Manna From Heaven!

Amazing but true, just when I was threatening to buy a new camera this week, the video camera turned on and gave me back my pumpkin patch pictures. Again, the quality isn't the best, hence still probably the need for a new photo camera soon, but I will take what I can get and am glad I get to share these with you!

One thing I LOVE about the holiday season that it's so easy to do fun family activities (and hence take cute family photos!)

Two weeks ago we headed to the pumpkin patch, one in the nearby city of Talent. They have the pumpkins, a huge giant hay pile to play in, a big and small corn maze, a kids craft, and then some things you can pay to do (pony rides, pumkin launching, etc.). We went last year and loved it and had to hit it again.

We started by hitting the pumkin patch and picking out our jack-o-laterns to be. (Last year we tried to save this for an end climax to the pumpkin patch and only met with anxious "Is it time to get our pumkins yet?" the whole time. So we learned and hit that first!). Each kid got to pick out their own, though Carter and Nathan helped Luke, as Luke was only interested in driving the wheelbarrow. Here are the boys with their selections (and Lukie with the wheelbarrow...):

Then they had fun doing the kids craft. I love how, no matter how simple, kids love a "project". This one was just a piece of paper with eyes and a mouth, white streamers and a few stickers = voila! a ghost wind sock. These ghosts are proudly hanging on our front porch now.

Next it was time to play with the hay. This is always a highlight for the kids, though we have to police them from throwing hay at each other too much (or, worse, unsuspecting unknown kids who want nothing to do with this hay fight). Luke especially got the giggles out of this hay mess, though he always seems to crack himself up. The little boy with our boys in these pictures is a friend Isaac, whom Nathan and Carter boy love to play with and whom we met up with at the pumpkin patch.

There are times in life when you realize how sadly sheltered your suburbia children are, and this Saturday was one of those when Luke would not be pulled from the chickens (they were the first live ones he had ever seen) and then the boys were just amazed by a REAL sunflower that was as big as their heads!

Finally the boys played in the little photo area where I snapped this cute shot of the two brothers (well, the two brothers that will hold still for a picture!) and then the boys got to play on the real tractor, which we had to DRAG Carter away from! But, of course, my camera had died by then...