THE MINI MEUNIERS: halloween

First I need to say Happy Birthday to my oldest brother Ben. Real nice of you to stop by while you were in town. He is quite a slacker, but did just pass his certification test and is now a physical therapy assistant, so I have to cut him some slack. We're thinking about going into business together with my brother Jake who is in med school. Still working on a name though.

Now to the fun. It's that time of year again and for us Halloween is kind of a process. First finding the perfect pumpkin, then carving the pumpkins, and finally dressing up and trick-or-treating. This was Emma's first year actually getting to participate in the carving and trick-or-treating, and I must say she loved every bit of it! First off, a look back. This was Emma a year ago.

At the pumpkin farm in North Carolina

Our lil pumpkin

Hello!

The first part of our week long Halloween extravaganza was a trip to a pumpkin patch here in Billings. It would have been a beautiful day if the wind wasn't blowing so hard. The farm is a real working farm with lots of other vegetables besides pumpkins. Unfortunately because of the early snow we had, most of it froze. On the hayride out to the pumpkin patch, we past fields of rotted tomatoes that the driver warned us not to eat or steal because they have botulism. Enough warning for me! There were plenty of pumpkins though and we each walked away with our own.

Acres of pumpkins

Emma found her pumpkin

Fun at the farm

Peek a boo

The next step was carving our pumpkins. I always find it frustrating to try and put a perfect pumpkin face to complement the perfect pumpkin prize. No matter how much effort I put in, I can never seem to get it quite right. I also don't enjoy getting all the junk out of it. The spoon never seems to scrap enough of it out so, inevitably, you have to use your hands. Emma luckily didn't seem to enthralled with the mess and it all stayed in the bowl. She had her spoon to mix and "cook" it though, so that kept her occupied.

Preparing the pumpkins

Cooking pumpkin goo

The pumpkins at their new home - our front porch!

Now the best part! Emma was a bee this year. Luckily Halloween wasn't a few weeks later because her costume hardly fit! Nate and I thought it would be fun to dress up as bee keepers but I didn't quite have my act together this week to pull it off. She of course was adorable even without bee-keepers and loved going house to house. She couldn't quite get the phrase "trick or treat" down, but did say "thank you" at almost every house, which I was very proud of. She seemed more interested in the other kids that were out than the treats she was getting until she got home and realized they how sweet her treasures were. She is definitely a candy fiend, just like daddy. Enjoy the pictures and Happy Halloween everyone!