ever since olive could paint a pumpkin, we’ve always invited our family over to our house to carve pumpkins. maybe do dinner and the kids would have fun outside {based on the weather} or in the garage and carve pumpkins!
this year, we decided to do it the weekend before halloween…as halloween fell on thursday.
everyone came over late afternoon and i had made a couple appetizers to tide everyone over while we waited for kim and famille to arrive with the chili. i was so geeked out to make my spooky charcuterie board! i pulled a sheet of white paper off the girl’s drawing roll…i kind of wished it was bigger but that was what i had, i used that as the ‘board’. i had purchased so much cheese and accroutrements that it turned out way bigger than expected, so there was no room for me to write out the components onto the piece of paper. bummer but no matter…i’m always extra anyways. LOL
i filled and filled and filled the sheet with cheese, crackers, and all sorts of jam. then made a spidery onion dip with chips. it all turned out so cute, if i say so myself! the apps were a hit and were quickly gobbled up!
slowly everyone arrived and we just hung out and relaxed. kim and terry finally arrived with the chili that was so delicious! hc started to prepare the toppings and soon we were all feasting on all sorts of yummy food!
the girls were the only ones who ended up painting pumpkins as no one brought over any pumpkins to carve. i was bummed as i love seeing everyone’s finished products! no matter, the girls had so much fun painting their pumpkins and everyone had full bellies and full hearts.
it was another successful family get together and so much holiday fun!
[bat girl]
[my charcuterie ‘board’…it did it on paper. if i had more time or space…i would have written out the make up of it onto the paper!]
[daaaaaaaaaang i look old and tired AF in this pic]
[boo bar]
[hc]
[buggy swizzle sticks]
[silly uncle dan and ellie]
[he had his work cut out for him…she’s persistent]
[boo cake]
[thuy super ‘angry’ she’s baking…just kidding. it’s all for play]
[nope…i don’t have enough pics of my charcuterie. not a chance. not enough at all]
[ba and dan]
[thuy and mom]
[bennett]
[brotherly love]
[reagan and kim]
[olive’s favorite person. LOL]
[olive’s is to the left and ellie’s is to the right]
oh hello! we thought it was a great idea to go to the pumpkin farm the other weekend….uhhhh, that was a crazy decision. only one million people decided to go too and it was a hot mess.
first, it took us 25 minutes to travel one mile to get to the entrance of this farm. once we parked, it was another half mile walk just to get back to the entrance! oh em geeeeeee. thank goodness the girls were in great spirits and it was super nice and sunny out! the weather was perfect and it was in the mid 60’s!
we trekked our way through the dirt and dust…man, that stuff kicked our shoe’s behinds. our shoes were so filthy! once we arrived, it was a madhouse to enter but hc found the shortest line and we were inside in a jiffy.
we walked in and it was craaaaazzyyyyyy. so. many. people. we hit up the fun house first…which was super creepy but the girls enjoyed it. we settled on the idea of food {we were so hungry!} and oh my goodness…that was an event in itself. hc stood in the longest line ever to order, then once he ordered, he had to stand in another line to pick up the food. wtf. the most ridiculous process ever.
we ate our mediocre food and promised the girls we would do whatever they wanted and boy, we did. it was like great america {although i haven’t been there since i was 9, so i’ve been told what the experience is like}. we waited and waited and waited in line for all sorts of rides. the girls didn’t mind and we didn’t either. hc and i knew what we were getting into the moment it took us forever to initially get into this place.
after being there for several hours and doing all of five things, the temps were dropping and we were ready to go. the girls were satisfied with all the rides they were on and so were we.
would we go again next year? probably…maybe to a different farm but regardless of the crowds, wait, and nuttiness of the place, we had a wonderful time with our girls and their smiles and laughter was so worth every cringe-y moment endured. LOL
our original plans were scrapped. it was a monsoon of rain the night before, so all the pumpkin farms were either closed or opened with limited access. we were super bummed. we love going to some sort of pumpkin farm every year because the kids enjoy it so much! well, this season, we had a chance to go to a little patch on that rained out day and it was the only time we could go, so be it!
