Halloween and the Irvine Pumpkin Patch

At the beginning of the month of October, Claire told me about a nifty Pumpkin Patch they have at Irvine Park. I have been so jealous of Jennie and James these past few years... ;) Claire, Michael, and I originally planned to go on the 18th, but then the whole ovarian cyst rupturing incident occurred and we decided to postpone until the 25th. So...last Monday we ventured to Irvine Park. The Pumpkin Patch was just behind the little train station they have at the front of the park. We didn't see the entrance right away and we went all the way around the gated off Pumpkin Patch area before we ended up right where we started. Michael thought it was pretty cool that I let him walk without being restrained and rather than walk around he pretty much ran everywhere he went.





At first he had no interest whatsoever in the pumpkins. He did like the cardboard cut-outs and thought it was mighty fun to stand on a bale of hay and stick his head in the openings.



We finally found a little pumpkin that Michael could sort of lift and that we could afford. I assumed the pumpkins would be more expensive than the grocery store...but wow...a lot more expensive!






**Gotta love all my funny faces... ;)

We put the pumpkin in the car and then decided to go for a ride on the train. Michael didn't enjoy waiting for the train, but once we were on it, I think he thought we were at Disneyland because he sat in my lap and stayed fairly calm. He even pointed at tree and said "tee!". He's been doing that more and more often lately. ;)

After the train ride we went to the zoo. Michael wasn't quite ready to feed the goats...every time the goat's mouth came near his hand he pulled away very quickly. Maybe next time. Thank you Claire for suggesting going to Irvine Park and for taking so many fun pictures! I'm so bummed we didn't get any with you in them!

We didn't have time to carve the pumpkin until Halloween night...but we did it. I really thought Michael would be more interested in diving into the pumpkin guts, but like the birthday cake, he didn't really want anything to do with it. He finally stuck his hand in the bowl I was putting the seeds and such in and he quickly grabbed a seed and popped it in his mouth. I watched--anticipating the funny face he'd make as he spit the slimy thing out...but no...he ate it...and went in for more.

Gross...





The final product:





I know the post is getting long, but just a little more and I'll be done. ;) We had a ward Halloween Party on Saturday night and we decided to dress up as a family. Michael was a Zoo Keeper, and Jonathan and I were elephants at the zoo.





The funny thing is that Matt, Breanna, and Kaelyn Stevens had a similar getup...



Matt and Breanna were Aviary Keepers and Kaelyn was a parrot. :) Great minds think alike, right? ;)

Michael was still too little for most of the games they had for the Primary Children, but it didn't take him long to figure out how to trick or treat in the parking lot. He was so cute going from car to car with his cheesy grin!





Free candy...not that difficult to understand...

Happy late Halloween!