Lollipops

My kids love lollipops. I blame Pastor Mike! He used to be in the lobby area at the end of the preschool day with ring pops and dum dum lollipops. Even though he isn't at the church anymore and the kids haven't had an after-preschool lollipop on 6 months, they still ask sometimes.

The kids have had ample opportunity to get their candy fix this month. We've been to a few Halloween carnivals plus we went to a parade, and all of these included lots of candy. The one thing both kids ask for once we get home is a lollipop.

We went to a local church last night for their Party in the Patch (unfortunately, I only got one picture). The kids had fun and loved that they got candy as a prize at each of the games. Of course their favorite is the lollipop pull, they get a prize and a lollipop!

Here's Logan doing the Hoop Toss.

I actually don't mind that the kids want a lollipop. As far as candy goes, I think they are the easiest. They don't melt or get squished in my bag. They are contained, no individual pieces to go flying everywhere when Sophie tries to open the wrapper. I can tell pretty quickly if they are done by that "empty" white stick. They are sticky, but that's not nearly as messy as melted chocolate.

I imagine the kids fantasy trick-or-treat stash would be all lollipops...dum dums, tootsie pops, blow pops. They are going to be so disappointed Halloween night!

Green Meadows Petting Farm

I took the kids to a petting farm this week. They had a great time. It was the coldest day so far of the season and threatening rain so they didn't have the huge group of field trip kids and the owner showed us around first, then let us go where we want. They had several brand new babies...like these week old goats.



Sophie has no fear so she would go right up to the animals to pet them and love on them. She was so cute when she gave the babies a kiss.

They had cans of feed out and both kids loved feeding the llamas and goats. I wouldn't be surprised if the goats had a tummy ache after all the food they got. Logan didn't quite understand that we couldn't give them all the food in the 50 gallon can.

In addition to goats and llamas, we also so a huge hog, baby Vietnamese potbelly piglets, pregnant cows that we milked, and baby chicks. The kids tried to feed the chickens (but they didn't like that much), we only spent a second in the turkey pen (I didn't like them much), and cheered on some pigs in the pig races. It was a great day!

Pumpkin Patch #4

We ended up making 2 trips to this patch. The first day, Logan decided as soon as we got to the first group of pumpkins that his tummy hurt and he needed to go home. I got 2 pictures before we left.

Cheesing it up even with a tummy ache.

We went back the next day and they had a blast. They just ran and ran and ran.

The church had created this prayer labyrinth with rocks and pumpkins and Logan had a blast working his way through the maze. Sophie just wanted to stand on the big pumpkins.

Homemade Crayons

I decided to let the kids create new crayons with old, broken ones. They got a little frustrated trying to get the paper off of them but they both loved breaking them into little pieces.


We used a mini muffin tin to make round crayons. Logan was meticulous about filling the sections.


Sophie watching the crayons melt in the oven.

All done!

I was a little worried that the crayons wouldn't come out of the tin, but most came out easily and the rest were no problem after I put it in the freezer for a bit. The kids loved using their new crayons to color.

Family Fun Day

We went to one of the pumpkin patches when the cousins came to town. They were having a family day with hay rides, games, free food, puppet shows and a concert. The kids had a great time and so did the adults.

Pumpkin Patch #3

The kids really enjoyed this pumpkin patch. They just ran and ran and ran. They'd get run to one grouping of pumpkins and then climb their way through them before running to the next group.



Logan tried his hand at the hay bale horses.

Giddy up!

Sophie at the little red barn.

Surprise!

One more minute!

A daycare came while we were there and had story time. They were kind enough to let us join them.

Pumpkin Pie

I decided to use one of the pumpkins we got to make a homemade pumpkin pie. I found a great recipe and instructions online at Pick You Own. I did it at naptime after I put Sophie down and then let Logan help me.

Here he is cleaning the seeds so I could roast them. The rest of the pumkin was getting steamed in the microwave.

He did a great job cleaning them.

Helping me scoop the "meat" out.

Mixing the ingredients.

In the oven to bake.

Half eaten! Yummy!

I've made 2 more after another pumpkin patch trip. One of them I didn't even use a crust, just made the best part. I would suggest a little more sugar, wasn't quite sweet enough for my taste. Of course, it might be just right with some whip cream.

Pumpkin Patch #2

We went to a local church that has a pumpkin patch. The kids had fun running around all the pumpkins. They had a wagon that we used to carry everything and Logan insisted on pulling it with Sophie inside, too. We bought a couple of pumpkins and lots of gourds. We took some to the preschool to share with our friends.

Is there any way to get 2 kids to look at the camera at the same time?