ok…here’s the story. i dressed olive for the outing but i did not get her out the door. that is usually’s hc’s job. during that time, once everyone is ready…it’s then my turn to get dressed, freshen up, and grab a few things before walking out the door. that, usually, is a good 10 minutes given. well, i ran to the car, jumped in and we cruised to the pumpkin patch in no time. i get out of the car and open up the back door, look at olive, and my jaw drops. she’s wearing ballet slippers, no socks, and NO jacket. no scarf. no cardigan. no outerwear. i almost lost it. it was probably 50 degrees, windy, wet, and muddy. i could not believe she was not bundle up to be standing outside for at least 45 minutes or however long we were going to be there. plus, i couldn’t believe she wasn’t wearing boots with us walking around in the grass, gravel, and dirt {or really mud}.
anyhoo, so i forfeited my jacket to miss olive. there was no way i was going to let her wear less than what i had on! poor thing was so chilly!! her nose turned pink and her hands were so cold. albeit the rough start, we really had a great time! we all picked out giant pumpkins, little pumpkins, and olive helped me pick out mini pumpkins and gourds. olive was having a blast and that’s all i could ask for. when i see her super happy, it just makes everything good.
we perused the small place a little bit more just to check out all the goods, just to make sure we weren’t missing anything! grace grabbed some fresh cider doughnuts and we then paid for our bundle of festive fruits and moseyed on home. although it was a quick trip, it was a fun one {despite the crazy shenanigans in the beginning!} we came home with the pumpkins i wanted, pretty mums, and yummy doughnuts…it was quite the successful trip!
[hi olive]
[i love this girl so much!]
[she’s too sweet]
[she picked out little pumpkins gourds for us]
[the best moments everrrrrr…when she gets so excited to see me. i absolutely love this so much!]
we went on our annual apple pickin’ outing this past weekend!
i was so excited…i love this time of year! i am happy it is october, i am happy the weather cooperated {70+, not 90+ as it was the prior weekend and the previous years we’ve gone}, and i am happy!
we arrived at the farm and as we were walking towards the main area, terry and famille drove by! yay, right on time! everyone met up by the apple picking lines but we decided to go eat first, the boys and olive were hungry.
i was quite surprised, with it being such a nice day, that it wasn’t busier. don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of people there but i really thought it would be packed. it was the first weekend of october and a beautiful day, but there were no real long lines anywhere. when we got into the line for the food, we were first {well, there were people in front of us but they were served}. when we got into the line for the apple picking, there was no one waiting in front of us to buy tickets and the next tractor wagon ride that came by, we got on it right away! sweet! that was pretty awesome!
my heart was so full seeing olive so excited to pick apples. she was learning all about it in school the week prior, so i prepped her before our outing and told her we were going to pick apples. she was so stoked to do this! when we were driving in, she saw all the apple trees and couldn’t wait to get out to pick some. she’s so sweet! i love her innocent ways!
we picked golden delicious, empire, and jonathan apples and had a lot fun doing so. yum, yum, yum! i honestly can say that this time around picking apples was the best time we’ve had since we’ve done it. in the past, it’s either been too hot or olive was not having it and it was at times, miserable {but still oddly fun because i love picking apples so much}. this year it was a combo of all good things and that really made it enjoyable.
after we picked, we {as usual} perused the shop and bought a few yummy items. we never leave without apple cider doughnuts! {helloooo, that’s definitely our second purpose} we bought some chocolate covered pretzels, white cheddar popcorn, and apple butter. all items we don’t need, don’t need to consume, but hey, it’s fall y’all!
we hung around for a bit more {relaxing, being silly, and having fun with the kids} and then decided it was time to leave. my how time flies when you are having fun! more than 3 and a half hours later, we were ready to go! we left happy, satisfied with our bags of apples, and all the extra delicious goodies we bought. it was a successful and super fun time apple picking!
happy october!
[ellie sitting in the dirtiest high chair we’ve ever seen…thank you hc for cleaning it]
[“ohhhh snap, did you see what she was wearing?”, said ellie…hahaha!]
