Pumpkin Tales

So the family sat down last night to carve pumpkins. Rich handled all the heavy machinery - he literally pulled out his drill and hole saw - and Brynn scooped out the insides of her "perfect" pumpkin. Cannon even participated by throwing some of the "guts" around the kitchen a bit. He wasn't too excited with the texture of the pumpkin guts, but they were fun to throw and squish around. While they were busy cleaning out the insides, I was salvaging the seeds for a yummy roasting recipe. The two large pumpkins yielded a good number of big seeds, and Brynn's "perfect" pumpkin was a jackpot of "perfect" little seeds. Funny how the smaller pumpkins seem to have more seeds, of better quality. As I cleaned, drained and soaked the all of the seeds, I was reminded of another Halloween pumpkin seed situation.
Last Halloween, I had the bright idea to take a HUGE pumpkin from the freebie section of Craigslist. Rich grumbled and groaned about having to go pick it up, and load it into our car, and then unload it into our garage. I had successfully roasted seeds from our normal size pumpkins, and was gun-ho about doing some more. The HUGE, free pumpkin was nothing but a win-win situation for me.
We put it in the garage, commented on it's enormous size, and of course, ran out of time that day to do anything with it. A day turned into two, and then a week. I finally had time to go out and begin carving up the pumpkin for what I thought was going to be a mother load of seeds to roast. Boy, was I wrong. Apparently - as our carving last night demonstrated - the larger the pumpkin, the less quality and amount of seeds there seem to be. We opened up that HUGE pumpkin - with the help of a saw-zaw, and hammer - only to find the insides full of mold, and about 6 rotten-looking seeds. What a waste. I was shocked, disappointed and even a little bit mad. I wasn't the only one who was mad. You can only guess Rich's dismay when he found out he had to cut that enormous pumpkin into trashcan-size pieces so that we could dispose of it slowly. (This being another family issue, since we have the smallest trashcan that the garbage company offers in order to save a bit of money.) It took a weeks to dispose of all that pumpkin, and I didn't even get any seeds. Bummer.
The moral of the story: (true for both gifts and pumpkins) the best things come in small packages...

Cannon enjoying the pumpkin carving.

Brynn adding to the pumpkin seed bowl.



The finished products

Last years HUGE pumpkin - sigh-

Camera Ham

Say "cheese"!

It Goes With His Eyes...

I walked out into the garage the other day and this is what I saw.


Apparently the artwork was tasty and pretty....


I have changed 3 blue poops today...

Pumpkin Patch

Rich had Saturday off, and so we headed to Petaluma to a really great pumpkin patch. There was so much to be seen and done at this place. They had a giant field of pumpkins, cut-your-own flower gardens, castle, jumpy things, pepper garden (a little odd, I know), corn stalk maze, hay bale maze, hay bale climbing structure, haunted houses, craft barns, live animals, cow milking demos, tractor rides, BBQ food, tamales (again, random), old engine demos, and even - for the die hard education seeker - a fun barn filled with tons of facts about farming, pumpkins, and cow milking. We spent hours at the pumpkin patch. We even were able to bring the dog. I highly recommend this place. It was a blast. (Everything cost money, so if one was to do all the activities, it would be pricey, but you could get away with not spending anything and just walking around enjoying it all.)
Of course, for all of our time there, I only got a couple of great pictures of the kids, and no family shots at all. Drat. Maybe next year???
Cannon was loving being outside - he is our little outdoors nature boy, and Brynn was very excited to pick out the "perfect" pumpkin. Here are the best shots of the day.

He tried to push it around for awhile just to show us how strong he was.

Brynn with the "perfect" pumpkin, watching the cow milking demo.

Long Time No Blog

I have a million excuses, but none of them really matter. My camera batteries were dead, pregnancy, my house is always dirty, etc. Truth of the matter is, I just haven't made the time to do any blogging lately. But - I am back!
I had a great weekend away with an old friend from high school/college. She lives down in Hermosa Beach, and offered to let me come and visit for a couple of days for some well needed rest and "me" time. Thank you Katie!
My morning/all day sickness has started to wain, but I am still about 3 weeks from feeling good again. I actually feel really old. My hips ache, my back aches, I am tired.....who thought this would be a good idea? Oh yeah, probably my husband.
The kids are doing great. Cannon seems to learn a new word every day, and although we don't understand them all, he is doing better communicating what he wants. He knows a few baby signs, and that certainly helps fill in a few gaps. His proudest smiles come after he says thank you (sounds more like "daint two") and we respond with a "good boy"! Brynn is wanting to be involved with everything that I do. She wants to help cook, she wants to help clean, she wants to push the shopping cart at the grocery store. I often find her trying to keep Cannon on the straight and narrow while they play, and although I am proud of her for trying to help out, I have to remind her gently that she is not mommy. I don't want her to grow up too fast! She is excited to share a room with Cannon, and I am waiting to see what happens.
My birthday is coming up, and Rich has something exciting planned, but I am not sure what at this point. I do love surprises, and he is doing his best to keep it all from me. A few things have slipped, but I can't wait to see what is going on. More to come on that one...
I will do some more catching up tomorrow.