Halloween on the farm

You can't beat an 80-acre farm for a Halloween party location. Last night we had the annual ward party here. There were carnival games, D and the "Young Men" (boys age 12-18) from church turned our carport into a spook alley--no small feat. The gazebo was strung with twinkling white lights, and at the last minute we threw together some centerpieces with cut fresh flowers from D's mom's garden in tall glasses I got at Target post-Halloween a few years back. (The glasses were printed with black witches and moons and orange, yellow and green polka dots.) They looked surprisingly good.

There was a chili cook-off (I scorched mine, but it tasted fine so I put it out anyway. I even got a respectable amount of votes!), and corn bread, kool-aid, and brownies were also on the menu. D's dad dug a fire-pit and it was surrounded by tree trunk stools. There were even sticks to roast marshmallows. There was a tractor ride through the orchard. And, finally, there was "trunk or treating", where my kids CLEANED UP, raking in massive amounts of candy. As I went through it, I was quite impressed by the stuff people gave out. What wasn't chocolate (always my preference) was unique--crabby patties, sour patch kids, bone suckers, and other unique Halloween candy. Good work, people! I can't stand getting a sack full of Laffy Taffies. (My apologies to those of you handing out Laffy Taffies. I'm sure someone out there loves them, hoardes them, and prays for them).

Chatterbox was a cowgirl again (she'll be Snow White for Halloween, but it's a borrowed costume and I didn't want to get it dirty), Smidget was a spider, I was a ghost (I ratted my hair and it was HUGE), and D was a ghostbuster. He wouldn't carry around the inflatable gun and backpack, which was my favorite part of the costume, so from very far away he just looked like a painter. I didn't snap a single photo, however, so hopefully somebody did and will take pity on me.

I also forgot to take the camera to C-box's pumpkin patch field trip today. It was really fun! I was prepared to be disappointed after all the great pumpkin patches in Michigan, but it was as good as anything I'd seen there--in a different way. The preschoolers tramped along a child-sized path, which zig-zagged through a fresh corn patch. They were then seated in an amphitheatre where a storyteller went on about a rabbit and a pumpkin. Then we hunted for the rabbit's home. This involved traipsing through the woods and a tunnel, up hills, across a rickety suspension bridge (fake-rickety, not real-rickety) through a rabbit hole which came out in his home, and then down a slide as we exited. We rode on a wild and fast hay ride where Grandpa Pumpkin sprayed us with water, and finally the kids picked a pumpkin. Sadly, there were no pumpkin donuts or cider, but it was 90 degrees out, so my kids were wearing shorts and t-shirts as opposed to last year where they looked like this: