Boo!

I’m sure you all remember how obsessed I am with our annual Pumpkin Day field trip?!  We love Pumpkin Days so much we decided to do two this year.

Well, we had to cut or original Pumpkin Day short due to freeeeezing cold weather (winter coats, hats, gloves, the whole sha-bang) so we decided to add a Part II to this year’s Pumpkin festivities.

No complaints from the peanut gallery here.

Part I: Rock Creek Farms ~ U-Pick-Em (right off the vine!)

The boys bundled up and braved the near freezing temperatures to pick the perfect pumpkins.

The bigger, the better.

Half your size ~ even better-er!

Big enough that Joel felt he should drive further into the patch to pick up these giants rather than risk carrying them by the vines and possibly dropping/smashing it to the ground.  Smart man, this husband of mine.

We defrosted to saucy, cheesy enchiladas and Snickerdoodles (recipes to follow!); perfect for a cold fall day!

Part II: Miller Farms ~ Fill-er Up Wagons (as much as you can load onto a wagon for a flat price!)

On a much warmer day…

My mother-in-law was as giddy as the boys were for us to get out to this farm and load up a wagon full of pumpkins, squash, gourds, onions & potatoes.  All shapes and sizes.

And boy where there pumpkins everywhere.

And by everywhere, I mean everywhere!  Piled high everywhere you turned.  Big ones, little ones, orange ones, white ones, green ones, spiky ones, multicolored ones ~ I could go on and on.

Joel was in major concentration mode.  Each time the tower would fall, it became more and more of a challenge for him to build the stacks as high as he could and get as many pieces on the wagon as possible.

Drew couldn’t squeeze this little squash onto the wagon without Joel approving how and where to place it!  (Is it just me, or is that a total QB football stance that Drew is rocking with that baby squash?)

Aiden zoomed all around looking for all shapes and sizes to fit in every nook & cranny.

He even had other farm goers helping him dig through this giant pile to find the perfect pieces!

The beauty of this challenge is you just have to have it piled high and stable enough for the cashier to check off your cart and pay.  You don’t have to move it until after you’ve paid for your loot.  Thank goodness, because with the first step with our wagon, after we’d paid and checked out, our structure came tumbling down!  It took two wagons to get the load to the car.

When it was all said and done, after Pumpkin Day II came to and end, we witnessed this beautiful sunset from my In-Law’s front yard.

How’s that for a perfect ending to two perfect Pumpkin Days?

Aiden has been antsy-pantsy to get his monster faces put on his pumpkins.  With Halloween just around the corner I think we can continue the pumpkin fun this week and get that done for him!

If you haven’t gotten your pumpkins yet, it’s not too late!  Support your local farmers and bypass the piles at the grocery stores.  The experience is 10x better, I promise.

Boo to you too, Boo!

~pw

I love Colorado!  There is nothing (NOTHING) like a weekend drive up the mountain in the fall as the leaves are changing and the air is getting crisper and cooler.  Fall is coming!!

We had the opportunity to spend the weekend in Winter Park with my in-laws recently and took in the beauty of Colorado’s mountain ranges with the gorgeously vibrant yellow changing leaves.  I offered up my amateur photography skills (because the ever so talented Corrie Kraft inspires me!) to snap some family photos to capture the moment and here’s what we got:

My sweet little Drew looking lost in the foliage.  I hope his spiky hair never calms down ~ it’s totally his style, and I love it sticking straight up!  He’s got spunk, that’s for sure.

My beautiful sister-in-law, Joel’s brother and her sweet little peanut (who is getting taller every time we see them!).  This is super cuteness at it’s finest!  I love Kristina’s smile! ~ It’s so infectious and just radiates happiness!

Joel’s folks.  We had to twist this John Wayne’s arm to get him out in the woods, but I’m glad we did!  Aren’t they a lovely couple?!

