Storybook Pumpkins

While we were at Market Street picking out the "perfect" jack-o-lantern pumpkin, the girls also picked out two smaller pumpkins for them to paint for their school's library "Storybook Pumpkins." This is Mrs. Keller's first year as our school's librarian and she told each class that she would give each student a small prize if they wanted to paint and decorate a pumpkin from their favorite book or story. These pumpkins would be displayed in the library until Halloween. At first, the girls weren't interested in participating, but I think once they visited the library and saw how many pumpkins there were, they both changed their minds. So, Olivia picked out a pie pumpkin and Sofia picked out a small decorative pumpkin and they both wanted to make dragons. Sofia explained that her dragon is from Harry Potter Book 4 and should be green, while Olivia just wanted a red dragon. I reminded her of the book "Not Your Typical Dragon" which is about a dragon that breaths everything but fire, including stuffed animals and marshmallows. It's really a sweet story, but I think the main dragon is actually green. Oh well!

After both girls were done cleaning out and carving their jack-o-lanterns, they immediately turned to painting their smaller pumpkins. Sofia painted hers, followed by Olivia. Once they were dry, Sofia moved inside with her green pumpkin and started drawing and designing the dragon's wings, painting a toilet paper roll to match the dragon's color, and figuring out a tail and eyes. She actually made and glued her entire dragon all by herself without any assistance from me or CK! She also did it pretty quickly! She insisted on making legs for it, which I tried to talk her out of, but once she made them and attached them, they really looked cute!

It was soon bedtime for the girls and Olivia's painted pumpkin hadn't been touched. I knew she would be upset in the morning when she saw Sofia's dragon done and her's not even started. So, I looked at Sofia's dragon to make the wings, tail and head and it turned out nearly as cute as Sofia's, although it took me forever! I couldn't get the stem off, so ended up whacking it with a hammer, which worked but removed a small chunk of pumpkin at the top. It started oozing, so I poured glue to cover the area thinking it would dry overnight. Unfortunately it didn't work and I knew that we weren't supposed to bring in a cut pumpkin since it starts to decay faster. Hopefully it won't be an issue! I kept working and found a sheet each of yellow, red and orange tissue paper and cut and added it to the dragon's mouths as fire. Sofia planned to add fire by using construction paper, but the dragon heads weren't glued on very well and I figured it would cause them to fall off, so decided to use tissue paper. They turned out so cute and I know Sofia was really proud to have made hers all by herself.

We headed to school a little early so we could drop off their pumpkins in the library and fill out the paper that described what book their pumpkins are from, and what the character does in the book. We added them to Mrs. Keller's collection of decorated pumpkins and I said goodbye to the girls so they could head off to class.

Sofia's drawing of her idea

Our little painter

The finished dragons

Olivia's dragon

Sofia's dragon

Carving Pumpkins!

This afternoon, after Sofia's 1pm soccer game we decided to carve pumpkins. I think October seems to fly by because there is so much to do throughout the month. We have yet to visit Hall's Pumpkin Patch as a family, and I really want to do it together so we can get a photo of all four of us together. Olivia had a soccer game Friday evening, followed by another game Saturday morning, and Sofia had a soccer game at 3:15pm on Saturday and then one at 1pm today, so it's been hard to fit in anything related to pumpkins. Yesterday, after Olivia's 11am soccer game we drove to Market Street so the girls could pick out their choice of pumpkins to carve. I bought a few pumpkins last week for our front entrance and our fireplace mantel, but I like the girls to figure out the "perfect" carving pumpkin for themselves. They also picked out two smaller pumpkins for the "Storybook Pumpkin Patch" at the library. Instead of carving the smaller pumpkins, the girls plan to paint them and make them into dragons for display at their school's library.

The girls moved their pumpkins onto the grass and their two neighbors and buddies, Brandon and Antonio, came over and joined in the carving. I helped Olivia draw the face on her pumpkin. At lunch that day, I drew different eyes, nose, and mouths for her to chose what she liked best and then I knew what she wanted. I drew on the face with a black Sharpie and then started cutting with our kitchen knives. First, I cut the top off and Olivia carefully cleaned out the insides. She is our girl who doesn't like her hands dirty or sticky, so she wasn't a huge fan but did a good enough job. Meanwhile, Sofia loved cleaning it out and then after all the pumpkin innards were in the two bowls I set out, she liked to mush it all together through her fingers. Sofia drew on her own pumpkin face and I cut it out for her. Brandon too drew his own pumpkin face and I cut it after it was clear he might cut off a finger! Antonio also drew on his own face and I cut for him.