[she’s getting excited!]
[the tractor is moving]
[godmother godchild]
[she LOVED picking apples!]
[she totally groaned at me after this pic…she was so exasperated i was taking a picture! ha!]
warm, cold, outstanding october has passed us by! it was a great month full of changes and fun. it was olive’s first halloween! the leaves changed, the weather changed, the ’tis the season’ is starting to creep up on us!
we had a fabulous time soaking in october’s glorious offerings. i loved the days when the sun was shining bright on cool temperature days. we had the best time doing fun activities such as apple picking with the family for reagan’s birthday, doing seasonal baking, carving pumpkins, and trick or treating.
olive and i spent a lot of time together. hc pretty much spent the entire month of october traveling for work, so we had a lot of girly time! she’s getting so big and developing a big girl personality!
i love october for it’s change of leaves, the vibrant colors are so beautiful. i love how it’s the start of the best holidays. i get so excited to decorate for the season. there’s something warm and inviting about this months {albeit the temperature change!}. maybe it’s because mother earth starts to shut down for the cold winter and we begin our indoor hibernation, where we get to spend a little more time being closer together, warming ourselves up with burning fireplaces and hot chocolate.
[her new thing…putting sticks and such in her mouth like a cigar]
[date night]
[cheeeese!]
[first time falling asleep outside of her scheduled nap times]
[how she likes to drink her bottle…swinging her legs back and forth]
[learning to walk with papa]
[playing around // sign language for more]
[my halloween outfit]
olive’s first halloween was pretty cool, we loved her little lamb costume and she did collect a whopping three pieces of candy in her awesome black cat treat bag. i tried my best to outfit her in cute little festive outfits and she was the best apple picker of us all! so many wonderful firsts for miss olive this past month!
anyhoozle, we seriously had the best time this past october with all the fun things we did! i think novembers snapshot are going to be just as swell! 😉
we were so excited. we started out the afternoon by heading over to my parent’s house. we undid the bags of candies to get ready for the trick or treaters. olive helped. actually, olive loved taking all the candy out of the cauldron and throwing it everywhere! the faster i picked them up, the faster she grabbed for them and tossed ’em all around the floor. it was quite the amusing game for her.
oh, how i love halloween. it has always been a favorite of mine. i love decorating for it, i love watching fun programs celebrating the holiday {hello…charlie brown’s it’s the great pumpkin anyone?!}, my favorite movie by my favorite director: tim burton’s sleepy hollow, lots o candies, and trick or treaters! i love trick or treaters. i love, love to give out candy. it’s so much fun for me. it’s hard to explain. hmmmm, maybe it’s because i loved trick or treating so much as a kid, that i find it gleeful when they come to our door. how excited they get, how fun it is to drop bundles of goodies into their treat bags, the smiles that they give, the cool costumes that they have on. there is so much coolness about it and every year, every single year i look forward to it and have the best time every time.
[helping momma get the candy ready // gap baby one piece]
this year, being mostly a new family of three…i wasn’t as creative with our costumes as i should have been. or lack thereof. i love themed costumes for families but this year, it’s kinda been hectic leading up to that point, i totally let it slip. it wasn’t a priority in the moment but looking back, hc and i should have farmers with olive being a lamb! pshhh, c’est la vie!
anyhoo, so we got olive all bundled up {oh em gee it was soooooo cold and windy}. did i mention that it snowed that morning?! yes, it snowed! so, with that, we dressed olive in a onesie, footed pj’s, and her fluffy lamb costume over it all. we put {sock}mittens on her hands and then socks over her footies. she was ready to go! she seriously could not move. she was so thick with layers she was literally the kid from a christmas story!
[all bundled up! momma, i can’t move my arms!]
we put a cushy warm blanket under her in her brand new wagon and her cute little cat trick or treat bag from pbk. we were ready to go! we rolled on out to the next door neighbors house. my nephews were so excited, they ran from door to door in lightening speed.
[ready to go!]
[trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!]
we pulled olive along. she was quite content. people in their houses were so sweet, most doors, we couldn’t get up to because of their stoop. so we rolled up close, my nephews would ring the bell, and we would say hello and roll away. most people would actually run out to give candy to olive, knowing she couldn’t come fully to the door! they were so thoughtful!
we probably hit around five houses. we were lagging behind. my nephews were running and plus, it was sooo cold out. the wind was so strong and her hood kept on blowing off her head. so, we called it quits for miss olive. she had candy in her bag, she had on the cutest costume, and i’d say it was quite an awesome first halloween for the little babes. the boys all went ahead and i turned around with olive.
as i was heading back {a short little walk}, i had to pull her hoodie back on at least five times! the wind kept blowing it off and i didn’t want her to get cold. so i would stop the wagon, pull up her hoodie, and then begin pulling her again. so, the last time i did it, i was almost in front of my parent’s house. i pulled up her hood and proceeded to pull the wagon. i must have not noticed how hard i pulled the wagon, because baby girl totally fell back. oh it was too funny and cute. she was so layered with clothes, she couldn’t move! so she just laid there. i got to my parent’s house and turned around and laughed so hard at how cute she looked. she couldn’t get up but seemed so content. her look was kinda like ‘mom, i fell over and i can’t get up. help me’.
[my little lamb fell over in the wagon and couldn’t get back up.]
once we got back inside, we just chilled. my sisters were actually cooking up some chili for dinner while olive and i played around upstairs. i tried to put her down for a nap but that was a no go. after a bit, the boys came home and reveled in their loot. we all played around and had a lot of fun giving out candy to the trick or treaters. bennett was my partner in crime, we were stalking all the trick or treaters through the windows upstairs. if we saw any coming, he excitedly ran downstairs to hand out the candy {awww, a little mini me}.
[the boys did a wardrobe change]
all in all, it was a wonderful first halloween for miss olive and a fantastic halloween for us all. it was a spooky, cold, treat filled holiday! muwahahahaha!
the famille got together to take some fall photos. i now sound repetitive but for reals, the weather was ah-mazing!! it was sunny, beautiful, and the temperature was perfect.
we met up at the ‘red barn‘. the famille was already there, olive and i came a little bit later than them. we drove through the narrow and very long parking lot. i pulled up to the barn {also, after seeing their cars} and parked. from afar, i saw a little figure by the barn {call it intuition} and i knew it was the clan. i pulled olive out and we started walking towards the barn. yup, from around the corner they all appeared and came towards us.
from there, we started to pose, take pictures, and get creative with the photos we wanted to snap. we definitely wanted cousin photos and it was such a challenge to get little o to sit still. we would get a few snaps in before she boogied in some sort of direction. overall, we were pretty successful!
we just played around. posed. enjoyed the weather and captured some great memories. it was short and quick but fun. i tried my best to match olive to me and to the boys. i knew they were going to sport red, so i had a bit of red on o. we both wore the same colored jeans and both our shirts had some sort of print and little tabs that held our sleeves up. she’s my mini me!
[super auntie thuy]
[hanging out]
[look closely, we almost having matching shirts…natch]
[where’s waldo]
[cutie pies]
[olive! look at the camera…um, nope]
[olive giving bennett a kiss!]
after lollygagging around some more, we called it a wrap {that’s a wrap!}. we all popped into our cars and skedaddled our way home. as you can see above, we got some great, sweet shots in {although they would have been sooooo much better if my brother huy took them!}. happy fall y’all!
today takes us back to 2012. the family took a trip to bengston farm in homer glen {where?!}. it was a fun, fall event. there were plenty of pumpkins, rides, and greasy food to nosh on. we had a swell time exploring the place, there were plenty of fun activities for the kids like train rides, carousels, petting zoo, and haunted houses.
we played around and had a great time with the family. there were so many people there! it was a beautiful sunny day and it was perfect weather for us to hang out outside. i really do love going to a pumpkin farm, apple farm, any type of farm in october. it’s a tradition, it’s a must. it adds to the festive mood of the season. it totally gets me happy.