My little Aiden-Bug.  When do you think I won’t call him “my little” anymore?  NEVER!  Someone please stop his growing up.  It’s too much!  I’ll have to remember to re-do this photo with Drew next year.

My Joel & his brothers.  I love brother pictures.  I love Joel.  And how much he is always thinking about and looking after his brothers even if he’s not vocalizing it.  He loves his brothers.  A lot.  I want my Aiden to be the same kind of big brother.

Someone get me a tissue!

I tried to do the serious face-look with these guys because I think it’s super hot on Joel.  Then I totally forgot to do a smiling snap because it got a little hectic.  Note to self: make these good looking guys smile and throw their arms around each other next time!

And finally, my family.  Thank you, Kristina for snapping this shot!  I know I waved it off to try and get the rest of the family pics snapped, but I love this pic!

The weekend went by waaaaay too fast.  We all had a great time lounging around, hiking, eating, drinking, watching football, exploring the Main St., swimming and playing Scrabble.  It’s the stuff family weekends are made of!  What a great way to usher in the fall.

I promise you, Bald Eagle Shark Tarantula (Joel’s team name) is not a Scrabble cheater!  He’s just that good.  He beats me in ‘Words with Friends’ (almost) every time!

OH ~ and I just had to sneak one more pic in.

Are they kidding me with this cuteness?  Sheesh!

*All of these pictures were taken with my super awesome Canon Rebel T2i.  I’m still learning how to use it for more than just food photography and this was my first adventure in people and poses! 

I will be surfing Pinterest for more photography ideas and inspirations.  I’m feeling a little lonely out in the Pinterest world ~ feel free to follow me and keep me some company!

Love ya!

~pw

I love getting the boys all dressed up for a special occasion.  Aiden had the honor of being the ring bearer for our friends Brandon & Alison’s wedding last month and gosh darn-it if he wasn’t the cutest ring bear-er I ever did see!

My boys clean up pretty nice.  We got them hair cuts, out of their play clothes and into a slick pair of jeans and polo shirts for the rehearsal.

That there cradled in Aiden’s arms would be Rupert, Aiden’s stuffed bear that has seen him through many a ‘time out’.  He used Rupert as a practice pillow at the rehearsal.  So, literally, a ring BEAR-er!

Honestly, we didn’t plan the color coordination with little A.  And gosh darn-it, if she isn’t the sweetest little gal who takes such great care of my boys.  (And she has the most amazing manners, a contagious grin and giggles and man can she cut a rug out on the dance floor!)  As the night got darker and a little windier, she helped my boys get snuggled up in blankets before snuggling up into her own at the end of the rehearsal dinner. See, I told ya, sweetness is written all over little A.

When the big day came, Aiden did a fantastic job.  Minus the moment where the ring bearer pillow “blew” or “flew” out of his hands into the little pond behind the Minister.  After that, he stood up nicely with Brock and kept his pillow in check.

I think he was just waiting for the party part of the evening to start up.

Drew spent the entire ceremony and reception with Papa ~ I don’t know who was chasing who, but they did have to close the doors to the ceremony when Drew went into the hall to play.  His was giggle was so loud he couldn’t catch his breath!

Jacket off, tuxedo shoes laced up and ready to show off his dance moves.  And boy did he rock and roll out on the dance floor.  He danced his heart out.  He was sweating and exhausted by the end of the night!

We all had so much fun at your wedding B & Alison!!  Thanks for letting Aiden be a part of your big day.  He loved his tuxedo shoes so much he couldn’t understand why we had to take them back.

Love you guys!  Welcome to the world of wedded bliss.  It’s seriously the best!

xoxo,

~pw

Y’all know that I love to throw over-the-top parties and showers.  It runs in my family.  Put Mom, my sister, and I in a room together planning for big brother Phanny & his wife Amanda’s baby shower and you would have to call it more of an extravaganza than just a shower.

Add to that the fact that my sister and I don’t do shower games, but we do like to feed TONS of people, serve a signature cocktail and go overboard with decorations and you’ve got yourself a couple’s shower that practically rivals a wedding reception.

