Halloween - Cowgirl Style

As Halloween approached I began looking through the various toddler costumes that were available from the stores (the Naughty Leopard from Wal-Mart was a particularly interesting one - I actually wrote to Wal-Mart about that one expressing my dislike over the sexual implications of the name and its inappropriateness) as well as the numerous dress-up clothes that we currently have in the house and decided that Abby would simply use her dress-up clothes and be a princess or fairy as we had an abundance of poufy dresses and tiaras. Then I heard that her preschool (which doesn't celebrate Halloween) was having a Cowboy/Cowgirl Dress-Up Days event. The kids were invited to come to school in their cowboy/girl outfits, feast on camping themed snacks, color some cow pictures, and learn all about cowboys. I thought I could put her as a princess on Halloween (Thursday) and then a cowgirl for preschool (Friday) and she could have fun dressing up as two different characters. I easily found a cowgirl hat but an actual costume eluded me so I figured she'd just go in jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. Then I got to talking with the in-laws and they mentioned that they'd look around in Portland to see if they could find anything and they hit the gold mine!

Abby dressed up as a Cowgirl!

Not only did they find an actual cowgirl costume but it was pink! I appreciated that the costume was essentially one dress with all the pieces attached. We put her in tights and a long-sleeved t-shirt then slid the dress over, tossed on her hat, and voila....an awesome costume for trick-or-treating. She loved her cowgirl hat (and in fact still does - it's currently sitting on her bed with her other "special" toys as she naps). We headed out to trick-or-treat our street and I was curious as to how she'd do. Last year we went to one house on the street, she got her candy, and was all "thanks for the sucker mom, I'm totally done now that I have my one piece". I thought she'd get it a little more this year so we'd have a little more fun. I wasn't disappointed!

With purple pumpkin bucket in hand, she's ready to get some candy!

Our first stop was a quick lesson in what to say ("trick or treat" then "thank you") and she caught on right away. She wasn't too big a fan of the scarier costumes but after moving to avoid those she used her small little body to squeeze into openings and get to the candy faster.

Look at how tiny she is here! My little one is normally not described as little (as she towers over most other kids her age) but goodness you can totally see that she's still a little girl instead of the big girl I always picture.

Totally thrilled (and hamming it up for the cameras) with her first successful trick-or-treating house stop.

After leaving the first house we started walking down the street to the next one and quickly had to increase our pace as Abby sprinted off. She was a girl on a mission! She was super cute saying "trick or treat" in the quietest whisper but made my Momma heart proud as she exclaimed thank you of her own volition before turning away. We only had one 'issue' at a house where the gentleman lowered the candy bowl down to Abby's level so she could pick out her piece and instead she grabbed a fist full. :-) I did try to have her hand some back but he was really nice in letting her keep the five or so pieces she'd snagged.

I think her hat is half the size that she is!

Two houses on the street were decorated a bit scary so Abby requested assistance in walking up to their doors. She's currently going through a phase where everything is scary. Heaven help you if you drop a raisin on the ground because that will forever become known as the spot that the bug was and bug's are scary enough to require Mom to carry Abby by that spot each and every time. :-) It's actually pretty comical as she runs to me screaming "too scary bug, too scary bug" and I look down and it's something harmless like a squished french fry.

Grandma Akers helping Abby trick-or-treat at the scary house.

Quite quickly we'd trick-or-treated our street and were back to our house. I wanted Abby to actually trick-or-treat from Nate (as he'd stayed home to pass out candy) but she was so excited to start eating her candy that she ran right passed him into the house.

Trick-or-Treating from Dad.

After she picked out two pieces of candy we all got into the car and headed over to Nate's Aunt and Uncle who live in town to trick-or-treat at their house. Nate's cousin (along with husband and new baby) were also there so it turned into a nice little family reunion. Aunt Sharon was kind enough to get Abby set up decorating some cookies and then, when that wore off, playing a new game on the iPad.

Decorating Halloween cookies. I think she put over 10 googly eye decorations on the one cookie alone.

When we got home the sugar rush of the day was in full swing as Abby started just running around and around in circles in the living room. I cut her off her supply at that time and we started settling down and working on our bedtime routine. I'm very happy that she "got" Halloween this year as walking around with her was a lot of fun. I'm a little worried about next year, though, as I don't think a single street of trick-or-treating will suffice. :-)

Carving Pumpkins

Abby really got into carving pumpkins this year. We bought one of those cheap little pumpkin carving sets from Wal-mart, which were dull enough that Nate and I had no problem with her wielding them on the pumpkin we carved. Our concern was the super sharp knife that Nate wielded as he struggled to get the pumpkin to actually carve. I don't know why it is but this small pumpkin we decided to carve into just didn't want to give. Nate had to use all his force to make just the smallest of cuts. Thankfully he overcame and we got a super cute little jack-o-lantern for Abby to enjoy.

