Preparing for Pumpkin Day

Only a few more days until Halloween, so we've been playing catch-up this weekend, trying to get more ready for the big day. The first order of business was trying on last year's costumes to be sure they still fit -- and they did! Baby A gets to be a shark for the second year in a row, and Baby B a tree. Although it seems odd to me that they want to repeat, it's a big savings in money and/or time.

You'll note that the tree is also wearing a Shrek mask. We got the mask at Wendy's when we had dinner there a few weeks ago. We are NOT in the habit of going out for fast food, but Baby B had seen a commercial for Wendy's on TV and demanded to be taken there, so we thought oh well, it'll be cheap. Baby B was very disappointed -- stunned, really -- that the food at Wendy's was not as transcendent as the commercial had promised. Anyway, the "toy" in his kids meal was a Shrek mask (Baby A's was a donkey mask, which I think he's lost -- fortunately, since a donkey shark would really be an odd costume). I'm hoping that Baby B will not actually go trick-or-treating as a Shrek tree, but if he does, he does.

Next, we turned our attention to decorations. I'd been thinking it would be nice if I had a way to display my little Halloween Barbie dolls so that trick-or-treaters could see them, like maybe a haunted dollhouse that I could put in the window and populate with them. Then it hit me -- the Bat Cave. It worked perfectly.

At this point I don't know if we'll actually put it in the window, or if we'll just play with it endlessly, but I'll just say that my two little boys are having a lot of fun playing Barbies.

Yesterday we decided it was high time we got our pumpkins, so we headed off to Cottonwood Farms because we'd heard they have a nice spread. Boos enjoyed the hay bale maze for little kids,

and the corn maze too.

We ran into one of their friends from kindergarten and took a hay ride with him and his family. And of course we bought some pumpkins. We have to take two to school for the class pumpkin party, so we bought five in all. I'll probably carve our three the day before Halloween. Here they are in the car (with a grinning Shrek in the background).

We are so ready for this holiday.

This evening before dinner I took the kids to the park while Rocket Boy took a nap (he and I both have colds). It's just so gorgeous right now in Boulder, with the fall color.

My stupid camera doesn't do it justice at all, but it is breathtaking.

At the park, Baby A found a spider in the play structure, which he carefully removed with a stick and carried around.

Can you see a black dot toward the right end of the stick? (I examined it carefully -- just a hapless garden spider.)

Halloween is in the air.