt and borrowed Peter's red tie.

Best Superman Ever. 

We had a ward Trunk-or-Treat and chili cook-off the Saturday before Halloween. Jonathan was gone all day Saturday with a group from our ward cutting trees for people who needed help from Hurricane Matthew. They have been going down the last couple of Saturdays. I'm glad he's been able to go and help other families. The group came back in time to come to the ward party. We had some delicious chili and Peter came home with a huge bucket full of candy, which he shared with Mom and Dad....because he doesn't know that other kids keep all their candy, and I plan on keeping it that way as long as I can.

Batman and Robin
These boys are the cutest. 

We also went trick or treating on Halloween in my brother's neighborhood. His family lives in a development with lots of houses and lots of families. It was fun to go around with them and let the boys go around with their cousins. Lots of homes had fun decorations and there was even a haunted house in the neighborhood. Peter collected more candy and a few glow stick bracelets. Ezra rode around in the stroller and was in a pretty good mood considering he was up way past his normal bedtime. It was a great night!

Happy baby, happy mama.

Halloween was a great success this year. We had a blast and have candy to last us a while. Peter has already decided he wants to be a chameleon next year for Halloween....I'm hoping he changes his mind on that, but if he doesn't I've got a year to figure out a costume! Happy belated Halloween!

Halloween 2015- Trick or Treat!

This year we (read- I) had a tough time deciding on what we should dress up as. I really wanted some kind of costume idea for the family that incorporated Jonathan's beard. We tossed around the idea of a lumberjack family, How to Train Your Dragons cast, Bob Ross and trees, and pirates. But we couldn't settle on any of those. Then, we thought about being robots or dinosaurs. Jonathan and I were dinosaurs many years ago, so I would only have to make a costume for Peter...so that was sounding good. But then Jonathan said we should be robots because we have heaps of boxes from moving and then Peter could help make his own costume- which was a fantastic idea and I was totally behind that. But then it just wasn't happening and wasn't happening, and Halloween was getting closer and closer. 

Then, about a week before Halloween, Jonathan sent me a picture of a guy dressed up as Yukon Cornelius, the miner from the old Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie. As soon as I saw the Yukon picture, I knew we had to be part of the cast from that movie. Yukon has a great beard. I googled the cast and decided the easiest/most known characters, aside from Yukon, who Jonathan had to be, would be Rudolph, Bumble the Abominable Snowman, or Hermey the Elf who wanted to be a dentist. I didn't narrow it down any more until I found what clothing items we had or could be easily acquired from friends or the thrift store. 

I sent out a quick email to some friends in the area asking for specific colored pants, hat, jacket, etc. I got a response back pretty quick from a friend who had most of what we needed. For the rest, Peter and I ran to Wal-Mart for some felt, then to the thrift store for white pants and shirt for me. We found everything pretty quick and all was well. Peter decided he wanted to be the reindeer (which was great because his costume was by far the easiest, and I was going to be Bumble. 

The finished products!
Robin as Bumble, Peter as Rudolph, and Jonathan as Yukon.

Peter's costume: a pair of brown pants (a size too small, so they were high-waters, but whatever), brown shirt, and the giraffe headband I made for my costume last year, and I just cut the nubs smaller. Red lipstick on his nose. We owned everything for his costume, and it was the fastest to assemble.

Robin's costume: white pants and pajama sweater from thrift store (basically I chose the ones that at least semi-fit,trying to find non-maternity things that fit was near impossible, I think I tried on at least ten pairs of white pants.) We made the hat from cardboard, twine, felt and left over pieces of furry white from Peter's panda costume from last year. Jonathan engineered most of the hat/face, and did a great job. It looks better in pictures, and the glue gun saved the day on that part of the costume.

Jonathan's costume: borrowed red beanie, and used a safety pin to hook a red pom pom on the top. He covered a pair of black earmuffs in white fuzzy material. He made his ax by using cardboard and aluminum foil with a hammer as the base and made the belt buckle out of foil and cardboard. All of his clothing and backpack he already owned. He even thought to stuff the backpack with pillows to make it look full. He's pretty much genius level at making costumes.  

Our living room post costume making. 

Yukon and Rudolph, just hanging out. 

I learned a couple of things from our costume making- first, never wait until Halloween to make your costume...rookie mistake. Second- Jonathan is excellent at engineering things to work and have a good structure, and I can sew/design the outside look...so basically we are unstoppable. Third- Peter is a good helper, and sometimes makes things harder, but is still fun to have around when we make things.

Costumes were finished around 6pm, which was perfect timing for us to set out and gather some candy. We explained to Peter how it worked, and he did great. He would go up to every door, hit it with his bucket and yell, "Trick or treating!" Haha, I think by the end he got "trick or treat" down. Everyone thought he was adorable...because he is, and they loved that we all dressed up. I think most people knew who we were. Peter wasn't scared by any of the decorations or costumes we saw. Although the below house had a pirate skeleton sitting in a corner of their front porch with a sword sticking out of him. Peter said, "Oh no! Skeleton...pirate skeleton. He hurt. Oh no. He sad." He wasn't scared of him, but he did want to help the skeleton. He also would ask almost everyone who answered the door if they had a dog, and then proceed to tell them about our dog (our upstairs neighbor's dog). I'm pretty sure he liked chatting with everyone more than he liked getting candy.

