Halloween, before & after...

At the end of September, Ava's preschool class took a field trip to Sorgel's Orchard.  We had never been there, so we were both excited.  Unfortunately we couldn't spend the whole day as I had to get back to work, but we had fun learning about apples and getting a glimpse of what was there.  I promised Ava we would go back and pick a pumpkin later.

Ava after her field trip

We went on a Monday and scheduled enough time for her to play in the play areas, and for us to pick a couple pumpkins.  

Ava's funny face from jail

 

 Moo!

 

After playing for a while, we grabbed a wagon and headed off to find pumpkins.  One thing about Sorgel's that we didn't like, was that the pumpkins were in crates... no pumpkin patch?  That's no fun!  But Ava chose a big pumpkin and several little ones, that cost us a fortune.  That would be a second thing we didn't like so well about Sorgel's.  (nothing against the orchard, may people love it.  Including Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes who were there two days later with their daughter Suri) But I think we'll head back to Yeck's next year. 

Ava and our pumpkins

We only carved one pumpkin this year, compared to our three last year.  We have several pumpkin books so we let Ava choose the face she liked best and she and Daddy went to town.  Ava even said the "pumpkin goop" wasn't so bad this year.

(even with Mom's urging, this is the pumpkin we ended up with:)

oh yes, we had pre-Halloween SNOW!!!

On Halloween, Ava had her first Halloween party at pre-school.  The kids were allowed to wear their costumes if they wanted, but I figured it was a safer bet to just let her wear the ears and tail to school.  

she melts my heart!

As we did last year, our friends the DeBalsios came over to trick or treat with us.  Unfortunately it was incredibly cold and rainy, but the girls didn't care.  (Ben isn't dressed up for Halloween, he is a security guard and testing for the police depart)

Within an hour of starting it was raining quite a bit and we ended up heading home early. But by then, the girls had so much candy they were barely able to carry their buckets.  We dried off while enjoying some hot chocolate, before we said "goodbye" to our friends and headed to bed. 

Oh, and a funny thing... none of us likes Butterfinger.  Ava got a full sized Butterfinger last year, it ended up in the bowl again this year (hope it was still good!), but dag-on-it if she didn't get ANOTHER full sized Butterfinger this year.  It went into the trash!

As I mentioned, Ben was going to be testing for the police department, so Miss Bella came to stay with us on Saturday.  Ava was so excited.  I had the hope of doing a craft with them, but instead they watched Cars, played with every toy Ava owns, and around nap time when they had settled down to watch one of the Toy Story movies, Ben showed up to take Bella home.  It was a fun day, the girls has a blast, and I was able to get a few things done.