Starting to carve the pumpkin and realizing that the little pumpkin carving knives weren't going to make a dent in the hard shell.

Abby getting into watching what Daddy's doing.

Nate has officially brought out the big knives. He scoured his garage and brought out a multitude of cutting devices to see what would work best.

Finally, a system works. Dad brute forces the knife and makes some cuts, then has Abby come along and help out with the smaller carving knives. Abby loved cutting and using her "knice".

The pumpkin is carved and the lid is off!

Abby makes the first scoop of guts.

And then realizes that the pumpkin innards feel kind of yucky.

Nate tries to entice Abby to touch the inside of the pumpkin to grab out the goo but she's not really having any of it.

He finally convinces her to do a quick touch....

....and she's grossed out. :-)

Finally, the pumpkin is cleaned and we head outside to light it up.

Abby is super thrilled with her pumpkin!

Now, that our pumpkin is carved we are officially ready for Halloween!

Bill's Berry Farm

A lot of my friends have given great reviews on another type of Harvest Festival in our surrounding area. Since I've only ever been to the Country Mercantile's Harvest Festival I thought it would be fun to check out Bill's Berry Farm and see how it compares. This time I drug Nate (not literally, although he did mention how beer would have been helpful!) as he had yet to experience a family fall event. I knew a few of the features that Bill's would have but was pretty unaware about what we would be experiencing. So it was with excitement and uncertainty that we entered the parking lot.

When we entered the first section of activities Abby immediately ran off to the hay tower. Having experienced one just a week before she knew what was up and was anxious to have more fun. This tower was a little different in that it wasn't as tall but the bales were bigger. I definitely liked the height being a bit smaller because it would have meant not needing to climb with Abby but the bales were so big that she wasn't able to climb from one to the next, so I ended up climbing my second hay tower to help Abby out.

Abby getting ready to climb to the very top!

After the hay tower we (mistakenly) ventured into the corn maze. This was our only miscommunication for the day. I mentioned going into the maze thinking it was one of those small kid ones and the cost of $5 per person didn't compute. When Nate balked at the price and said he'd wait outside for us I asked that he go in with us to stay as a family. After he agreed he went to buy tickets just as I was thinking that maybe this maze wasn't the best for us. But, alas, Nate already had the tickets and the girl was ushering us to the start. We wandered around for about 10 minutes before Abby started mentioning that the corn stalks blowing in the wind were "too scary" and required to be held. Not too much longer after that I declared the maze a bust and we quickly found our way back out. Hate to admit it but Nate was right. :-) We should have bypassed the maze. Of course, as we were exciting I then saw the sign for the kid maze. Oh, well.

In looking around we realized that our other options in this section of the festival were pumpkin sling-shot throwing at around $5 a throw, apple picking (unfortunately, we had 2 boxes of apples at home so we had no need for more apples), a cider making station, and a pumpkin patch. Abby started heading towards the pumpkin patch so we followed. I must admit the pumpkin patch was a little, well, sad. There were sections that were roped off that contained different types of pumpkins (and therefore different prices) and you wandered among the sections to find your pumpkin. Within a minute or so Abby had wandered into the first section, picked her pumpkin, and wandered back to us. Okay. Guess this activity was over.

At this point Nate and I decided that we should venture over to the other part of the festival which was a short walk down an orchard path. As we walked past the cider making station we agreed that it was just a little too old for Abby and her always-moving ways. On to Bill's Berry Farm Part 2!

Enjoying the walk to see what else the Farm has in store.

The petting zoo was great! A bunch of chickens, a couple of goats, a cow, and a pair of pigs. Abby had a hoot chasing after a chicken. Every time she'd get close the chicken would run away and Abby would start to giggle and then continue the chase.

She's almost caught it!

There were also pony rides nearby but they cost money and we were starting to feel a little put out with all the money we'd spent so far. Plus, I didn't want to spend the money (or wait in line) only to have Abby freak out and melt down as soon as we put her on the horse. So we waved at the ponies from afar and passed on actually riding them.

Abby and Nate getting in on the farm props action.

We eventually ended up at the "food court" for lack of a better term. There was the main food station where they sold hamburgers, hot dogs, chili burgers, chips, and drinks, as well as a caramel apple station, and a homemade donut station. Lunch wasn't quite here yet so we figured that it was a good time to just sit back and have Abby run around on the treehouse nearby. This treehouse was awesome! It was built in the biggest tree I've seen in a long time and contained the "fort" platform and a fun twirly slide to get down. Adding in a big tire swing and a few 'baby' swings and you completed the playground area.

Abby raced over to the tire swing and forced her way on. The big boys really got the swing going and Abby loved every minute of it!

Abby looking at us from the top of the tree house.

