Pumpkin Patch Overload!!!

Hey! Look what I found under the front passenger seat of my car! Hello camera!!! (It pays to vacuum out the car after a road trip! Lots of fun surprises.) And I think I took a total of 5 pictures the whole time we were in California. Go me.



The only time we'll ever get Ella on The Matterhorn:


Standing in Line:

There you go.

No one can accuse us of avoiding Halloween. We have officially had our fill of the pumpkin patch. There are 9 pumpkins residing in our 860 square food apartment. Here's some pics from our last trip (really kids, that's the LAST TIME we go this year. REALLY.) We took all the kids in the corn maze. It was better than our first corn maze attempt, on the field trip with Ella's class. That time it took us over 35 minutes to get through (which is better than the kindergartners, who had to be rescued when they didn't come out after 90 minutes... Isn't it fun being able to pinpoint the EXACT moment you've psychologically scarred your child?) It was also better than when Jaime took Gretchen & her son a few weeks ago, and half way through the maze Gretchen started screaming, "I don't want this corn maze! I want a DIFFERENT CORN MAZE!!!"



Good thing she's cute.



Even when she makes this face:



Ella left her vampire cape in Jaime's car, so she was a witch last night for the Trunk Or Treat (which is when all the cars in the parking lot hand out candy to the kids instead of going door to door). But here's Gretchen in all her Garden Gnome Glory.



There were only about 20 cars at the Trunk or Treat, so the rest of the time was spent in the back of the Party Van with John John. And apparently the best way to ensure a peaceful playdate is to give each child a bag of candy to eat.


For Ella's class I went in & helped decorate the pumpkin for the PUMPKIN DECORATING CONTEST. But they haven't announced the winner. We totally deserve the prize though, right? The kids all contributed, either dabbing on the black paint or cutting up black felt to glue on the spider legs. Oh for cute.


Gretchen got in on the pumpkin decorating action. I gave her a marker and she went to town on her baby pumpkin patch pumpkins. Look at how cute this little face is!



And here's some more friends, drawn on the back....



And she had me stick in these eyes and she drew the nose & mouth. OH FOR CUTE, GRETCHEN!!! (Ella painted that amazing witch pumpkin with the cop 'stash. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be the mouth, but I prefer to think of it as a cop 'stash.)


And Grandpa Dennis asked me for a picture of our wedding, so I thought I'd throw this in too. Remember this? Yeah, I barely do. That was a long time ago. It's on a NEGATIVE. Remember those?



Nothing much else happening here. Ella's completed level one on her Star Wars game (so her video game skillz have now surpassed mine). Gretchen only shows an interest in potty training when she's in bed and supposed to be going to sleep, or in a public restroom. What's going on with you?