Carving Pumpkins

On Monday night we carved our pumpkins to get ready for Halloween. The kids were very excited to start the project. I had to carry the pumpkins inside in the afternoon to warm them up, and were they ever heavy! Faye and Jerry are getting a little too good at growing pumpkins.















There seemed to be two different kinds of pumpkins, one of which we'd never seen before. The insides were more squash-like. In the picture on the right, the "normal" pumpkin guts are on the bottom, and the strange ones are on the top. Merlyn thought the weird one looked like chicken. Berkleigh snuck tastes of it, so you can ask her if it tasted like chicken.


















Carter drew a Frankenstein face on his pumpkin, then started carving it. We're going to have to remind him to make a bigger face next year, but it still turned out okay. Myles made a letter pumpkin this year, with Bryan's help, and I give them two thumbs up for creativity. You can see the x's for eyes, a v for a nose, and two m's for the mouth.























Merlyn was pretty proud of her jack o' lantern, which had a princess crown for a mouth and an upside-down heart for a nose. Berkleigh wanted square eyes on hers. She actually was happy, regardless of her expression in the picture. The whole time she was sitting up there, she kept saying "cheese" over and over, and she looked like she was painfully gritting her teeth.




Of course we had to take our annual "pumpkin heads" picture.

Here are the jack o'lanterns all lit up. They don't look so good now, though: the chickens discovered them out on the front steps, and apparently pumpkins are tasty treats for chickens. We all had fun carving them, at least!

The Big Wooden Playground

Last Sunday (the 21st) Bryan and I had planned to go to Rhinebeck, NY for the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival. We were going to leave at six in the morning and meet our friend Annie there. Well, Saturday night, Bryan got paged. He worked on his computer for an hour, then at midnight he went in to work. He never got home until after we were planning on leaving. Needless to say, he had to catch up on his sleep, so our trip was cancelled.

It was a beautiful day, so Faye and I took the kids to the big wooden playground. That's what the kids call Potsdam school's playground, and they always want to go there. We ended up having a really good day.













Myles demonstrated his skills on the monkey bars.

Two happy brothers:

I had put curlers in the girls' hair on Saturday night, and Berkleigh's hair especially was curly on Sunday.

Myles and Merlyn found out

that parallel bars should be a

one-way street.

Kids at play:

How many kids can fit on the parallel bars?

We decided to take silly pictures to show some great features of the big wooden playground.

We played on the playground for a couple of hours, then Faye left to run some errands and buy us a picnic lunch. While she was gone, the kids rode their bikes in the paved circle and sidewalk near the school.

Boys will be boys...

Carter and Myles loved the pavement because it gave them the perfect opportunity to make skid marks. They spent just as much time braking and checking out the skids as they did riding.

Myles also had fun jumping off the curb, the little daredevil. He'll be making ramps in the backyard before we know it!

Carter, Myles, and Merlyn all got free bike helmets when we went to the Malone Fair in August.

Berkleigh had to sit and rest. I guess walking a bike around like Fred Flinstone is more tiring than actually riding one.

Here's another one of Berkleigh's fits. She just lays quietly on the floor like that, so they aren't too disruptive. This one was because I stopped holding her up to the monkey bars: my arms get tired of holding her before she gets tired of hanging there. Luckily Faye came back with lunch and Berkleigh cheered up.

Pumpkin Patch

Two Sundays ago, on the 14th, we took our annual trip to Grandpapa and Grandma Faye's garden to get pumpkins. Each year the kids take turns having first choice. This year was Merlyn's turn. They'd already decided weeks ago which ones they were going to pick.

Grandma Faye, Grandma, Aunt Kelley, Jason, and Bryan walked with the kids to the garden.

Jason, Merlyn, and Berkleigh are admiring Merlyn's big pumpkin.

The kids worked hard to roll their pumpkins to the garden gate.

Grandma watched her grandaughter and great-grandaughters.

After the pumpkins were all harvested, Myles and Merlyn helped Grandma Faye pick the rest of the squash that was in the garden.

I wanted a picture of all four kids sitting on their pumpkins, but "Miss Stubborn" Berkleigh for some unknown reason threw a fit. I got a picture of the three older ones sitting on their pumpkins watching Berkleigh throw a fit.

Here's a happier girl sitting next

to her pumpkin in the garden.

Grandpapa loaded the pumpkins into his wagon and Berkleigh, Myles, and Merlyn rode with him on the buggy back to the house.

Carter hitched a ride on the wagon.

Kelley walked back to the house carrying her fresh-from-the-garden carrots.

Grandpa watched the activities from a

sunny spot inside Faye and Jerry's house.

Merlyn's Aunt Kelley Quilt

Kelley has started a tradition of making a quilt for each of the kids for their 4th birthday. She gave Merlyn hers on Friday the 12th when she came for family movie night. Kelley's quilts always reflect the kids who she's making it for: Carter's is an american flag theme, Myles' is trees, and for Merlyn, frogs are the obvious choice.
























Anyone who knows Aunt Kelley could tell you that she has a deeply rooted fear of frogs, so it's actually a little ironic that Merlyn is so obsessed with them. Kelley must really love Merlyn to subject herself to hours of looking at frogs while making the quilt.
Merlyn loves her new quilt and matching pillowcase. It's really soft, made out of flannel, and quite girly in spite of the frog theme. I'll try to get some close ups of the frogs, and also pictures of the boys' quilts to show off Kelley's handiwork. For now I'm just trying to catch up on all the updates I'm overdue to post!