Is It Halloween Yet?

I think that the Halloween season is longer every year. We have attended so many events and the big day is not even here yet! Let's just call it practice for the real trick or treating. This past weekend we attended Halloween at the Farmer's Market, went to Litchfield for their Halloween parade, and then Joe and Olivia attended the Illinois State Museum Halloween party. Whew! And we wonder why Olivia had a massive meltdown on Sunday night! Sugar crash or exhaustion?

Here is Olivia and Ethan meeting Curious George at the Farmer's Market. This event was crafts for the kids, trick or treating at the vendors' booths, and a costume parade. Olivia is Belle and Ethan is a sock monkey.

Olivia and her friend Samantha from school.

After the Farmer's Market we drove to Litchfield for their parade. Here is Ethan's snack at grandma's house: a key lime cupcake, marshmallows, popcorn, a juice box, pumpkin cremes, and a banana. And then we wondered why he didn't eat any supper!

The real reason we attended the Litchfield parade was to watch grandpa surrender his "crown" of Litchfield's Veiled Profit - an honor bestowed upon Litchfield citizens for those who are active in the town. But, an even bigger honor in the kids' eyes is that grandpa can now be in the yearly Halloween parade and throw them lots of candy!

On Sunday was the State Museum's event. From what I can gather, it was a lot of cute crafts, "lectures" on bats and other Halloween things, and at the end a big bag of candy. Olivia had a good time at this event, despite the crowds! Here she is in the spider web.

Posing with a "friendly witch".

And lastly posing in their pumpkin patch. And for those who are not yet bored with our Halloween events, just keep checking back on the excitement of our pumpkin carving and of the big night!

Jack O'Lanterns at Washington Park

Every Halloween there is an event called "Jack Spectacular" at Washington Park when the public is able to walk around the carillon section of the park and view 2100 carved, lighted pumpkins. It is quite a sight - not one to be missed by anyone in the area. The carving is open to the public one week before the actual event, and this year we decided to participate by carving 2 of our own pumpkins (the organization supplies the pumpkins for you, you provide the tools and imagination for the carvings).

Even Ethan took part in this - when I wasn't chasing him around and preventing him from putting acorns into his mouth!

Ethan and Olivia with their creations. This was a really nice event. While we were carving there were about 20 other families sitting around in the grass carving any number of pumpkins. It was a lot of fun to walk around viewing all of the carvings - some were extremely well done.

The night of the event. As you can see, every princess needs an entourage!

Grandpa had the "honor" of pushing Ethan (a sock monkey - he just wouldn't keep on his hat to show you that) in his stroller. Ethan made it about halfway through the event before we gave in to his demands and let him out. Ethan was fascinated by all of the pumpkins. He would sit in the grass in front of them and just look at them. When there are 2100 pumpkins to look at, this took a lot of time!

Olivia, aka Princess Belle, in front of some carvings. We did not find the 2 pumpkins that we carved, darn. But, Joe and I seemed more upset about this than the kids.

The sock monkey and Princess Belle in front at the entrance to the event (while it may seem out of order, we actually arrived through the back entrance so this was not the first picture taken).

We even found a Belle pumpkin for Olivia/Belle to pose with!

While it is not easy to find people you know at this event due to it being so dark, we did manage to find Olivia's friends Kellan (a knight - a great costume) and Caden (Bumblebee from Transformers). These 3 spent the rest of the evening running around the event and yelling (which made them easy to find in the dark). Crazy kids. There were also Halloween tunes from the carillon and old spooky movies being silently played on the side of the carillon.

Indian Summer Festival

Today we spent a very hot and sunny morning at the Indian Summer Festival at the Lincoln Memorial Gardens. We have lived in Springfield for 8 years, and this was my first time at LMG, although I really only saw a tiny piece of it. We'll be back later for some hiking on their trails.

Olivia decorating a garden stone. The festival was full of arts and crafts geared for her age, so this was right up her alley.


Ethan attempting golf for the first time. We are not sure yet if Ethan is right or left handed (we are thinking he is a leftie) so I was not sure how to help him hold the club. However, he is only 1 so I doubt that that would make much difference!

We met with Olivia's friend Kellan and his mom Nicola at the festival. Here they are decorating pumpkins - just look at the concentration on Kellan's face as he completes his masterpiece.

Kellan and Olivia listening to some bluegrass music. This was a rare time that they were actually sitting - they were mainly dancing together in the field.

Ethan is, how shall I say, an opinionated child (as Nicola witnessed!). The music was the one thing that we could all agree on and calmly listen to. As opposed to climbing on anything and everything and attempting to help other kids with their art projects. Thank you Nicola for helping with Olivia so she could enjoy the Festival!

Kellan and Olivia with their finished pumpkins and balloon animals (Kellan had a "busy bee" and Olivia had a butterfly).

Finding the Great Pumpkin

This past weekend we went hunting for the perfect pumpkin at Kristin's Pumpkin Patch in Springfield. It is this really great patch run by a local family, though it is oddly located in the middle of a nicer neighborhood near the Lake. We have loved going here in the past and plan to continue this for many more years.

Here are Olivia and Ethan with one of the giant pumpkins. I don't even know if we could have lifted this one into the wagon!

One of our many pumpkin finds being loaded into the wagon. I think we walked out with 3 large orange pumpkins, a squat green pumpkin, a Turk's Turbin gourd, a gourd that looks like a goose (name?), and a variety of smaller pumpkins and gourds. We now have our own pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin to visit!

Picture time! You can see what a large, well maintained patch this is. If you are in the Springfield area, I highly recommended finding this gem!

Joe hauling our treasures back to the check out area.

Ethan playing on the tractor.

And just a random shot of Ethan with his favorite Halloween decoration - a large pumpkin doll. He thinks it is a baseball (but then again he thinks that everything is a baseball these days). And yes, he is on the coffee table. We have given up on that battle as it is one of the less dangerous things that he continuously climbs on.