Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!

I've been holding off on this post, because I wanted to include pictures of the children doing the whole process...cleaning out the pumpkins AND baking fun goodies with them, since the boys love to help in the kitchen. We've been busy around here, though, so I've been doing most of the baking alone (except for one day when Jon helped me make pumpkin bread, but the camera batteries were dead...argh!) So for now we'll just settle for pictures of boys up to their elbows in what I like to affectionately refer to as pumpkin goo.

Joshua posing with his pumpkin...


Jonathan


Jordan...tree hugger AND pumpkin hugger!


Joey and his pumpkin...

I just cut them all in half, hand out spoons, and they do (most of) the rest...

Scooping out seeds...

More seeds...the boys love roasted pumpkin seeds. We ended up filling the glass bowl shown here!

Josh and Jon hard at work.

Joey's still hard at work...

Ewwww! Pumpkin goo!

Smile for the camera, Jordan!

Silly boy! It's not a hat!

Some of our finished halves, ready to pop in the oven.

We ended up with about 32 cups of pumpkin puree. So far we've made 6 loaves of pumpkin bread (I freeze them for later) and we've had pumpkin pancakes twice. We also froze a lot of the puree to use later. Joshua has been begging for pumpkin pie, so we'll be making that as well! Yummmmm!

I Finally Did It! (Sort of...)

...Cut Joey's hair, that is! I'm in love with those sweet blonde curls, but his hair really was getting just a bit too long. I know a few of you have been getting after me to cut it, so these pictures are for you. But before you get too excited, I have to admit all I could do was trim it up a bit...I just couldn't cut it ALL off! Baby steps, people...

Here's a shot from our trip this week showing the starting length...


In the tub today...when wet it went about halfway down his back!


After our little trimming session...I took several inches off the back and trimmed it a bit around his face.


Much shorter but still curly...yay! I was concerned I would cut the curls off!

Side view...

Here it is fully dry...

So for all of our long-hair critics, is this better? I still think he's about the cutest thing ever!!

Fall in New England!

We drove to Hanover, NH on Monday, so that Jeremy could attend some meetings at Dartmouth on Tuesday. Our drive took us through Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and finally New Hampshire. I just love all the fall colors!

We stopped at a rest stop in Connecticut and took these pictures. Here are Jeremy and the 4 older boys in front of a beautiful yellow and orange-leafed tree.





Joey throwing leaves in the air...


Doesn't it look like he's having a grand time with those leaves?!!

I scooped a bunch of leaves into a pile and talked Jon into lying on them for a photo...

Joey was the only other boy I could talk into lying on those leaves. He didn't like them much...he said they poked him!

One of my monkeys in the tree...Jonathan.

Jordan

Joshua

Joseph

Jordan again...

Jonathan again...

Joshua again...

Jonathan is looking like he thinks I'm taking too many pictures.

The tree...

Joshua and Joey. Joey looks blurry because he is bouncing up and down.

Josiah was asleep when we all got out of the car, so we left him inside while we took pictures. Here's what we were greeted with when we got back in...

This isn't a great photo since I took it by holding the camera out the car window while we were going about 65mph, but it does show the colors. We never saw ANYTHING like this in Texas!!

I've been wanting to take the boys to get pumpkins, and was hoping to find a pumpkin patch along the way on this trip. We did find one, although it wasn't quite what I was looking for. The pumpkins were all set up on tables, which limited the photo ops, but we got some anyway. Oh, and we bought 7 sugar pumpkins for pie and pumpkin bread, and little bitty pumpkins for the boys to paint. We'll be doing some serious baking in the next few days!

Jordan pulling Joey around in a little red wagon.

Once again, a happy Joey!

Our "pumpkin patch" picture...

Again, with a few more smiles!

More fun with the wagons...

This started out as an impromptu race. It didn't end pretty. There were lots of tears, and I didn't take pictures.

I hesitated to put this one in here, since this is a family blog and all, but I finally couldn't resist. Yes, it's a pumpkin. Both on top, and in, um, the backside. If my brother actually reads my blog, he will appreciate this. The rest of you, probably not so much!

Now usually when we travel we're on a pretty tight schedule, but on this particular day we had set aside the trip as family time, with the freedom to stop if something looked particularly interesting. When we passed the signs for the Yankee Candle Co. headquarters, I just had to stop! I was hoping to find their candles at a discount, but no such luck. We did, however, have fun letting the boys dip candles in their "Wax Works" section, where they had several candle crafts for adults and kids alike.

Joshua and Jordan choosing their candles to dip...

Jon is busy deciding what he wants his candle to look like.

Jon's first dip...

Hey, this is pretty cool!

Joey is ready to dip his candle!

Jordan

More of Joey's candle...

Jordan finally decides to make his star blue...

Nice!

Joshua gets started...

A closer inspection...

Smile for the camera!

Jordan again. When he learned that the star and rocket ship he dipped was an ornament and not a candle we could burn, he wanted to do another one!

Now we have a small collection of very colorful taper candles. We've decided that we'll have a fun family dinner soon and light the candles at the table. Tomorrow we're going to spend time in the morning cutting, gutting, and baking our pumpkins. Then we'll start making pumpkin bread for the freezer, and of course roast all those pumpkin seeds! I'll be taking pictures, of course, to share with all of you!