Peter and Robin and the pirate house

We learned that we have a fantastic neighborhood for trick or treat. There was only one house with no one home. There were a few who left candy buckets on their porch. But almost everyone was home handing out candy. We live in a neighborhood with lots of empty nesters, and they were all in love with Peter. Also, you know how as a kid you would always spread the word, "Go to Mr Smith's house on the corner. He's giving out full sized candy bars!" Well, we had at least 4 houses giving out full sized candy bars. Candy for weeks! Peter did great at only taking one piece- although many times the people encouraged him to take a few more, apparently the neighborhood doesn't get a ton of kids, so they all were trying to give it away. Also, there was one house who had a candy bucket with candy and one dollar bills and they let kids pick if they wanted to get candy or money. HA! Peter picked candy...because that is a lot more appealing to a small one than a green and white piece of paper. Although if the choice had been between candy and pennies...he might have picked a penny. He likes the little coins.

There was a cool sunset, but we could either capture faces or sunset...not both.
So here are our cute faces!

We had a great Halloween night. Peter had a blast running to all the houses and looking at their decorations. His favorite adjective for things was "spooky". "Oooo mom, that man spooky." It was fun. We wore him out and got a ton of candy- we still have half a bucket and we only went around a small part of our neighborhood. We also learned where more people we see at church live, which was nice. Happy Belated Halloween, I hope everyone else had a great time!

Pumpkin Carving

A few days before Halloween, we set aside some time to carve our giant pumpkin. Last year, Peter wanted nothing to do with getting his hands dirty with pulling out the pumpkin guts. This year was more of the same. He helped a bit in the very beginning, but was very quickly done with touching the seeds or stringy insides.

Peter helping Jonathan get some of the pumpkin guts out.

After prepping the pumpkin, we looked at some pictures until we found a pumpkin idea we liked. Peter really wanted a sad pumpkin...I'm not sure why. But we convinced him to have a happy/silly face instead. I was in charge of drawing the face on the pumpkin and then Jonathan carved the face.

Robin, pumpkin artist.

Jonathan, pumpkin carver, with Peter, self-appointed photographer.

Peter has recently learned how to take pictures on our phones. Jonathan's phone has hundreds of photos of Peter's feet, close-ups of the ground, random toys, and blurry arms/legs/faces of anyone nearby. It's pretty fantastic. He was all about taking pictures the whole night. Here are two of the clearer ones-

Almost artistic

There were at least 20 of these close-ups

Jonathan finished carving our mustached pumpkin. It seemed fitting for him to make. I think it turned out pretty good. He looks happy and it was fun working on it together. 

Peter, Jonathan and mustached pumpkin

Pumpkin Picking with Peter

This will probably be the fastest turn around from something we did to being a post! Tonight, we went to a pumpkin patch to find ourselves the best pumpkin in the world! I've been wanting to take Peter to a pumpkin patch for a bit. I was talking with some other ladies earlier this week and they told me that Packs Farm was the place to go. So, we took their advice. When Jonathan got home from work, we ate a quick dinner and headed out! 

We drove up to where the map said it would be, only to find a really amazing house for sale....but we weren't there to buy a house, we were there to buy a pumpkin. Luckily, we passed a sign pointing us in the right direction. We turned around and drove for a while...and it seemed like we were headed nowhere. We were almost about to give up, when we saw another sign! Then we found the pumpkin patch. 

It was a pretty cool little place. They had a couple of tractors that kids could climb on, a photo booth with some scarecrows, a hay bale maze, bins of baby/special pumpkins, and of course the patch filled with pumpkins. Everything was free, except for the pumpkins. We wandered around and checked out everything before heading to the pumpkins. 

Peter and Jonathan, farmers in the making.

Peter and Jonathan on the big tractor!

Peter loved the tractors! He liked touching everything. Each time, we'd put him in the seat and he'd scoot his little bum to the side so Jonathan had room to sit with him, "Dad, come sit with me!" He loves his dad so much. It's adorable.

Peter and Robin at the hay bale maze!

Peter was also a huge fan of the hay bale maze. He would just run and run, get to a turning point and pause, looking at both ways he could go, pick one and jet down it as fast as he could. It was great for adults too because the bales were low enough to look over the sides, so we could just walk along and keep the speedster in our sights. We ended up making a small loop in the maze and came out the same entrance we went in. But Peter was happy and then we had time to find our pumpkins! 

Peter in his pumpkin wagon! Jonathan did a great job of being his driver.