Once the pumpkins were cute and done, we took a few photos of the gang and also the girls with their pumpkins. As soon as we finished, Olivia and Sofia were set on painting their smaller pumpkins for their Storybook pumpkins, and they did a great job. Buddy kept sneaking small chunks of pumpkin meat and really loved it. We set our finished pumpkins by our entrance and the girls were excited to see them at night!

Olivia starting to draw her face...until I helped out.

Scooping out their pumpkins

Sofia, Brandon and Olivia having fun.

Sofia hard at work!

Olivia cleaning out her pumpkin

Me cutting out Olivia's Jack-o-lantern face.

Olivia's finished Jack-o-lantern

Sofia drawing on her pumpkin face

Very focused!

Antonio watching as we clean out the pumpkins

Olivia ready to paint her little pumpkin

Sofia loves feeling the pumpkin innards!

Antonio's finished pumpkin

Buddy loves watching the action

The finished Jack-o-lanterns!

The girls and their Jack-o-lanterns

The girls and I

Buddy posing with the jack-o-lanterns

Buddy, the best dog in the world!

Kindergarten Field Trip to the Arboretum

Yesterday I joined Olivia and the rest of the Kindergarteners on their field trip to the Dallas Arboretum. Drake's Mom, Lindsey, drove me and Charley's mom to the Arboretum and I was able to get them both in for free with our membership. The kids had arrived on the bus shortly before we parked, so we met up with Mrs. Schultz and all the kids and split up into our chaperone groups. Olivia, Gracie and Scout were in my group and we could go and see anything we wanted. We started off in the pumpkin village and the girls enjoyed running and jumping on the hay bales, walking through the pumpkin houses and climbing on the pumpkins. I was able to get a few cute picture of my girls, although Scout wasn't interested in being in most of the pictures. She would hide or run away every time she saw me with my camera raised. Beside my iPhone I also brought my real camera and planned to take photos of the girls and the pumpkins. After enjoying the pumpkins, Olivia wanted to visit the frog fountain and along the way we found a dragon statue which Olivia and I both agreed Sofia would love to see! Not only was it a cool dragon statue, but the dragon held and was reading a book! Everything Sofia loves!

We made it to the frog fountain and Olivia kept asking if she could run through it, but I convinced her that being wet for the rest of the day wouldn't be fun. We walked down the lane with the huge crepe myrtles and met up with several other classmates before heading to the open area where we decided to have our lunch. All three of the girls were starving, even though it was only 11am. Along the way we ran into a beautiful young lady in a pink dress getting her pictures taken for her quinceanera. Each time we've visited the Dallas Arboretum we've run into at least one girl preparing for her quinceanera and both girls loved getting their pictures taken with "the princess." This time was no different and Olivia and Gracie were happy to stand next to the young girl for their photo! So cute. We continued on to our picnic spot and found the perfect area to sit. I brought my picnic blanket and set it up so Gracie, Scout, and Olivia could take off their shoes, sit down and enjoy their lunch. It was really perfect weather and we had the entire are to ourselves. I tried to get a cute photo of the girls, but Scout kept getting up and running away! I guess she really must not like pictures! After the girls finished their lunches, they ran around for a bit before we headed to the classroom for our educational portion of the visit.

All of Mrs. Schultz' students arrived at the classroom and sat down on the rug while the Arboretum volunteer explained what she does and that they would be learning about seeds and how they grow from her. She started off by reading a really sweet story about two seeds that are planted next to each other but grow into completely different plants. She made the story interactive, which the kids loved. After, they sat at tables and she walked around the room and had each child pull out one pumpkin seed from a cut pumpkin. With their seed, eat kiddo went up to the table and put it in a small seed pot and added soil. The instructor told the kids that they could take their seed home, water it and it would grow into a pumpkin vine. She then passed our a lima bean to each child and showed them how to pull it apart and explained the different areas of the seed and how it would grow into a plant, if it was put into soil. It was really interesting and she did a great job involving the kids and keeping them interested.

Once we were done, Scout, Olivia Gracie and I headed back out to the field where we'd set up our picnic and decided to explore more of the Arboretum with several of their classmates. It was getting pretty hot and the kids were getting tired, so it was good timing when we had to meet back at the front gate. We originally got confused and met at the wrong gate, so Charley's Mom Hillary, who used to be a school teacher, involved them all in a game of freeze-walk. The kids LOVED it and were completely focused on her. We made it back to the main gate, met with Mrs. Schultz and headed to the bus with our group. Olivia was sad and didn't want to say goodbye so Mrs. Schultz asked if she would sit next to her. Olivia adores Mrs. Schultz, so she quickly agreed and got on the bus. It was a fun visit, although it seemed to go by so quickly!

Pumpkins by the entrance!

Gracie, Olivia and Scout

Some of the cute Kindergardeners with the pumpkins

Gracie, Olivia and Scout among the pumpkins

Olivia and Gracie and a dragon!

Visiting the frog fountain. Olivia desperately wanted to run through the water!

Olivia and some of her sweet classmates

Gracie and Olivia meet a princess!

Having our picnic - Scout didn't want to be in the photo

Running around after eating their lunch

Gracie and Olivia

Learning about how seeds grow

Everyone gets a pumpkin seed from a pumpkin

Olivia studying a lima bean

Taking a break after pumpkins

Gracie!

Girls holding hands while we head toward the exit

Olivia and Gracie at the end of the field trip - hot and tired but still smiling

Sweet Olivia!

One last photo with pumpkins before heading back to school

Hilary leading the kids in a game of "red light, green light" They all LOVED it!

The Texas State Fair!

Yesterday we decided to visit the Texas State Fair....along with half of Texas! The girls and I had gone solo last year and had a ball and this year CK was going to join us. Olivia wanted to wear her cowboy boots but had to wear Sofia's used black boots when we discovered that her cute pink and brown cowboy boots don't fit any longer. Sofia was also excited to wear her cowboy boots, but they also didn't fit and she was really sad. Instead she wore her purple Crocs. She also brought her pet phoenix and glove to complete her outfit. She's been into carrying her phoenix (or hawk) around everywhere. Finally we were ready to go and headed into Dallas.

The traffic was terrible and I couldn't remember the gate we'd parked near last year, but it was perfect and we walking right in (It was gate 1). Instead we parked across the street from the main entrance gate in someone's front yard. We entered the front gate which took awhile due to the amount of people. We finally made it into the fair grounds and I could tell CK was already questioning his availability to join us! We first stopped at the Budweiser Clydesdale exhibit to look at the massive horses. From there we visited the Kid's Day at the Farm, which we haven't done before but the girls really enjoyed. They got to pick grapes, collect eggs, plant seeds, picking out vegetables, feed the animals and drive tractors. It was a really sweet exhibit and the girls had fun. After we were done we tried our first fair food - fried jello. It's new this year and was one of the award winners. We got one order and split it, which ended up being perfect since one bite of fried jello was enough for us all. It was good, but nothing compared to my all-time favorite of fried s'mores.

As we walked to the petting zoo, I mentioned that I wouldn't be able to go to Sofia's field trip to Camp Thurman that Friday, since I would be heading to California for a reunion. CK planned to go instead and as much as I tried to explain to Sofia, she was really upset. Her field trip was originally scheduled for the previous Friday, but it ended up raining hard all day, so the field trip got postponed. She was so upset but finally came around and by the end of the fair she was more excited CK would be going with her than she ever was with me! We visited the petting zoo, which is always a favorite and was as busy as ever. CK hung out across the street while the girls and I went inside. We bought one cup of feed, since all the animals get so much food that they are usually not interested by the time we arrive. The girls loved petting the goats, cows, baby deer, zebra and all the exotic animals at the petting zoo. Sofia tried feeding the ostrich, which made me nervous since their beaks are so sharp and they stab at the shovel of feed.

