The (fake) Pumpkin Patch

We neglected to make it to this commercial "pumpkin patch" last year, and we told Oliver we would come for sure the next year. So this year, with all the business of daily activities, next thing we know it is the day before Halloween and we haven't been to the patch. It sits along the road next to Sam's Club, and on the way to a grocery run, Oliver reminds me that we promised to take him there this year. Uh. Talk about an excellent memory. Oliver's main desire at the patch is not necessarily to look for a pumpkin (not that I'd buy one here), but rather the giant puffy slide, and the petting zoo. I turn in. A nice man leaving the patch offers to us his last ticket to ride the slide. We accept with thanks. We walk around and check out the gourds and pumpkins and get a few pictures.

We stopped and bought some tickets to the "petting zoo" and the puffy slide. We hit the petting zoo first. Oliver cooed over the fluffy animals, and marvelled as he watched a goat poop (no, I don't have a picture of this).

Next stop: Puffy Slide. The last time we were here Oliver couldn't climb by himself, much less go down the slide, but this year he did everything himself...climbing and all. A big step for a boy that does not carry the "NO FEAR" gene. He was so proud.

And HE'S OFF! Check out the mouth. Wide open and screeches of delight pouring forth, non-stop.

Don't believe me about the screeches? Check out the video. It was like this all 6 times he rode it! You might want to pause the music so the screams can be heard :)

Here's the happy boy after cruising to his heart's delight...

As we buckle up, Oliver is perfectly content. It does not take much to please a 5-year old. It makes me so happy we squeezed in this trip to the "Pumpkin Patch!" To see more pictures from our trip to the patch click here.

King's Faire 2009

We enjoyed our first visit to King's Faire at Canyon Ridge Church this year. Just one more way to enjoy the Halloween/Fall Festivities, have fun, and acquire more candy. Oliver never contains his excitement for all things new!

First stop was to pick up a bag of candy. Let's see what we have...

On to the bouncer. Oliver just turned 5 and it was his first time inside one of these bouncy houses. I think of them as giant GermBoxes, but it was time I loosened up. The kids don't pay much attention to what they're doing, so I was waiting for an arm to be broken, but we managed to get through this unscathed.

On to some games. Win or lose, the reward is always the same...candy or some little trinket. Having never been to any festival, all the games were fabulous fun for Oliver. Truly simple pleasures where each game ended in screams of happiness. Oliver tries his hand at fishing.

Pure JOY at winning a lollipop.

On to more carnival rides/bouncy house things. This one included a maze which ended up in a slide. Oh, the thrills!

The Obstacle Course. IN.....THROUGH....and OUT.

We all take a break, deciding what to do next. Oliver gives his best girl and hug and kiss.

The kidlets are so sweet!

Maddie

Oliver

Oliver starts pouting when things don't go his way. Is this pathetic, or what?

Oh...the torture of being 5.

When all else fails...grab hold of the hand of mommy's friend :)

We head off to the preschool area where more Bouncy House Things awaited to be filled with scads of youngsters crawling with germs :0 Oliver loved all but one, where he refused to enter because "there was too much air." I told him the houses were filled with air so they would be fluffy, all he had to do was plow through the wall of air coming through the door to get inside. But, it just wasn't gonna happen. All-in-all it was a great time. The kids ran through the bouncy houses several times with such concentration. Notice the tongue...

The little ones didn't want leave, but the Faire was getting packed and the adults were ready to head home. On the way out, the kids got to pet the security horses.

Back at home, Oliver dumps his candy bags out on the kitchen table and scours the contents.

Happy. Boy.

His head lifts to the sky and a smile a mile-wide comes across his face. And this smile is what fills my dreams at night!

To see all the photos from the evening at King's Faire, click here.

Halloween 2008

For some reason time seems to be in short supply this time of year. I am the pumpkin carver of the family. I usually do several. However, we only bought one pumpkin this year, and the poor thing sat in the foyer until I realized it was Halloween afternoon and I had not carved it yet! Oliver was still taking his nap, and I knew he was scream if I carved it without his help. So I woke him up and we did a quickie 15 minute carve job before hurriedly getting Oliver dressed up in his Halloween outfit. I did the cutting, and Oliver's favorite part was pulling out the chunks. He started to help me clean out the seeds and pulp, but apparently he is not too much into the gooey scene. The pumpkin turned out cute enough for the time I took...

