We love fall and Halloween, and everything that comes with it. As you know from following this blog, we always get pumpkins, dress up, and generally just love the month of October. This year was no different!
We went pumpkin picking a little earlier this year and the weather was hot! It's now much colder outside, but I honestly couldn't adjust to how warm October was. For pumpkin picking I put Waverly in overalls and in the pictures she looks like a little tomato with her cheeks all rosy from being so hot! I was dying of heat by the time we got done. The heat aside, we had a great time! We went with some close friends and ventured about 30 mins from our house into the country to Ashland Berry Farm. I went there with my family growing up and have fond memories of strawberry picking at this farm. It's a really nice farm and had a ton of pumpkins. We rode the hayride out the pumpkins and Waverly loved it. She threw her hands up in the air and clapped while yelling and basically having a blast. We let her toddle her way through the patch and look at the pumpkins. Then we picked out 4 (one for Cole!) great pumpkins…Nick got stylish and picked out a green one, which turned completely orange by Halloween. Ha. All of our friends got pumpkins and we had a fun morning at the farm!
Our pumpkins sat on our steps all October and almost everyday, Waverly and I would "check on the pumpkins". She loved them. When it came time for carving, we got fancy this year with a kit! It was intimidating at first, but actually turned out to be pretty easy with the sawing tools in the kit. I still carved a classic jack-o-lantern for Waverly's first pumpkin.
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| Ashland Berry Farm |
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| "what the heck is this thing?" |
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| Hayride fun. |
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| the kids: Sophie, Lawson, and Waverly |
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| ahhh…the perfect pumpkin! |
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| there's a peanut in the pumpkin patch! |
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| girlfriends! |
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| $20 for all you can carry! |
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| and there they sat for a couple weeks... |
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| Waverly's 1st pumpkin! |
Onto Halloween. If you remember this time last year, Hurricane Sandy had just slammed the East Coast and devastated the state of New Jersey. We were out of power for a week with a 8 week old baby. On Halloween night we were freezing our asses off around a fire, huddled in the living room watching Ghostbusters on our laptop with some neighbors. There were no trick or treaters…in fact Halloween in New Jersey was officially cancelled. This year couldn't have been more different! To make up for last year all 3 of us dressed up…not just Waverly!
Nick and I love to dress up and we've decided that we'll always be those adults/parents who dress up for Halloween! Kids love it when you answer the door dressed up and it just makes it more fun! We had a family theme going on this year...Waverly was a bumblebee for Halloween, so Nick and I were a beekeeper and a Queen bee. Very easy, cheap and fun. I have Casey and Matt to thank for my cheap costume inspiration. Of course I loved being the Queen bee for the night…even though I am every night! ;)
Waverly was the cutest bumblebee. Ever. I got her costume off Amazon and my mom made a few adjustments to the feet and legs. I made her a hat with some antennas that ended up being too small on the day of Halloween! Lesson #1: try it on way ahead of time. I basically just took a hat that already fit her head and covered it black felt, but when I did that it tightened the hat and gave it zero room to stretch. Even after loosening the stitches, it wouldn't budge over her noggin. So with 1 hour till costume time, I tore off the felt and made the hat black with some permanent marker. Then I glued the antennas I made directly onto the hat. It fit! Even if she kept taking it off over and over. She was just so darn cute with the costume and hat on…toddling around as a little bee. My parents came over to see her dressed up and we were dying. It's nice to have Nana and Granddaddy nearby for these occasions!
We went to a neighborhood get together and met up with some neighbors and their kids. Then we all trick or treated at a few houses on our street. She loved following around the big kids and even had her first kit kat and lollipop. The girl loves to eat and candy is no exception.
After some successful trick or treating, it was dinner and bathtime which almost became meltdown time…Halloween is a lot for kids! We got our little bee to bed as the doorbell kept ringing with trick or treaters. This was the first time Nick and I lived somewhere with kids! We were so psyched to open the door and hand out candy. It was pretty fun and the kids were so cute. I don't think Cole enjoyed Halloween though. He got excited at every doorbell ring and never got to greet anyone. Hah.
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| a little fall decor |
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| bee hat in the making... |
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| "get this thing off my head!" |
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| my sweet bee! |
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| and she's off! |
It was a really fun night and a great way to end October. Now onto November, my birthday month! Booyah.
Love from Richmond!
