Carving of the Pumpkins

Transforming pumpkins to jack-o-lanterns is another adventure.

First step: Cut the top off and "gut" the pumpkin.

Dramatic response necessary! 

Second step: Create a face/design and begin carving.

 The options are endless, and personalities are oft identified in the carving.

Third step: Finally, we light a candle and let the jack-o-lanterns glow into the night!

On Halloween night, over a dozen carved jack-o-lanterns lined our sidewalk. The sight elicited many comments, and the little trick-or-treaters peered at each one carefully as they walked by.

The best comment of the evening, "All these jack-o-lanterns are great~this is the Picasso of pumpkins."




Disclaimer: Once again I did not manage to capture all the pumpkins and participants, but merely the essence amidst the chaos.

"Orange you having fun?"

The orange orbs dot the fields of fall.  An excursion through the pumpkin patch in search of the perfect carving pumpkin started when the kids were little enough to ride in the wagon. And through all the relocations around the country we have tried to cling to that tradition.

Even though the kids are growing up...

Senior friends gathered pumpkins and memories. 

Playful.

Sharing the tradition with exchange students!

Perfect pumpkins to be transformed into emojis!

As the 13 kids roamed the pumpkin patch I failed to capture all the smiling faces in the fading light, but we wrapped up the evening on a hay ride with plenty of memories for the heart!

Sunday Drive

As a young child, I recall Sunday afternoon drives on back country roads or through the Black Hills. Between fighting with my brother in the back seat, I would watch the random deer graze or the antelope sprint across the prairie. The magic of discovering paper by peeling the bark off a birch tree is still a vivid memory, but stopping for an ice cream cone at a drive-in on the way home was the best~I still love a chocolate/vanilla twist cone!

And I still love a Sunday drive, and now my kids banter in the back.

Several weeks ago as fall bestowed the first kiss of color to the landscape, we drove over to the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois where we stopped to visit the Garden of the Gods.

Tough kids!

Goofy teenagers!

Dashing ahead and scrambling up the rocks to wait~youthful fun!

Behaving for a brief moment!

Pondering life.

A beautiful hike

The boys couldn't resist the temptation to climb the highest outcropping where the crowds did not go!

And the tradition of Sunday afternoon fun continues.

Catching Up

The whirlwind of leaves tumbling to the ground today aptly represents life in the past few months.

A few days before school started in early August, we welcomed another daughter for the school year.

The first day of school our senior drove away for her final year accompanied by her brother, now a sophomore, and new sister, a junior.

Then I walked down to the bus stop with our 5th grader~her last year at elementary school.

The enthusiastic dash to the bus will ebb in the years ahead, I know.

A few weeks later college started, but our oldest daughter will be immortalized in her senior picture...only mom will keep you young forever!

Friday evenings were spent relaxing on the deck, including marshmallows roasted to golden perfection.

A new tastebud experience! She loves smores!

Partners in crime!

Friday night lights in the Reitz Bowl...

supported by the community.

And backyard sunsets.

The beginning of busy days with more adventures to come!