Jack-O-Lanterns

Today was a crazy day!!! The day started with Liam's 8 am soccer game. Gary took him so that Landon and Loren could sleep in a bit. His team, the Sharks, tied 2-2. Then we had to be at the school for Saturday School by 10 am. I went to Landon's class and Gary went to Liam's class.

When the classroom presentations were over, the Harvest Fair started. Our family was assigned to a booth for each student that we had attending the school. Gary took over the booths (luckily the times were staggered). It was the inflatable slide booth and the food serving booth. I just chased Landon around from booth to booth. He went from petting zoo, to games, to inflatable slide, to bounce house, back to petting zoo, to food booths and on and on and on. My kids were most attracted to the game where you toss poker chips into random bowls/glasses/dishes. These items are ALL items people have gotten rid of because THEY DON'T LIKE THEM. If you were 'lucky' enough and the chip lands in one of them, your kid wins what it landed in. I made 3 trips to the van with ugly, unmatching discarded dishes my kids won. And I also made a trip to the van with a stinkin' goldfish that Liam won! We are SO over caring for fish and cleaning fish tanks...been there, done that. So I tried to convince Liam to give the fish to someone else. He was too terribly excited about his new 'prize' and had already named him Swimmy. So back home with 3 tired kids and a new pet to add to our collection.

As exhausted as we were, I remembered I had promised them to carve pumpkins! There's nothing like waiting til the last minute. I helped Loren pick a design from the internet. He liked the Frankenstein one, so I printed that one out for him. I found a Labrador Retriever design and poor Gary had to carve that difficult design and it ended in awesomeness. Liam went with a cat sitting on the moon and I was amazed at how well he did on it this year (he's 8). Then Landon went with a more classic Jack-O-Lantern pattern and this is the first year he's carved one himself. He did SO well on it for a 5 year old! The family assigned me the task of collecting, rinsing, and roasting the pumpkin seeds. I've never been a big fan of them, so I went to my trusty favorite recipe site, Allrecipes.com, and I thought they turned out pretty tasty!

After such a busy day, I was really torn over which picture to choose for my blip photo since I had gotten so many cute ones at the Harvest Fair. However, I'm very pleased with our Jack-O-Lantern medley so I chose that for my blip.