Hallows Eve

Tonight we carved our pumpkins so they were ready for Halloween. We had a great time getting the pumpkin seeds. Sophia said she was going on a treasure hunt and putting them in the strainer. The pumpkins turned out really cute. Now we are ready for Halloween tomorrow.

Sophia and her pumpkin

Sophia and mommy with our pumpkins

Sophia and daddy with their pumpkins

In other news......
Sophia had her first real injury this week. While jumping up and down, she bit through her entire lip with her teeth. It bled quite a bit according to Corey our daycare provider. Then Hal went to get her and take her to get it fixed. They gave him the option of glue or stitches and our pediatrician told him the glue would leave less of a scar, so this is the option they took.

Her face is much better today, but still pretty red and scabby. She can't wash that part of her face until it heals which could take a while. She was quite the trooper and is not really phased by it.

Oh well, a pleasant start to an otherwise busy weekend. I ran the Monster Dash half marathon today as well, and PRd on the course. I was really happy!! The bad part about the race was that it was not organized at all, and we had to wait in the freezing cold for over two hours for a shuttle bus. Let me tell ya, people were NOT happy about this and several of us have already written to the company to get refunds.

I am excited to trick-or-treat tomorrow and I'm sure there will be many more pictures to come.

Zoo Boo at Como Zoo

On Friday, Sophia and I went to the Como Zoo for their annual Zoo Boo event. This is the third year we have attended this event. She loves it because it is a fun Halloween night with nothing scarry. I love it because I know that all of the money is going back to support the zoo we spend the entire summer going to. The major plus this year was that it was 70 degrees outside so it made the evening extremely enjoyable.


This year her friend Ava came with us. The girls had a great time going from station to station. There were more stops this year along the path which surprised me. It was fun to watch the girls wants their picture taken along the way.


When we got back to the inside part of the zoo, the girls got to see some real snakes and make a bat finger puppet with some paper, felt, and googly eyes. Then it was time to head home. The girls were at their limit. Hungry, tired, and ready for bed.


What a great night for Zoo Boo!

Monster Mash

Tonight we went to Monster Mash sponsored by 3M. The event is held each year at Tartan Park. As we made the short drive to Lake Elmo, we remember back to last year when the weather was a bit chillier. It is amazing that it is still 65 degrees outside and almost the middle of October. I hope this means that trick-or-treating will be promising this year.

When we got to the event, we decided to do the hay ride right away since the line gets long. This year they informed us they had two different tractors which helped speed things up drastically.

Sophia is Scooby Doo this year. So we used the couple of waiting minutes to take a picture in the tons of leaves that were on the ground.

After the hay ride, we went up to the pavilion and played games. Sophia did the fish pond and got a cute little prize.

Then we headed around to the trick-or-treating stations. She picked quite a few Starbursts this year which is funny. She doesn't really like the chewy fruity treats so much as the chocolate things.

From trick-or-treating we moved on to the cake walk. Sophia didn't win, but looked extremely adorable doing the walk with Hal.

Our last stop was decorating a sugar cookie. Sophia loved doing this and the end product was her favorite part!

All in all, such a fun event. We are so blessed that 3M offers this great events for families with children. Next I am looking forward to breakfast with Santa!

Is there such thing as an Indian Fall?

So I know that I have heard of an Indian Summer where it gets hot late in the season. Is there such thing as an Indian Fall? The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous! It has actually been record breaking. On Friday, the temperature actually got up to 87 degrees. That hasn't happened since like the 40s I guess. The last recorded high was in 1940 something and it was 84 degrees.

With all of this nice weather, we decided to change up the weekend plans a bit and spend as much time as possible outside. On Saturday, we got up and headed out to Pine Tree Apple Orchard before all of the crowds. The weather was just perfect, but it was awfully weird to be wearing t-shirts and shorts, when a year ago the weather was COLD!


We got all of the necessary supplies first for our apple delights at home: cinnamon raisin apple cookies, and two bags of Honeycrisp apples. I am making apple crisp, apple bread, and apple muffins tonight!

After putting the goodies in the car we went up and walked through the orchard.

Sophia loved picking the apples off of the trees.

Then after walking through the orchard, we went to check out the pumpkin patch. Hal found the coolest pumpkin.....a green one!

Sophia had a blast navigating her way through the maze of pumpkins. She kept getting her little feet stuck. After a while I think it was on purpose though.


After all of the excitement we left the orchard and headed out to Pumpkin Mania in Mahtomedi at Triangle Park. It was a fun fall event, but way too many people in a tight space outside. Sophia went down the giant inflatable slide. Then we headed home.

Today I got a ten mile run in outside which was a great way to start the day. Then Sophia and I did some errands and played outside. Hal went to watch football with a friend. I can't wait to make apple treats tonight.

Happy Fall!

Pumpkins Galore

Last weekend we went to our favorite little pumpkin spot to pick out our pumpkins. It is the best little spot ever, as it is in someones driveway! They sell the pumpkins at the end of the driveway and you put your money in their donation box.

They have so many pumpkins that you can't go wrong. This year they had a whole bunch of different kinds of gourds out too. Sophia's favorite was the bumpy green one.

We found three perfect pumpkins and promptly brought them home. Sophia claimed which one she wanted very quickly! Here are a couple of cute pictures from our pumpkin adventures:

A pumpkin just her size


Sophia with Hal and the giant pumpkin

Human Tracing

Sophia loves tracing around her hand, our hands, and her feet. So last night we decided to make ourselves BIG! Hal brought home this big huge role of paper for us to use for art projects at home.


Sophia had a blast getting traced and then making herself. We also did the same for Hal. It was such a funny family activity. Who knew that drawing this way could be so much fun.

I love that we can take the time to do these silly family things. Our weeks get so busy, so it is very important to take some down time on the weekends to be together.