Almost Perfect Weekend (Photo Essay)

Last weekend was almost perfect. The Bear and I finally got over that darn cold, so Saturday we packed up the van with the babies and a couple of great friends and headed for a local farm's fall festival. (Which is all of 10 minutes from here. I love where I live.)

Of course we had to check out the 'how tall' pumpkin. Bear was much more interested in trying to see what might be behind it.

Then there's the obligatory picture cut-out situation.

This is Bear and our 7 month old godson DJ, sitting in front of a VW Beetle painted to look like a (take a wild guess)... giant pumpkin. We have at least a dozen shots with them looking every which way but at the camera. We finally gave up.

Bear was too little for most of the activities (petting zoo, pony ride, barrel train ride, combine ride) but I was determined to give the bouncy house a try. It was shaped like a (wait for it...) giant pumpkin. I guess 11 months isn't quite old enough yet - he cried. It was really cool though, because the other little kids were being super nice to him.

So we gave the Bear to his Daddy and Rain joined me inside to use up the rest of our time. We laughed our butts off and had a blast. And bonus - turns out it's a great cardio and core workout!

Then we watched the 40' pumpkin cannon shoot for a while. VERY cool!

Then we stopped for a quick snack. Wonderful Husband and I shared a warm, fresh funnel cake drowning in powdered sugar...

...and since they made homemade apple cider donuts there, Bear got to taste his first donut! The look on his face was priceless. Half an hour later I found he was still clenching the last shreds of donut in his little fist.

Then we climbed the hay bale mountain. I figured it was a start on burning off some of that funnel cake.

Then we headed over to get in line for the hay ride. The stroller parking lot made it easy to spot. (We ended up leaving before the next ride came along; the babies were reaching their limit.)

We stopped on the way out to get pumpkins to carve, and had to restrain Bear from climbing the "Please Keep Off" giant pumpkins on display.


Case in point of the differences between the boys - DJ has a more mellow approach to things.

After getting home we grilled burgers and started to carve our pumpkins.


Earlier that day our friends told us about this site, so we did our Barack O'Lanterns together.

(Here's how mine turned out after I finished it another day.)

I had a Martha Moment and tried to make homemade marshmallows to go with our homemade hot chocolate. I don't think they're supposed to come out a giant sticky mess. At least they were still tasty.

Our friends who trekked out from the city spent the night (they call it staying at Chez Geek B&B), so the next morning we had coffee in our jammies and I threw together a quiche.

Then I made a vat of spaghetti sauce to stock up the freezer. YUM.

After breakfast, I recapitated my friend's 30 year old teddy bear who recently sustained critical injuries...

Since I was sewing anyway, I also fixed the holes in Bear's current favorite sleepy time toy. (I find it endlessly amusing he sleeps with a vampire.)


Then our friends went home and Wonderful Husband went to his mom's to help them take the pier out of the lake. At which point he wrenched his back. At which point the weekend became "almost" perfect... because later that evening he ended up in an ambulance going to the ER in excruciating pain. Good times. Luckily a couple of the right injections (helloooo muscle relaxers) did the job. He was able to come home that night (at 2 am. ugh.) and was back on his feet after a few days.