Typical

This post is full of things that are pretty typical around our house.

It's typical that after working about 80 hours in the past 6 days, Andrew would come home to a long list of honey do's for his off days.  The dude was on it and knocked out hanging 3 sets of curtains, washing the car, taking Josie for a special treat, and the much dreaded pumpkin carving in just a couple of hours.

I love the idea of traditions.  However, it's 100% typical that I do not enjoy carrying them out.

Every year I buy a pumpkin with the intention of making some magical Halloween memories.  But carving pumpkins is kind of hard and I'm not artistic so they always look goofy (not in the good way) and last year I almost lost a finger getting the nose out.

Andrew is typically not a fan of my tradition ideas.  He knows when I ramble them off that he is going to get roped into to the parts I don't want to do.

But he's a good sport, a great dad, and I promised him an untimed trip to SAM's Club on a Saturday if we could just get the pumpkin done.

The man delivered.

Typical Josie and Gabe.  Josie digging in with bare hands, Gabe screaming if any pumpkin guts touch his skin.  He was meant to by my child. 

Typical staged shot to make it appear as though I had any part in the making of this jack o'lantern other then purchasing the pumpkin.

Also typical: top half dressed and ready, bottom half still in PJs.

I rounded out Andrew's weekend off by toting us all downtown to have family pictures done.  

Jamie Worley (Jamie Worley Photography) met us in Piedmont Park to update our photo wall.  Gabe wasn't even Gabe yet the last time we had a group shot done.  I remember asking Amber if I should have him in our pictures since we weren't sure if he was going to be staying.

Needless to say, I'm glad she smacked me and told me that if that fat baby wasn't sitting next to us she wasn't going to make me Darby Pie anymore.

So anyways, what is typically a torturous experience (family photos) was actually totally painless and pleasant.  I told Jamie I only needed 4 shots and decided to relax and let the kids, and Andrew, just be themselves.  

Best weekend ever.

I love our typical selves.

Pumpkin Party

Saturday we invited some friends over to paint pumpkins.

This was the easiest party ever and everyone had a great time.  I bought all of the decorations on clearance after last Halloween so it was super inexpensive too.  Everyone brought their own pumpkins and went to town painting while all the parents snacked on some awesome treats.

This marks the start of the Holiday Crazies for us.

Which is totally a term of endearment.  I love all the themes that start flying around this time of year!

pumpkin week

My original plan was to only have one theme a month.

But the lure of pumpkins and scarecrows and halloween and candy are all just to much for me.

I couldn't resist.

So for the next few months (November and December are just as loaded with themes!) we will be doing a weekly theme.

I'm pretty sure it's a law somewhere that Pumpkins have to be in every elementary teachers theme book.

So we started there.

It was a huge hit and got me very much in the mood for all things Fall.

Even if it is back up in the high 80's here.

The biggest hit of the week was our Pumpkin Investigation Sheet.

I'm not sure what it was, but Josie ate this thing up. 

She took it so seriously!

I had bought 2 pumpkins, a large one to carve and a smaller one that we are doing a few different projects with.  We used the smaller one for our investigations.

We made a Pumpkin Mosaic.

Of course, we carved pumpkins.

I sliced the top of my pinkie off and almost passed out and my kids were covered in pumpkin guts from head to toe.

Next year, Daddy will be in charge of pumpkin carving!

But we did end up with 2 cute pumpkins, Bob and Larry, and one very happy Josie so I guess it was worth losing part of a finger for.

Bob has had a grand time being lit and oohed and ahhed over every night.

Larry's future isn't quite so bright.

He is our science project.

We put him in a big plastic bin with some dirt and are going to watch him decompose!

We had a special Pumpkin Pancake Breakfast.

And did one more pumpkin art project.

My planning ended up being a couple weeks off and we won't be headed to the actual pumpkin patch for a couple weeks.

By then, Bob and Larry will probably be kapooied so it'll be time for another round of pumpkins!