Pumpkin Pressure

It's been a weird month of October and I totally feel like I'm failing Halloween (shocker!).  I'm just not into it this year, and I'm not sure why.  I mean, yes, I've had this nagging cough crap (same as Carter has/had, from what I can tell), and even though it hasn't really impacted my day-to-day energy in any meaningful way, I'm starting to think the ongoing annoyance of it is starting to weigh on me.  The periodic coughing spells seem to be decreasing in number, but the congestion is still there at times and I'm just tired of it.  Maybe that's my problem.  Or perhaps some random house issues over the past week have me epically distracted.  Or maybe it's just been tiring keeping our schedule straight this month.  We've had some sort of weekend plans each week, and just enough other stuff during the week that I feel like it's been a constant struggle to ensure we don't miss anything.  I haven't been going to bed early enough, and for whatever reason I'm just a little more overwhelmed by little things right now.  We barely figured out costumes, and the thought of trying to prepare food for Jacob to take with him on Tuesday for his Halloween party feels like a gargantuan task.  Thank goodness we ran into Carter's friend's mom at Sunday School so I could ask for gift ideas for his party next weekend.  I think taking that on might have put me over the edge this week.  On the bright side, it's my last full week of work for a while, between time off for Jacob's tournament in two weeks and Thanksgiving less than two weeks after that.

Long story short, we'd had a busy month that hadn't yet allowed for pumpkin patching or anything of the sort.  This weekend we had to rectify that.  We needed memories and we needed pumpkins, stat! 
The weather wasn't looking good, but it appeared we could cram in some Saturday morning time before the rain came, so off to Stokoe Farms we went at 10am.  When we arrived I was pleasantly surprised with how few cars were there.  I figured between it being the end of the season and the crappy weather that most people would get weeded out, but it was nice to know we wouldn't have any crazy lines to deal with.

The boys wanted to start with the jumping pillows, which Jacob loved but Carter said it was "too bouncy." 

Jacob in mid-air!

Carter's short-lived bouncing

We moved on to the first round of slides, which are always fun and usually the longest line besides my favorite, the zip lines.  Both boys enjoyed rides...

...and so did I!  Then, instead of waiting for the hayride, we walked down the path to the next set of activities.  The fall colors have been weird this year, but here's proof there was some to enjoy...

Carter and I went on the pedal go-karts, and Jacob and Craig camped out at the sports ball section that is Jacob's favorite--football, basketball, and baseball with targets.  He spent a ton of time there.  Instead of doing the apple shooter that Jacob also loves, we got a family bucket for the slingshots.  Usually it's little pumpkins but apparently they were out and using apples instead.  We all took turns on the slingshots, and both Jacob and I had great, explosive hits on the targets!

There was a pen of goats nearby, and this little girl and her fellow tiny friend (not Carter--another goat, maybe her brother?) kept sneaking through the holes in the fence.  So cute!

Then it was off to another slide, this one accessible up a cargo net.  Carter loved climbing up as high as he could go in the structure!

I did the zip line (couldn't convince Jacob to join me), and then met up with the boys at our favorite set of slides.  We did some family races, and I took a break to catch this one on video...


We generally used the back way to get back up the hill (instead of going all the way back around to the stairs).  Carter was a trooper, though Jacob at one point could not keep himself upright!  Hard to tell what was legit and what was for attention, but no injuries so we'll just let it go!

My favorite slide is the long tube slide.  This is my video from my perspective...


While the big boys went back to the sports thing for a few more minutes, Carter and I fed the goats...

...then checked out this turkey.  Carter said, "I can see his brains!"  I gently explained that it's not brains, just funny-looking skin.  I had never noticed, however, that this breed has a funny black tuft of coarse-looking "hair" sticking out from its lower chest.  You can just see it at the bottom of the picture.  I don't know if those are some odd looking feathers, or if this turkey actually has some sort of hair.  So strange!

As we went to find the boys, we noticed the two baby goats were play fighting.  They liked to butt heads, but I imagine the girl was getting the raw end of that deal since the boy had little horns!