here, reagan and i snuggled onto the big wheel bench. look how small he was. so adorbs and cute. i love this pic because it’s sunny, cute, and sweet. i love this little guy and he is so wonderful to olive, such a caring cousin he is! what a cutie patutie.
i hope you have some fun, exciting plans for this halloween night! we sure do. we can’t wait to experience olive’s first halloween. we are ready! what is she going to be?? shhhhh, it’ll be a cute surprise {something fluffy, furry, and adorbs…of course}!
haphaphappy hallow’s eve! oh my gosh…i can’t believe it’s heeeerrre! well, we decided to have a pumpkin carving party the other day. it was so beautiful out; it was a perfect time to get messy outside!
hc set up a carving table outside {after he blew all the leaves away and cleaned up the driveway} and set up all of our ‘tools’. he cleaned off our pumpkins and we proceeded to dream up some cool designs we wanted to do.
[hc with his jigsaw and us with our old fashion carving kit]
[our pumpkins…all clean by hc and ready to be carved!]
hc took his drill and cut out all the tops of our pumpkins, to get us started. on a whim, i drew out the words ‘oh baby olive’ and started carving. like water, i rush with my actions and kinda messed up the carving of the word ‘baby’. oops. but no worries. i recovered, as you will see down below!
[here we go]
[oh!]
i love carving pumpkins…it’s a must do every season. it’s so much fun, it brings back such fond memories, and i always love the finished product. no matter what design we carve. there is just something magical about candle lit pumpkins at night. it’s so festive, spooky, and cool.
while we were carving out our pumpkins, olive was having the best time in her new radio flyer wagon! hc and grace set out that morning to find her a wagon. we wanted one because you just have to have one of these! but really, it’s a great item to have for any place you go to {kids love riding in it} and we thought it would be a perfect ride for her when she goes trick or treating. well, they came home, successful, with this awesome wagon! hc put it together right away and he took olive for a spin in it around the house. she was totally digging it.
so, we covered the bottom with a fluffy, comfy blanket and added in her toys, books, and stuffed bear. she was super duper happy! she played with her toys, she ‘read’ her book out loud to us, and she snuggled with her bear. she happily sat there and played the entire time we carved our pumpkins. it was too sweet to see. she is so darling.
[olive enjoying her brand new radio flyer wagon // we got her comfy with a cozy, fluffy blanket and toys]
hc used his jigsaw to carve his pumpkin {pshh, cheater!} and grace and i did it the old fashioned way…with the cheap pumpkin tools you can buy at the store. they both did funny faces and i ended up carving out my words. they all turned out lovely! i couldn’t wait until it was dark outside to light our fabulous creations!
[not lit]
[lit]
[family selfie]
ahhhh, loving our pumpkins! they turned out fantastic. i love the eerie glow. happy halloween eve everyone!
i can’t wait for halloween! it will be olive’s first one and she will be trick or treating! of course, i got the little one a lovely little trick or treat bag. i couldn’t refuse a cute little black felt treat bag with her name emblazoned on it!
i spied this treat bag on pbk. i thought the black kitty cat was adorable and i loved the idea of personalizing it. i stopped by the store to check out the bag. i was sold! i purchased the bag and left it there to get embroidered. i was excited i could choose from a variety of colored thread and whether i wanted to place her name on the front of the bag or the back. i felt the back of the treat bag looked better. i didn’t want it to interfere with the cute cat face in front.
i was super excited when they called me and told me the bag was ready! yay! i swung on by and picked up the cute bag. i was totally happy. the pink thread was perfect and her name looked so cute on the back of the bag. i couldn’t wait to show little olive. to commemorate the showing of the bag, i dressed her up in an adorbs halloween outfit and presented her first treat bag. she was quite happy and you can see in the photos down below!
we played around for a bit, i snapped a ton of photos, then we decided to move on. or at least miss olive made that choice! i hung her bag up on her dresser; i’m sure the kitty cat is eagerly awaiting to be used and abused this upcoming halloween! bring on the sweet treats or tricks 😉
