pumpkin carving

Hello and happy Friday! …and happy Halloween!

Wow! I feel like this week flew by…and I’m not mad about it. Overall, we had a great week.

As always, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for this week’s Friday Favorites.

I have so many favorites from this past week. I feel like we actually did more than just be at home, sports or school!

Ok, well, “starting off strong…” last Friday night I was at home. haha!

Anyway, I was so excited to start the second season of Nobody Wants This. I was able to watch a couple of episodes, and I love it.

Saturday morning I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to get up and just read for a bit before starting my day. Last weekend really was the first time it started to feel like fall, so it was a nice cozy morning reading by candlelight.

Hadley celebrated a sweet friend’s birthday on Saturday…PJs and pancakes style.

While she was doing that, I ran quite a few errands…including going to Walmart. I don’t go to Walmart often, but I wanted to check out their fun ornaments. I didn’t get this one, but how cute?!

I did see this cute mini pumpkin cocotte by Pioneer Woman…and just knew it would look cute on my stove. I couldn’t decide between the orange or the white, so I picked up both.

The orange one provides a cute pop of color on my stove top.

I put the white one on the kitchen table.

It looks so cute in the tray.

Obviously, I can use them as cookware, but for now, I’ve used them more as decorations.

On Saturday, we also went to the pumpkin patch. Hadley drove us!

My happy place!

Travis said this was the first time we’d been in a while where the weather felt like fall. We appreciated the cooler temps.

I just love these fantasy pumpkins.

Hadley found the perfect pumpkin, and we picked Hayden up one since he was mowing the neighbor’s yard.

We saw people carrying a lot of pumpkins, and then saw this sign! This is a fun idea.

Sunday morning breakfast was elite…an apple cider donut and coffee in my cute pumpkin mug.

My mom went to Scotland with a friend, and she brought me home this candle. It certainly smells like fall.

Sunday afternoon, we went to see Legally Blonde, Jr…the musical.

My niece played Rufus, the dog…and of course she knocked it out of the park!

We gave her some flowers and candy after the performance.

Tuesday night was pumpkin carving night! First, we had mummy dogs and macaroni and cheese “brains.”

Hadley had a “vision” for her pumpkin…she wanted stars all over it, and she used a snowflake cookie cutter to trace her stars. Hayden carved his pumpkin within a few minutes, turned it around and said, “I’m done!” I just laughed because for whatever reason, the face just made me laugh. Simple and to the point. He went back in and added the little nose.

They looked perfect on the porch…

…and even prettier the next night in the rain.

Yesterday, at school, we had a “crocktober” potluck for lunch, and it was a great way to spend time with my teacher friends. One of my friends made this “boo sheet” cake which made me laugh. It was delish.

Favorite Mom Meme:

Maybe with the time change, the kids getting up will be a bit easier? A mom can dream!

Bonus Fave: Flashback Friday

Two flashback Fridays this week…in honor of our traditional trip to the pumpkin patch, here the kids are in 2010…their first time at the pumpkin patch…

…and their first Halloween. 2010 was a big year of wagon riding!

Weekly Recap:

Here are my posts from the week in case you missed one:

Monday Memes

October Books

Monthly Musings

I typically share my Monthly Moments post on the last day of the month, but I had too many other great things to share today! I’ll post an October recap tomorrow.

Halloween is actually on a Friday…let’s do this!

See you back here tomorrow for a bonus post!

Hello! Today, I’m sharing one of my favorite posts of the year: a recap of our trip last week to the orchard to get our pumpkins + a bit more pumpkin fun.

This meme is me every year:

We never leave the orchard without spending less than $70 on pumpkins, donuts, cider and more!

We usually go to Evan’s Orchard in mid-October, but Travis was busy working, and we had friends in town. I decided to give it a shot right after school last Friday. Even though the weather looked gloomy, I still figured it was our one chance to go. To be honest, there are many years we’ve been so hot at the pumpkin patch, so I was happy to actually have to wear a jacket!

We arrived right around 4:30 and headed straight in to get our donuts and hot apple cider.

I always love the chairs and mums as we enter the store.

Besides the donuts and cider, Hayden (and Travis) couldn’t resist the buy two get one free fudge! We ended up with peanut butter, chocolate, and cookies and cream fudge too.

With our hot apple cider in hand (we needed it!), we walked over to the pumpkins.

Then, I saw a mom propping her kids up on the pumpkins, and I said, “Oh…I remember doing that with you all!” I then turned around to find Hadley lounging on the pumpkins saying, “Take my pic!”…followed by…

“Hayden, sit on the pumpkins for mom!” She gets me 😉 and even dressed appropriately for the pumpkin patch in her favorite fall sweatshirt!

I love this view.

We wandered around for a bit. Evan’s Orchard has a couple of displays for photo ops, and the kids obliged for a photo at this one. We usually get a family photo, but honestly there weren’t many people there to ask, and the wind was blowing!

They picked out their carving pumpkins, and then…

Hadley hopped on the swing for a bit while I….

snapped a few more gourd and pumpkin photos! This is my happy place.

And at precisely 5:15, we were back in the car!

It was a quick trip, but I’m glad we did it.

While there are times I’m sad about the fact my kids are growing up so quickly, I’m also embracing that we didn’t have to spend two hours on the slides, climbing hay bales, and feeding animals in the petting zoo. Those things are fun, but I’m happy that they are content with the scenery, the goodies, a few pics, and picking out the pumpkins.

Bonus! This was my breakfast over the weekend!