Halloween Crafty

Lucked out a bit this year, not much to make for Halloween costumes. Last year was quite a different story, but they turned out so cute. So I had intended to make Cody's costume this year as well, he told me he wanted to be a pumpkin. I ordered an orange hoodie online, but when it came it fit him perfectly, no room to puff it out for a pumpkin. Before I could get another one ordered, a friend came the rescue, finding a felt pumpkin costume at the thrift store. YAY!
So it needed a cleaning and a little altering to shrink it up just smidge. Then I sewed a pool noodle around the inside middle to give it form, put a big pocket on the inside behind the face to puff it out a little and the costume was done.

The real crafty came into play in needing a hat to go with it so he could have his stem.
Fail #1 came in the form of a white beanie I found at Walmart. I had hoped to dye it and sew a little stem to the top. But it wouldn't hold the dye and ended up a weird peach color with a sea green top.
Fail #2 came in the form of a bucket hat I found at Michael's. It was light tan, but I figured with enough saturation it would turn orange. It did, just the way wrong color. It was a muted orange, so back to the drawing board again.
Win came in the form of making a hat out of felt, luckily I have a big stash and didn't have to buy anything! I used the bucket hat as a template as it fit him just right and went from there. The stem is a 1 inch foam block with a pipe cleaner wrapped in batting stuck in the top to be able to bend it over.

Here's is the wrong colored bucket hat. I glued on a felt face (so we can peal it off and use the hat this summer) and Ty can wear it with his Thomas costume to add a little Halloween flair. Plus I was feeling bad that he didn't get anything made by mom this year.
The last thing in this years crafty line-up is the pumpkin shirt I made for Cody. He doesn't get to wear his costume to school, so I thought this would be fun for him. Simple felt piece sewn on with a straight stitch around the edge. Yes, it's grey, the black was too harsh against the lighter orange.
So there it is, crafty but not over the top this year.

Pumpkin Carving

It's that time of year! We've gone to the pumpkin patch and it was time to carve the pumpkins. Now, it's been a super long time since I've carved, the last few years we've either painted or did the "Potato Head" pokers for faces. We picked up the carving party pack from Walmart and were on our way. We had high hopes for our pumpkins, picking out pirate faces and such, but most of our pumpkins were a little on the small side, so we made it work.

Opening Cody's monster pumpkin, EWWW!

Tyler digging at one of his.

Cody finally getting into it, once I found him some gloves that were way to big.

Our carving was done over 3 days, first being the cleaning of the two. Then the next night, Keith was home and helped to clean out the other three and start getting pictures carved.

Tyler happy with the face he picked out.

Concentrating

Cody's ghost.

Tyler getting into carving on his 2nd pumpkin.

Tyler carving another face on his monster pumpkin.

"Take a picture of my pumpkins!"

Finished face, he did the eyes and nose, I helped with the mouth.

4 of 5...

Candle testing

3rd day was today, I finished carving my pumpkin. Had to get all fancy with it of course.

As some of you know, the boys now have a computer set up in the living room. They love it! FIL built it from a couple he had, and an extra monitor we had. It's set up so that I can surf on it on my own user, then the boys have their users so we aren't messing with each other's things!

Training: last week and this week...

Well in less than a week, I'll be jogging around Apple Hill!

The last couple of weeks have been slow on the training. I wrote my last post just after getting home from a 3.5 mile run, feeling good and working out my normal aches and pains post run. Well, one stuck around. Seams like everytime I get something going, something like this happens. But pushing through, hopefully it won't keep me out for long.

So Tues was a resting day because I couldn't walk without significant pain in my foot.

Thur I eased back in and ran 2 miles before going to school with Ty. It was fine while running, but after, and the few days after, were not the best. Paced back down to 19:22, but some of that is pushing Ty up hills, curbs and guiding him along a couple of street areas.

This weekend brought more rest, planned on running on Sunday, but it crept away. So today, Ty and I put down 3 miles after dropping Cody off at school. It felt good, but my foot hurts this evening, but pace was back down to 18:35 so improving and loving it!

The plan for the week is to take it easy, no more running until Sunday, but getting a little more time on my bike to keep endurance up.

I feel confident for Sunday, I'm not going to be speedy, but I'm going to finish.

So things are set and almost ready. Any suggestions a good running belt for storing my phone, keys, ID & cash? Need to pick one up for the race as I think the rest of the family is meeting me there.

Mom and Ty at the Pumpkin patch, Jog-A-thon...

So for the second time in two weeks, Tyler's pumpkin patch field trip had to be postponed, then canceled because of the rain. He was bummed, so trying to make the 3 year old happy, we found another patch close to the house and went on an adventure on Wed. (Pumpkin Hill on Kenneth)

Petting the llama, then it stood up and we promptly left him alone.

little bunny...

Aarrr, Tyler the pirate!

We hopped on the hay ride and went out to the fields, pretty scarce, but Ty found a nice pumpkin in this mix.

"Huh, a little tiny pumpkin"

On the way back on the hay ride, cheesy.

Really, it wasn't that painful.

Then we made our way to the bounce houses, Ty's shoes guarded our pumpkin.

Boing!

Aahhh!

He lapped around about 20 times on this thing.

On our way out we hit the rope swing.

It's a cute little pumpkin patch, if you are needing to hit one last minute. While we were there, two small preschool groups were there, so not very busy. He had fun and that's what counts.

Thurs was Cody's Jog-A-Thon at school, supposed to be last week, but the rains got in the way.

Waiting with the Kindergarten classes

Lined up, tally sheets in hand.

Working hard, he ran 8 laps in 15 minutes!

At the end, all the runners had a treat of juice popsicles, yum! It's fun to go to these sort of special events, can't wait for more.

Family Pumpkin Patch trip...

Have I mentioned how much I love this time of year? Really I do, I LOVE going to the pumpkin patch, all the fall colors and the fun that comes with Halloween. Sunday we were up bright and early, loaded up Virginia and Eli and pointed the van towards Bishops. This place get better every year, except that it's so well known it's usually packed. We got there early though, so we breezed through and were out by the time the places was super packed.

Tyler

Cody

The Barn slide

Aunt Virginia helping Ty with the scoopers.

How can you walk past without playing? Come on!
Even the adults have fun here.

Feeding the goats

Much improved from last year, Ty didn't run away screaming!

Showing of his bravery

They hay jump, mattresses under the hay

riding the train

Giant pumpkins

Virginia and Eli

The pig races, official NASPIG sanctioned race.

Don't remember them jumping last year?

When did they get so tall?

Ahh...

On the hay ride to the pumpkin fields.
Ty said it was his favorite part.

On the hunt

Found it!

The most glorious find in the fields, the official butt pumpkin..

Oh butt pumpkin, how we wish we could take you home. Alas, none of us could come up with anything that wasn't wildly inappropriate to do with said pumpkin. So it was left for someone else. 10 years and we'll be on that hunt again.

Finally, Cody settled on a pumpkin, he looks so thrilled.

All of our pumpkins

Tyler was supposed to go with his class today to a different patch in town, but the rains came and they cancelled. So we may or may not have more pumpkin fun to come!