We believe in giving our guests options and end up with a variety of dishes for them to choose from.  We even had to cross some things off the list (if you can believe that self-control!) in pre-planning phase 1 because we typically over-load it based on dishes we know our guests like.

Amanda’s family is from Texas, and loves BBQ.  I’m not sure what I was thinking contending with Texas BBQ, but I was sure as heck going to give it a shot!

I smoked 30 lbs of brisket for 12+ hours (thanks for lending us your smoker, Justin!) and put a pork shoulder in the crock pot since there was no room left in the smoker.

Mom picked up two flavors of hot wings, since they’re one of Phanny’s favorites and we loaded up the table with condiments and sliced bread.

That was just the main course table!

To keep the flow of guests moving, we spread out the side dishes across from the main courses on the kitchen counter top instead of trying to jam it all on to one space.  Side dishes included sweet apple & cabbage coleslaw, red potato salad, roasted sugar snap peas, chips & dip, deviled eggs, fruit punch, and pasta salad.

We used the dinning room table for the appetizers (Mom’s egg rolls, more deviled eggs, Danielle’s artichoke dip, meat & cheese tray, veggie tray, fruit bowl & cream cheese dip and more chips & dip) and desserts (cake & cupcakes (of course), butter cream mints, chocolate chip cookies, and oatmeal raisin cookies.

I think he’s had one too many trips to the dessert table.

Someone clean this kid up!  Oh, wait, he’s mine.  Fine, I’ll do it!

We even had to devote an entire counter top to the strawberry-mint sangria that Margo made.  Which I failed to photograph, but did manage to capture the large punch bowl ice cubes we made for it.

The top of my punch bowl isn’t large enough for a standard bundt cake ice ring, so we improvised.  I grabbed a few cupcake pans, threw a few sliced strawberries into each compartment, filled with water (you could use club soda or 7-Up if you want to keep the pizazz in your punch and not water it down) and froze them overnight.

Run some hot water under the pan with your sink sprayer, or, if your sink is large enough, dip the bottoms into about 2 inches of hot water to loosen.

Because we had so many dishes to share, I picked up these standard name tents and we labeled all of the food and embellished them with scrap-booking stickers for flair.

I’ve also been compelled to save mason jars and those square spaghetti sauce jars over this past year and they finally found their time to shine!

I rummaged through my candle collection until I found these purple-ish colored tea lights and then we partially filled the jars with rocks from the playground and tied pink ribbon around their necks.

The same pink ribbon that we tied off the party favor bags with.  The party favor goody bags were just hand fulls of Phanny & Amanda’s favorite candies, tied off with pink ribbon and accented with homemade marble magnets.

These magnets have been on my mind since Aiden became obsessed with them when he saw them on Danielle’s fridge a few weeks ago.

It hit me that it would be a super cool baby shower party favor for guests to take home, slap on the fridge and then wait patiently for the baby announcement to come out.  That, and Aiden busted one of Danielle’s so I totally owed her a new one!

The only downside to our couple’s baby shower extravaganza was the heat.  The temp hit 95° and the house couldn’t keep the AC up well enough since we had the back door open.  We had umbrellas up outside and the giant tent for shade, but even the breeze was too hot.

And the exhaustion that is hitting me still, even now.  It’s the middle of the 2nd evening-after and I could close my eyes and sleep for days.  But I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.  Why?  Because I’d do anything for my siblings.  And I love a good party.

I’m extremely honored to have been able to co-host a shower for them, along with Mom & Margo.  I loved showering them with food and presents and family and friends!

10 or so weeks until my big brother and his beautiful wife get to meet their sweet little baby girl.  Can’t wait!

I asked them to name her after me, but I don’t think I’m winning that one.  I told them they could even spell it phonetically to save her from the teasing I got in elementary school.  I still don’t think I’m winning that one.

It was worth a shot.

~pw