Jack o Lantern

This past weekend Brooks had his first experience with carving a Jack O Lantern.  Since the Halloween season has begun, we've been pointing out the 'funny face' pumpkins all over town.  Brooks thinks it's so much fun! He also loves the big plastic ones we are selling at Ace.  While I'm ready for the Halloween season to be over (I hate all the scary movie commercials and other scary things on tv right now...I couldn't even watch college football last Saturday with Brooks without him getting scared from commercials! so frustrating!) anyway, while I want it to be over, there are some traditional Halloween things that have been fun now that we have kids. Making funny faced pumpkins is one of them!

Brooks was so excited!

 The first look at what is inside a pumpkin

 Seeds!

 I think Keely was in amazement at it too!

 Digging out seeds

 They are slimy!

 Got one!!

 Brooks making sure I put the guideline stickers on just right before cutting

 Happy girl just taking it all in

 And once it was cut, the smile from Brooks' face disappeared.  He was not impressed!

 We finally figured out that he was upset that I cut out the face.  Most of the funny faced pumpkins he'd seen were just orange with black faces painted on them (plastic ones).  We think he just couldn't tell what I was doing and couldn't see the face as well.

 Once it was outside with the light on in it, he was happy again! I think he's trying to make the same face in this picture!

 I just think his expression in this picture is great! Saying, "Mom, are we done with the pictures yet??"

 And here is our funny faced pumpkin!

Trip to Kansas

I know I'm a little behind on my blogs, (especially updates on Keely!) but I'll try and catch up here this week!  Anyway, last weekend we decided to take a trip to Smith Center just to get away for a little bit.  Brooks was super excited, and when I had him help me pack on Thursday (we didn't leave till Friday afternoon), he got so sad when he found out we weren't going to see Grandma and Papa right that instant!  I tried to convince him we would still go, but wow it took him awhile to get over it! We left Friday afternoon, and Keely did so much better this trip than last time.  We stopped in Grand Island on the way, and that helped Keely have some time out of her carseat so that she would be able to take 2 one hour naps instead of just one 2 hour (which she never does anymore!)  Friday night Blake and I got the chance to go see a movie in Smith Center, and we jumped on that opportunity! It's been awhile since we've had any moments away from the kids! Saturday we didn't do a whole lot, but just enjoyed hanging out and eating at Jiffy Burger (Brooks kept calling it Burger King for some reason, but either way, he likes it!) We also stopped to see the great-grandparents while we were there.

 Brooks just wanted to throw the football the entire time we were outside at Great Grandad Lambert's!

 Brooks will forever know Great Grandma Burgess as the one who has the special 'orange juice' and candy! He still talks about the orange juice (Sunny D, which can hardly be called orange juice!) she gives him when he hears her voice on his recordable Christmas Charlie Brown book.

 We also got in on doing some apple picking. 

 Brooks had fun 'sorting' the apples

 Saturday night we sat around the fire pit and did S'mores. We thought for sure Brooks would want to try one because it consists of 3 of his favorite things, Chocolate, Marshmallows, and Graham Crackers!

 He started out with just a plain marshmallow.  He was very happy about that!

 I don't know why my face looks so mad here! Yikes! I blame it on the lack of sleep Keely had been giving me the week before! She was getting up at least 4-5 times a night and not falling asleep well.  One night I even had to take her on a walk outside at 11:15 at night! ugh! Anyway, I really was enjoying myself and hoping Brooks would try something new for once!

 Helping Papa roast the marshmallows

 Brooks liked watching the fire...I think we all did!

 Yummy!

 And here is about as close as Brooks got to trying the S'mores...bummer.  He didn't like that we put it all together and wanted just the chocolate out of it.  Oh well, one of these days he won't scream so much at new things...I hope!

We had a fun time there, and luckily, Keely slept for the whole 2 hour drive home, and woke up just a mile from the York exit! Made it that much better!

Harvest

The past couple Fridays, we have gone out to the field for supper and to get in on some of the harvest.  Here are just a few pictures of the past couple weeks. 

Dishing out the food...

 

The kids get their own little table.  Brooks has really enjoyed going out for a 'picnic'. His picnic food has consisted of green beans, cucumbers, bread, and mandarin oranges that he calls 'peaches'.  At least he eats something out there!

 Brooks rode on the combine last year a couple times, but he didn't really remember it much.  Here was his first one of this year.  He really liked it, and kept talking about the corn falling down the rest of the night!

 

 

 Watching the combine

 Going for ride #2...

 Brooks got to 'drive' while they were fixing a part of it.