We wandered to another area with animals, and there was this giant mama pig.  Her four babies were sleeping, unfortunately, but she was clearly hungry, as she was pulling and shaking the feeding pipe violently as we stood there.  I think she was trying to tell us something!

Look close and you'll see some teeth!

My other favorite part of that section was when Carter pointed to the cow and said, "I see the milk!" and I had to gently explain to him that the cow was a boy and had balls just like him.  And yes, I used that term.  I didn't need to use the word "testicle" during our fun day...sue me.  But the comparison did make him giggle.

It started to sprinkle a bit as we headed back toward the front of the farm.  We took a ride on the train...

...and then looked around at pumpkins to see if any jumped out at us.  Not many left, so we settled for some kettle corn and donuts and headed out.   

And, of course, to be fair to Jacob, we went to Livingston County Pizza Co. to see if they had any donuts left, but he had to settle for some cookies instead.  The rest of Saturday was just wet.  Tropical storm remnants, I think, but no tropical warmth.  Yuck.  We stayed pretty low-key the rest of the day.  Just seemed right for dinner to be waffles, scrambled eggs, and milkshakes!

Craig had to work Sunday morning but the kids and I braved the rain to go to church, then came home for lunch before heading out all together to The Garden Factory to finally pick up some pumpkins.  Jacob had lacrosse practice mid-afternoon, so they could only stay for a bit.  Jacob spent most of the day complaining about having to go to lacrosse practice, and while I couldn't blame him, we felt it was important for him to be there since there's only one more practice before his tournament, and because he had already missed last week because he was wiped out coming home from Canada.  It was a very wet, very cold practice.  He almost made it through, but his hands were just too cold.  Guess we should start praying now for warmer weather in Maryland?

Anyway, prior to leaving for practice, Craig and Jacob walked around with us for a bit as we scoped out pumpkins and did the usual photo ops...

 

We couldn't pass up this one...

And yes, the pumpkin is wearing a hat and was affectionately referred to as the "third brother".

 

Close-up courtesy of Craig

Once the boys left, Carter and I checked out the rides...

Making friends on train...as usual!

And after the previous day, of course he had to do the slide.  This was his second ride down, and yes, he thought he was racing the other kid!


So much for a cute photo op...Carter was too busy being spooky!

But he did pose nicely by the white pumpkins, of which we bought our first one!

Then we checked out the snowmobiles!

It took a while to decide on pumpkins--and I even had to run out into the rain to get one the right size!  They were all either giant or small, and I really wanted an in-between one!  It was still pretty big, but it was fine!  Carter picked out a little one, and we decided on a small white one, too, just to be different.  Once the boys came home and Jacob thawed out, we had dinner then got carving.  Jacob was a little more into it this year, wanting to help clean out a bit more and really wanting to carve.  He still had a hard time with it, though, so I mostly handled those duties.  He did, however, order up the design of the big pumpkin.  He requested sunglasses like they had in the Captain Underpants Movie, which turned out to be 80s vented sunglasses.  It took a lot of work (and one stabilizing toothpick to fix an engineering flaw), but I did it.  Carter requested hair on his, and I picked the eyes, but Jacob helped suggest the rest.  And here's the final result...

The white pumpkin had to wait until tonight...pictures of that coming soon!  Jacob designed that one and attempted to carve it.  It wasn't the easiest process (for either of us), but hopefully he got a good lesson that will help him next year. 

I'm glad we got the pumpkins done in the knick of time, but I still don't feel ready for Halloween and can barely wrap my brain around all the stuff I need to remember in the morning (which still feels like a lot even without a costume for me or food for my office).  What's more, the thought of figuring out how to properly bundle up the kids for 40 degree trick-or-treating tomorrow is boggling my mind a bit.  But...I got a sobering dose of reality tonight in some very tragic news, so if these are my problems, I'll take them.  This is the easy stuff. 

Please pray...I can't promise more details, but just know, they're needed.