For the longest time Oliver has been enamored with wanting to be Dracula for Halloween. We tried looking at other costumes, but he only wanted to be Dracula. So Dracula it was. I guess the years of cute little animal costumes are over. This in no way means my dapper little Dracula was not cute. Quite the opposite...but hardly scary looking. Oliver still has his sweet, little baby face, and no amount of makeup can change that! He always takes on this pathetic, sad face when I ask him to pose for me. Sigh.

Here he is pre-makeup **trying** to look scary. What a studly Dracula.

I love this next picture. But I can't lie. I photoshopped it a teensy bit. Oliver refused to let me get the white makeup near his eyes, and I was extremely paranoid about using lots of black hairspray on my blonde boy, so I went light. I just made his hair a little blacker in sparse areas and filled in some white around his eyes to complete the face makeup. Nothing like a smilin' Dracula. And yes, the black hair paint washed out nicely, but not without a GIANT mess!

We hooked up with our usual group of friends and did our neighborhood trick-or-treating. This year Oliver was big enough to run a bit ahead of me independently, and I did not worry as much whether he'd trip along the way. That made it easier. He loaded up on all kinds of candy that Mommy and Daddy steal and eat while he is sleeping. After all, he isn't allowed any candy. Kidding! But seriously, Oliver does not eat much candy so what he gets lasts till the next Halloween. :)

At one scary point we couldn't find Oliver anywhere. I ran next door to Tricia's house to see if he was over there with all the kids, but he wasn't. I thought he might be hiding in our front yard "graveyard" as he enjoys hiding from us sometimes. But, no. A little bit frantic at this point, we heard runnning water inside the house. We found him in the bathroom trying to wash off his hair and face makeup by himself. Oliver is usually not independent that way, so I was surpised by this. But aside from that there was a TERRIBLE mess! Black and white watery streaks were dripping down his face onto his clothing and black stuff was all over the bathroom. I had to take time to get all the makeup off his face, then stuck his black cape back on so we could go outside and finish handing out candy and get some photos. Brad continued his yearly tradition of scaring the crap out of small children and animals (and many adults, too!) by dressing as Michael Myers. I guess the Las Vegas heat has finally taken its toll on the mask, literally melting a hole into it. But that's OK...it still does the job needed. Oliver has grown up around Scary Daddy so has no problem coming close for a Halloween hug.

This year I didn't take much time to think for a costume for myself. I dragged out some old scrubs from my hospital clinical days, threw on my stethoscope, and voila! ~~Doctor Mommy! The stinky boot I currently wear for my broken toe only added to the ambience of the costume:) Family Halloween picture:

And last, but not least, a picture of me and my little fella. Such a sad Dracula face. Guess it was a long day and mini-Dracula wouldn't be getting out late to take care of vampire business.....

For more pictures of our Halloween activities, checkout out my Halloween Slideshow. See you soon!

More Birthday Activities

A little side-by-side celebrating Oliver's birthday. Although the above is not the most flattering picture, it is nonetheless the most beautiful moment of my life. Next to it is 4 years later! Sweet stuff!

So today was the last day of this quarter's preschool class. They had a little Halloween party and the kids dressed up. With snacks laying all over the place, there was not much concentration left for learning letters and numbers. They made a little ghost windsock, then lined up and paraded down the hallway with noisy instruments to show themselves off. On return, it was time to eat! Since it also happened to be Oliver's birthday, everyone was so sweet to sing "Happy Birthday" to him before digging into the goodies. They had a blast! I tried to get a group shot and a picture of each child. I have to say that the girls are SO more willing to pose and smile for the camera...i am a little bit jealous of this!! Oliver is not usually a willing subject and i must threaten and/or bribe him to get any sort of cooperation. And it lasts for maybe 3 seconds...hence the not-so-great picture of my own child, but great ones of everyone else's child....hehehe. Are they not the cutest bunch??!!??

The Preschool Class

Oliver

Arianna
Bailee

Ella

John

Monica

Noah

A beautiful bunch of kidlets--even with mouthfuls of food and crumbs dripping from their mouths!!

After we returned home we played out back in the sunshine, ate lunch, and we let Oliver open a gift from Brad and I. A big tin of Tinker Toys. I am a sucker for retro toys, and since Oliver loves to build, this went over well. I was disappointed to see that they are no longer made of wood like they used to be. Everything is plastic now--but Oliver didn't seem to mind. He and Daddy proceeded to build a giant YOGO CART 4000 before Oliver crashed for a long nap that didn't end until 6pm. It was a good day. I guess this post will end Oliver's official birthday. More celebrating will come with his little birthday party planned for Sunday with some neighbors and friends. See you then!