Pumpkin Patch

First of all, my apologies for the photo quality in this post and the previous Pumpkin Party post. I was a bad mommy and forgot my camera (horrors!) and had to use my BlackBerry instead. However, it didn't take bad photos for a phone.

With that out of the way .... there are two, yes two, pumpkin patches between Jacob's pre-school and the freeway on-ramp. So every day since about the first of October, he's been pointing out the pumpkins, the giant Tigger, the giant Pooh Bear, the ponies ("I like ponies, mommy." LOL), and anything else he can see out the window. Finally this week he said, "I want to go." So I used my mom's best line, "I don't have any cash with me, sorry. Maybe later." (Jacob's favorite word is "later". If not now, Later?) But that Jacob. He's too smart. When I picked him up from school the next day, he said, "You get money? I go to pumpkin patch?" Crap. I did tell him later. And if we didn't go today, we couldn't go at all. The next day was Halloween. So, off we went.

Here we are at the pumpkin patch! There was TONS to do. We stayed for over an hour and even then Jacob didn't want to leave. I had to bribe him with candy and even though that worked, he still cried.

They had those dorky little rides that you feed quarters into that for whatever reason, kids find irresistible. I'll bet I fed $2 into this one. (Crap. I just deleted the picture of him riding the other dorky ride. I'll upload it somewhere else. I haven't figured out how to place pictures where (( I )) want them in Blogger.)

Ok - the random picture up top of Jacob riding an elephant? Yeah, that's supposed to go here. Oh well. Even though that was the slowest, lamest ride in the universe, he thought it was "Dumbo" and therefore - fun. Ahhh, to be two.

The pumpkin patch had wagons available to pull pumpkins around in. Jacob thought that was great fun! He pulled this wagon ALL OVER the place. For a loooong time. Notice the bottle of juice in the wagon? There were some people from Honest Tea there taking pictures of kids with their products. My not-so-cooperative Jacob wouldn't hold the bottle while pulling the wagon, so they took a picture of the product in the wagon next to a pumpkin while Jacob pulled it. No baby modeling for us!

We also went for a pony ride. Well, he did, not me. It was expensive - $5! And of course he wanted to go twice. Sheesh. He did have a great time though, and wasn't scared at all. One time the horse whinnied & Jacob laughed and said, "My pony's making funny noises, mommy"!

But the most excitement came when one of the horses' pooped. Jacob talked about that for the rest of the ride. "My pony went poo mommy?" "We have to stop and change diaper?" (No, that pony went poo. Ponies don't wear diapers, they poo on the ground.) Then it was, "That pony went poo mommy?" The pony ride operators thought this exchange was pretty funny.

We did purchase a pumpkin that we plan to carve tonight. Stay tuned for pictures!

Pumpkin Party

Yes, the pumpkins and parties continue! On Wednesday, October 29th, Jacob's school hosted their annual Pumpkin Day. Jacob's class visited the pumpkin patch out in the school's courtyard, he selected his own pumpkin (we had to pay $5 in advance - there is no such thing as a free lunch), and later the festivities started.

Here is Jacob's fantastic artwork! I didn't even notice any orange paint on his clothes, which would be first. Here we are at Pumpkin Party ....

Daddy helping Jacob carve his pumpkin. I'll have to take a picture of the completed Jack 'o Lantern. It turned out pretty good!

This is Jacob's first "If Daddy says no, ask Mommy" moment. It turns out earlier (before I arrived) Jacob asked Jason if he could play in this tree planter. The tree is fairly large and had a bunch of smaller pumpkins hanging from it & he wanted to run around the tree and hit the pumpkins. Jason had said no. Jacob's first opportunity to get me alone, he asked me if he could, so I carried him to the tree so he could touch the pumpkins. He was too smart for me & wiggled away. Soon he was running around the tree, whacking the pumpkins. I asked him to get down, but he was fast. And the tree planter is large & round - so he was always out of my reach on the other side. Soon I was like, "whatever." Then Jason walked up. And Jacob was caught.

Here is a photo of Jacob being scolded by daddy.

Jacob was putting this pumpkin bucket on his head & shouting, "I can't see you mommy!" and then pulling it off and saying, "There you are!" He thought that was hilarious. It was kind of funny.

