October Fun!

We had so much fun celebrating Halloween and the harvest season in October. We visited a local pumpkin patch one Saturday afternoon with Nana, Papa Dave & Aunt Melissa. There were so many pumpkins to choose from that Luke could've walked around the field for hours! Finally, we decided on the winners.

My two little pumpkins!

Time for the big weigh in!

The pumpkin patch also pressed their own cider, made hot fresh donuts, and offered hay rides around the property. We enjoyed all the festivities!

Aunt Melissa, Emma, Luke & Jacob on the hayride.

Luke loved watching the elk and buffalo from the wagon!

The following weekend, we took advantage of a chilly quiet afternoon after naptime to carve our pumpkins. Luke had such fun drawing all the different types of mean and silly faces!

Daddy & Luke drawing faces for our jack-o-lanterns.

Luke was so proud of how well his face turned out. He even got to help daddy hold the carving knife!

Daddy's, Mommy's & Luke's jack-o-lanterns.

During the entire month, I worked really hard at getting Luke excited about wearing his hippo costume for Halloween. We looked at pictures of hippos, read books about them, and even crawled around the floor pretending to be hippos. I thought, "Great! This Halloween will be so fun. Luke actually gets the concept of dressing up!"....Then October 30 arrived. We were meeting some other friends at a local nursing home to visit the residents and trick-or-treat. Luke decided that he did NOT want to be a hippo. He wanted "to dress up like Luke. He was okay to wear just his jacket." "Really?" I thought. "I have to force my two year old to get free candy?" Ugh. Thankfully, about halfway through the nursing home, Luke got sick of watching all of his friends fill their bags up with candy and he decided to put his costume on.

Luke and his friend, Isaac the frog, after visiting the nursing home.

(Notice how we got the costume on....not the hood.)

This smiling lady bug did such a great job cheering up the residents at Newaygo Medical Care Facility!

The nursing home was a great practice for the real thing on Saturday. He still took some persuading to get into his hippo gear, but had a blast running from house to house saying "Trick or treat!", and giving a very enthusiastic "THANKS!" when he was done.

After we made the neighborhood rounds, we walked over to our church that was hosting a 'trunk-or-treat'. Typically, people decorate their vehicles and pass out candy from their trunks. This year was pretty cold, so the gym was set up with creative stations. The picture above is Luke fishing for his candy at the 'Fishers of Men' station. We had such a fun Halloween night, and I think Emma liked watching everyone walking around in their costumes.

We hope you all had a very happy Halloween!