After the petting zoo, we decided to get lunch - Fletcher's corny dog and lemonade! It's a must at the State Fair and delicious (once a year). The line was crazy long, but we finally made it to the front and got our corny dog and lemonades. They really hit the spot and Olivia loved hers while Sofia was busy pouting over the field trip issue. After eating, we headed toward Big Tex and stopped for an ice cream along the way. The ice cream seemed to make everything better and Sofia was soon back to her usual happy self. After our ice cream, we made it to Big Tex and took pictures, along with half of the state trying to do the same thing. We then headed for the Midway, which was completely crazy with people. The girls desperately wanted to go into the Fun House as well as the Super Slide. The Fun House alone was 10 tickets ($5) for each girl! After the Fun House, which took them less than 5 minutes to go through, we headed to the Super Slide which had an amazingly long line! The girls made it to the front of the line fairly quickly and started the long walk up the stairs. Olivia had a lot of difficulty getting up the straight sections last year and still had to work pretty hard to get through those areas, but didn't hold up the kids behind her as much as before. They made it to the top and flew down! It makes my stomach hurt just watching them go down so fast! After they got to the bottom, we said goodbye to CK who walked to the Dart station and headed into a meeting downtown.

After going down the Super Slide twice more and getting more tickets, the girls went in the Fun House and the Jungle House a few times. Then we headed to the other side of the fair for the Peewee Stampede. Along the way, we stopped for each girl to get their very own HUGE cotton candy! They both were super excited and started munching away! Anyone can join the Peewee Stampede as a "cowboy or cowgirl" if they arrive early and Olivia had originally said she wanted to do it. However, by the time we arrived, she'd changed her mind, which isn't really very surprising since she's pretty shy in crowds. Sofia was dying to do it, but she's too old already. She would eat it up and loves to do such things without a thought to the amount of people watching. Instead, we sat in the stands and watched the Peewee Stampede which was super cute. Of course most of the people watching were parents of the cowboys and cowgirls and there was a lot of photos and videos taken. We left the Peewee Stampede and walked directly to the pig races, which is a "must do" at the fair. We found some seats, which weren't great given the amount of people wanting to watch the pig races. The races started and it was exactly the same show as the year before. It was cute, but somehow wasn't as impressive as the first time we saw it. Also, Sofia ate all of her cotton candy and realized that she may have overdone it. I'm not sure cotton candy will be her treat of choice for a while.

After the pig races finished we stood in line for yet more tickets and headed back to the Midway. The Midway was still so crowded that we could hardly walk, but somehow it's sort of fun to push through a crowd once in a while. Plus, we had the stroller so we had a little room. The girls went on the Slide and Fun House and then we had just enough for an iced tea (for me - I was so thirsty) and one more ride for the two of them. The chose the Log Ride, so I stood in line with them until near the end and then got out of line so they could board the log. I stood at the bottom of the ride and watched them come down the huge drop. It was so cute to watch them and they got off super excited for the last ride of the day. It was the perfect ending to a very and crazy day.

We walked out to our car and drove to pick up CK. Sofia hung out with her phoenix and read while Olivia was fast asleep as soon as we got on the freeway for home. Such a fun day although next year we'll park by Gate 1 and we may go another day when it isn't quite so busy!

Sofia and her phoenix are all set for the fair

Olivia is ready!

With the clydesdales

Picking grapes at the Kid's Day at the Park

Collecting chicken eggs

Planting seeds

Collecting vegetables

Olivia on the tractor

By the pig

Fried jello

The petting zoo

Petting the baby deer

Petting the baby zebra

The girls and me

Baby pigs - they are so cute!

Our girl all set at the fair!

Corny dogs!

Yum!!

An unhappy Sofia - still upset over the field trip information

An ice cream and lemonade makes everything better

Olivia agrees

The girls with Big Tex....couldn't get a great photo, but better than nothing!

Ready to enter the Midway

The girls ready to go down the Super Slide

Our two monkeys

The Fun House! Lots of fun was had!

Sisters!

Ready to go on the Jungle Fun House

Heading in....

Cotton Candy!

Both girls got their very own cotton candy which was huge!

Sofia enjoying her cotton candy

The Pig Races!

The end of the Log Ride

Heading to the car....after a long, warm day!

Sofia and her phoenix on the drive home...

Olivia on the drive home!