It was super fun to walk around the pumpkin patch with Peter. He loved being out there. Jonathan commented that we probably need to just take him to a field from time to time and let him run free. He just walked around with his arms spread wide out and just went. We kept trying to get him to choose a pumpkin but he just wanted to walk around the field. We would say, "What about this one Peter?" He'd respond, "No." We'd ask, "Why not?" And his response a couple of times was, "That one not mine." Haha. We would ask if he wanted a big one, or a small one, or a bumpy or smooth one. His answers always changed. I think he just wanted to be walking among the pumpkins with Mom and Dad. 

I found the pumpkin I wanted...it was a fat guy, and it will make for a great one to carve! It had a good stem and I liked it's colors. Then, we started walking back towards the entrance through the patch. We told Peter he had to pick a pumpkin by the time we got to the end. We pointed out little ones, big ones, and everything in between. But none of them were his. Until the very very end. He found a little white pumpkin that he claimed as his own! He carried it for a while, then put it in the wagon. 

Peter and Robin with Peter's little white pumpkin!
Also, props to Jonathan for getting that beautiful sky in the picture!

The pumpkins at their new home.

It was a great way to spend the evening! On the way home, it started to rain a bit, so we had great timing in the pumpkin search. Now, we'll have to find a time to carve the big one, and we might do some painting on the albino pumpkin- depends on how Peter feels!

Halloween 2014

For Halloween Eve and Halloween Day, we had a number of activities that we got to participate in. This post will try to cover all of the fun things we did.

First up, the Ward Halloween party. It was fantastic. They had a chili cook-off as well as rooms around the building with various kids games and trick-or-treating. The chili options were delicious. We were pleasantly surprised at the amount of people who dressed up for the party. Everyone looked great and we had a blast. We went as a zoo keeper (Jonathan), giraffe (Robin) and panda (Peter). Initially we were going to do 2 zookeepers with Peter Panda, but we couldn't find clothing suitable for two zoo keepers, but while at DI, we did come across a giraffe print hoodie which inspired my costume. 

The day before the party I was hard at work gluing felt pieces onto a pair of khakis to be a giraffe and making a headband. It all came together in time and we were an awesome zoo family. Peter didn't get scared of any costumes and he had fun walking around and doing the activities in the various rooms. 

Robin the giraffe, Jonathan the zoo keeper and Peter Panda

Zoo Keeper with the most adorable panda in the world

Peter found a baby giraffe!

Peter blowing kisses to the camera

"Peter, say cheese!"

The next day, Halloween Day, we walked down to Center Street where a lot of the shops were giving out candy. Peter didn't really understand the concept of saying "trick- or-treat" but he did understand that candy was involved. We saw more cool costumes...and some weird ones. The weather was beautiful. I was worried it would be so cold, which is why Peter's costume is a sweater, but it was too hot for him to keep his hood on. I was really quite okay with the warm Halloween weather. We got a good amount of candy, and a camera shop was giving away free pictures to anyone who came in. We went and got a cute Halloween family photo. We walked around with some friends of ours. It was fun to see Crystal, Ben and little Marshal.

Peter Panda with his Zoo Keeper

After walking Center Street, we stopped by the grocery store for some non-sugar snacks to make sure people stayed happy. Then, we were off for the Rec Center, last stop of the night. The Rec Center was fantastic. They had a section where there were people dressed up as book/movie characters that kids could pose with. There was a couple of areas with different games you could play to get candy. There was a trick-or-treat hallway. Lastly, there was a room where they had rotating shows like a magic show and an animal show. We went first to the room with characters. Peter wasn't quite sure what to make of the characters. He didn't love being close to them, but he didn't try to run away. Also, if I took a picture, he would not look at me, but he would just stare at the character.

Iron Man, Jonathan and Peter

Jonathan, Peter and Optimus Prime

Not all the characters were there, so we decided to explore other areas until they got back. Peter did some fishing, we went through a house looking for ghosts, played basketball, and did a cake-walk. I think Peter had a really fun time. He loves people and keeping busy, and this day had both, so he was good to go. We saw some people we know from church and from Jonathan's work, which was fun for us. 

Peter at the basketball game

After the games, we headed to the main show room to watch the animal show. The woman doing it was great with kids. She had 5 different animals. She brought out one at a time and talked to the kids about the animal and things that made it special. She took a bit too long for Peter's attention span, but it was perfect for the elementary aged kids. Peter loved whenever she brought a new animal out, but then he got bored. We stayed for about 15 minutes of the show and then headed out.

The animal show

After the animal show we went to find the last couple of characters before heading home. Peter reacted the same as before. Just stared them down, every single time. 

Peter meets Peter Parker...I mean, Spiderman.

Peter meets Peter Pan!

After we saw the last few people, we decided to head home. Peter had a long day, and we were ready to get him to bed. We got a total of 4 trick or treaters...next year I will buy a third of the candy we bought this year. It was fun to have a good Halloween. The weather was great, and we had tons of fun stuff to do. Peter was adorable and we had fun with our costumes. Happy Halloween! (Super belated!)