Halloween ~ 2009

On Halloween-Eve, we started the holiday festivities with a trip to Weaver's Orchard to finally get pumpkins! Sadly, the weather was horrible the past few weekends causing us to squeeze in some pumpkin picking right before Weaver's closed on Friday evening. This year we did not enjoy a fun hayride to the pumpkin patch or the cool activities that the Orchard has for the children on Saturdays. Instead we raced to beat the sun setting for the evening with choosing what we thought were the perfect pumpkins*.
Here's our weekend in pictures...

What on earth are they staring at?

Oh...just a scary goat on the rooftop!

(yes, that is a real goat on top of the barn roof!)

Kara loved helping Daddy choose the perfect pumpkin*. She inspected them all.

Ryan insisted on picking them up. This one appears to be a little on the heavy side...

....and walking around with them. Any guesses on the phrase of the night?

Kara measuring up against the "medium" hay stacks....they win. :)

Look what we found! GO PENN STATE!

I asked Chris if he could just build one of these in our house?

FYI--We still do NOT know where our bee infestation is coming from. Poor Kara has been stung THREE times in the past two weeks. Thank God she is not allergic like her mama!

After paying for our perfectly picked pumpkins*, some yummy apple cider and a box of homemade sticky buns (Chris added them to the cart at the last minute), we headed home for movie night with Ryan. We watched Monsters vs. Aliens. We give it two thumbs up!

*not so perfect...see below.

This Halloween I wanted to carve a pumpkin. Believe it or not, we have not carved a pumpkin since Ryan was born. I think we just thought Ryan was too young to understand or even help...so why bother, right? Well, this year I decided we must carve a pumpkin.

I found the perfect template online...

Isn't it adorable?! (now we really can't wait for our Disney trip in Nov. 2010!)

Ryan was ready to help while sporting this super silly t-shirt that Grandma High sent to him!

Let the carving begin!

Chris had a cheering section...

"Go Daddy!"

"Carve that Pumpkin!"

We were having a great time cheering for Daddy, but then he lifted the freshly carved lid and we found this...

hmmmm. I know it's been a few years since our last experience with pumpkin "guts" but we are pretty positive that they shouldn't be in liquid form!!!!

Chris took the pumpkin over to the kitchen sink and tried to clean the pumpkin out as best he could...but he accidentally created a small hole on the bottom.

Thus causing this to happen...

The cheering stopped and the gagging started. Yuck!

But we weren't going to let a semi-rotted pumpkin stop us!


Do you see Mickey?


Getting closer...


carving the finishing touches...


And may I present...


The High Family 2009 Halloween Pumpkin!


Once the pumpkin was completed, it was time to take pictures of the kids in their costumes.

Kara the Ladybug

Does this costume look familiar?? Yep, it's the same one she wore last year!!! Click here to see our 2008 Halloween pictures.

Ryan the Bee

LOVE BUGS

Once there was a break in the rain (yep, it rained AGAIN...what a rainy October!), I strapped Kara into the stroller and took the kids around the block. They got A LOT of candy for only doing a block.

This year Candi brought over Kianah and Ava (two out of her four girls) to keep us company and Trick-or-Treat. Ava and Kara were born only three weeks apart but as you can see, differ greatly in height and weight. Watch out Ava, Kara is starting to catch up though. :)

The Ladybug with her Flower!

Happy Halloween!