And grinning on her way down!

After Abby ran around for a bit we sat down for lunch and donuts. Then the clock tick-tocked and naptime was here. While walking back through the orchard to our car Abby let out a few yawns that almost broke her face in half. :-) I don't think we were on the road 10 minutes before she was pleasantly snoozing away. A successful transition to her bed a half hour or so later and Nate and I were able to count this family adventure as a great one!

That said...I can't help but compare Bill's Berry Farm to Country Mercantile's Harvest Festival and, in my opinion, Bill's comes in second. A fair number of my friends like Bill's Berry Farm as they say Country Mercantile is too commercialized, and I do see where they're coming from, but I felt that Bill's nickel and dimed you for everything. Seemed like every time we turned around we were giving money away in some fashion for some event and we didn't even do half of the events. We had to pay for parking, the maze, the cider station, the pumpkin slingshot, apple picking, food, the one kid's ride they had, and pony rides. At Country Mercantile you pay to get in (which was something like $6.50 and then you paid for food and rides, and the rides were reasonably priced at $1 per ticket and most rides costing an average of $2-$3 tickets. Bill's activities seemed geared towards older kids whereas Country Mercantile seems like there are more things for younger/smaller people to do. The hay tower is climbable, there are a lot of little kid rides, the hay maze is easier to navigate than a kid's corn maze, and the pumpkin patch is actually an adventure.

Overall, I'm glad we experienced Bill's Berry Farm but I don't see us going again as long as we girls continue our tradition of heading to Country Mercantile's Harvest Festival. Since Nate isn't invited to that one I think he's happy about this decision, too. :-)

Harvest Festival - Where Carnival Rides Become Fun!

Once again the girls in the family got together to celebrate Fall by visiting Country Mercantile's Harvest Festival. Since this is our third year attending we knew the order of 'fun' operations. Our first stop was to get the Fall themed photo op. Katie surprised us all by joining in on the fun and getting us four kids/grandkids together for a photo for Mom. It was a blink-and-they're-gone moment but we did successfully get some portion of all of our faces in the designated cutouts. Then it was on to the "How Tall This Fall?" board to see how tall the girls were this year.

I'm barely in position, Haylee is in the process of sticking our her tongue, Abby has no clue where to look, and Katie is actually smiling in a picture. It's a picture miracle!

 

Comparing the girl's height to each other.

And Abby is 3 and a quarter feet...ish.

Haylee was all a-twitter about riding the Dragon Roller Coaster so she ran off in that direction while Abby and I headed towards a more Abby level of fun - the inflated obstacle course. We tried the roller coaster last year and it was a pretty big fail, and the attitude hadn't changed this summer at the Benton-Franklin Fair, so I figured that it'd be another fail this year and wouldn't even attempt it. I think I was right but maybe next year the roller coaster will have appeal. After Haylee finished her ride she saw Abby exiting the obstacle course and decided she wanted to have a turn as well. So Haylee and Abby went through together. It's super sweet to see how Haylee helps Abby and watches out for her. You can definitely tell they love each other.

Climbing the ladder to the big slide near the end of the course.

Getting ready to slide down together.

Wheeee!

Next it was Abby's turn to pick a ride and she decided to take a ride on the horsies. :-) Haylee took a little bit of convincing (she's getting to be such a "big girl") but thoroughly enjoyed herself once the ride started. Katie and I had fun trying to get the girls to look at Mom for her to take a picture.

If you look closely you'll see three sets of heads but four sets of feet!

Haylee decided she wanted to see the petting zoo next so we began to make our way to the other side of the field where the petting zoo, hay tower, and hay bale maze were. I was actually impressed with the animals they had on display. Two pigs, two goats, a couple of bunnies, a calf, and a rooster. Not the largest grouping of animals but they were all pretty friendly and interactive with us.

Abby shows Haylee how to pet the bunny.

After the petting zoo the hay tower called. Every year I'm amazed at how tall this tower actually is. I was thinking that Abby and Haylee might be able to go up by themselves but after they'd ascended a few bales high I got nervous and quickly followed. Haylee does a good job keeping track of Abby, but I know Abby can run off lickity-split and I'm a worry wart. :-) In no time flat we'd made it to the top, run through the tunnel near the top of the tower, and were working our way back down as Abby had spotted the hay bale maze and was wanting to run through it.

Abby and Haylee are climbing on their own and I'm near the bottom happily taking pictures.

At this point I've abandoned all pretense of staying on the ground and am climbing the tower with the girls. Look at how awesome Haylee is doing in making sure Abby safely climbs up.

This photo just cracked me up. Both girls are making silly funny faces and you can tell are just having a ball of a time.

We're at the top!!!

Working together to get back down to the ground.

The maze was a hoot. Last year Abby wandered around a turn or two and then asked to be picked up and carried around the maze. This year she literally ran her way around (and around and around as she got stuck in one circle loop as she refused to turn left to get out of it) and just had so much fun burning off energy. Then, when the maze became old and she wanted out, she just climbed up over the wall to get closer to the entrance. Haylee had a heck of a time as she (Haylee) kept wanting to do the maze properly but thought we adults were crazy when we told her it was okay to just leave Abby behind (and Haylee refused) since Abby was doing her own thing. 

The girls started off the maze together.

Then Abby found a circle that shall not be gotten out of and Haylee continued on. 

However, Haylee did NOT like it when Abby started climbing the maze walls and walking along them as Haylee thought Abby would get hurt. So Haylee raced over to meet up with Abby.

 

At first I thought that Haylee was getting a little annoyed at Abby and her "not going through the maze properly decisions" and there might be a little cousin fight going down.

But Haylee demonstrated her absolute love for Abby by joining in on the game of going through the maze by climbing over the walls. I just love this picture. Abby has jumped into Haylee's arms and Haylee is holding so tight onto Abby so they don't fall. It's perfect trust and love. It just makes my heart smile.

At this time the adults decided it was time for the hayride out to the pumpkin patch as the sun was setting and who knew how long picking out pumpkins was going to take. Thank goodness we did get an early start because the tractor that was pulling the hay trailer kept giving the driver fits and what should have been an easy three minute ride turned into almost fifteen. But to make up for it he took us deep into pumpkin picking territory where the pumpkins hadn't been completely picked over yet so there were some really good ones.

I LOVE Haylee's expression. It's totally her Mom's "why are you taking my picture?" expression with total sass and attitude. Notice how Katie is desperately leaning to one side to avoid her picture being taken. :-) Yep, Haylee is her Mother's child.

In this one Haylee has her arms securely around Abby as each time the tractor tried to start up again it would backfire and the hold trailer would jerk. Abby almost fell over with one of the jerks so Haylee made sure that didn't happen again.

Pumpkins as far as the eye can see! This year Abby picked out a really great pumpkin without too much Mom interference. Last year she kept wanting to take home the pumpkins that were half-rotted but this year she pointed those out as "yucky" ones and quickly moved on to the nicer looking pumpkins. The pumpkin that she's holding is one that she picked completely by herself. I hadn't even seen it by the time she'd picked it up and declared "my punkin".

A Katie sighting! :-) Heading back in from the pumpkin patch to pay for our pumpkins. 

Katie was sweet and decided to take the girl's pumpkins back to the car for me so I took the girls for a ride on the train. Grandma took a quick picture with the girls then decided to hunt up some caramel apples for an after festival snack for us.

Grandma with her girls.

Abby LOVES trains right now so was super excited for the ride, Haylee enjoyed going through the corn maze portion of the train ride, and I enjoyed listening to the girls talk to each other as they pointed out different sights they were seeing. Funny of the evening was that the girls got in a seat where the seatbelt was super each to get on and almost too easy to get off. I got into a seat that was a little difficult getting the seatbelt on and required the attendant to come over and unbuckle me as I didn't have the strength. I had to chuckle when I thought of the adult being the extra secured one and the little girls being loosey-goosey with safety. :-)

We ended the festival with the best ride of all (in everyone's opinion)! I thought that Abby would like the airplane as she also really digs airplanes right now, too. I was happy when Haylee ran up (Abby had just come from a second ride on the carousel while Haylee was doing the obstacle course) and wanted to join Abby on the ride. Mostly because I figured Abby would be more inclined to have fun than be scared if Haylee was with her. I showed the girls how to move the joystick to go up and down and the ride was off. Mom and I were trying to take some pictures but they were so high in the air we were having trouble so Mom told Haylee to lower the airplane. Haylee replied that Abby wouldn't let her and kept telling her no when she tried to bring the plane lower. I think we found another winner of a carnival ride!

Abby and Haylee enjoying a "big kid" carnival ride.

Unfortunately we were all out of ride tickets (I actually had to run to the ticket booth and purchase more tickets for Haylee to ride the ride as she ran into the airplane before I could mention otherwise. I asked the attendant if it would be okay for me to bring him tickets after the ride and he was gracious enough to let me.) so we couldn't have a repeat of the fun ride. Plus, it was almost 7pm and the girls still hadn't had dinner. We decided that we'd already spent a chunk of change so we drove back to McDonald's for some much enjoyed Happy Meals. The girls had a great time burning off more energy as they raced around the indoor playground and we adults enjoyed a chance to sit down and chat. I think this was the best year of all three. The girls were both of an age that they could do a lot of the same activities. They were also old enough to understand waiting our turn and doing something because someone else really wanted to. I honestly don't think it will be that long before we add the big corn maze to our list of "must" activities. Until next year!