Jacob & his teacher Ms. Amalia playing a game.

Playing a bean bag toss game. He didn't quite get that you were supposed to toss the bean bags one at a time. He hoarded them and then tossed them all at once.

Playing a pumpkin magnet fishing type game ...

Jacob's classroom (the Bunnies) display. Their pumpkins were on the side. (See first photo.)

Overall his school did a nice job with the party and Jacob had a lot of fun!

Trick-or-Treat Party (Part 2)

Well, it seems I burned up my camera over at Disneyland and forgot to get it out as much at the Trick-or-Treat party. It's just as well. Disneyland was much more fun. The Trick-or-Treat party was super crowded, and not much of a party. It was really just California Adventure Park with trick-or-treat stations. Trick-or-treat stations with really long lines! We didn't even bother with half of them.

The decorations and ambiance were great though! They had Halloween music playing the whole time (although we noticed we heard the same remake of "Superstitious" at least 3 times), Disney villians taking photos (you usually don't see those characters) and lots of decorations.

Here's Jacob posing out in front of the pumpkin sign. I think that's some candy he's got in his hand ...

He wasn't into the trick-or-treating. By the look on his face you'd think they were giving him poo or something!

Here we are checking out some ghosts

Well, that's it from the Trick-or-Treat party. We'll be skipping that one next year. I'd rather spend the money & buy my own candy & decorations!

Mickey's Trick or Treat Party (Part 1)

Your editor continues to have photo problems. :( I can either post small photos, or larger ones that are somewhat grainy. Ugh. Bare with me. Hopefully I'll get the camera settings straightened out & find a photo hosting site that uploads my pics at a normal size & at the same resolution setting as my camera!

Anyway .... Tuesday, October 28th, we took Jacob to Disneyland and later that evening over to Disney's California Adventure for their annual "Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party." Jacob is really starting to enjoy Disneyland now and usually isn't scared to go on any rides. Although he did cry and ask to get off of Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. Hmmmm.


Here's Jacob posing in front of the giant Mickey pumpkin
He was a real sport about posing too!

Close-up of the pumpkins (and Jacob's cool Halloween shirt!)

Jacob posing in front of the castle

Still posing at the castle ......

The first thing he wanted to do (and what he talked about all day up until he got there) was to ride Dumbo! Luckily we were able to get a blue Dumbo too.

The very first ride & he's already tired of posing. He wouldn't even look at the camera!

Next up ... the carousel! (Casey Jr. - Dumbo's train had too long of a line) He had a fun time on his "jumping" horse.

Checking out where his horse is going ...

Here we are at "Woody's Round Up." Woody & Jessie (from Toy Story) were there, but Jacob got verrrry nervous when Jessie came to say hello to him. He was much happier when she kept her distance. After they took a break, he checked out all of the pumpkins.

Daddy and a not-so-happy-looking Jacob inside Mickey's house. They don't have many rides over at Toon Town so Jacob didn't like it much there. He wanted to go on more rides. I think we'll skip Toon Town on our next few visits!

We got to meet Mickey! What a treat. Uhhh, well, maybe just for me. Jacob cried and wanted to leave. I hope Mickey's feelings weren't hurt.

He was happier out front driving Mickey's car

Next we headed over to the Trick-or-Treat Party ...... time to get changed into your costume Jacob!

I love to cook!

First of all, my photos are still uploading small. The editor is working on that. Second, my little guy LOVES to help out in the kitchen. Mommy doesn't necessarily love having him help out, but she realizes it's a learning process. Jacob is messy, doesn't really listen, stabs more than spread or stirs, but he still enjoys it. If I'm making something that he can help with - like here - I'll let him help. If I'm making something on the stove, he gets out his own pot & spatula and gets to stirring (banging) on the floor.

Here's Jacob spreading the cream cheese filling on our Cinnamon Sugar Cheesecake Bars. He stabbed the crust a bit, but they still turned out great.


You probably can't tell from this microscopic picture, but he's spreading the filling out here too.

Halloween "Dry Run"

So this weekend we had a "trial" run in Jacob's Halloween costume. I wasn't sure he would be too keen on wearing a costume period, because lately he's been so picky about his clothes. (That's a whole different story!) With a couple of bribes ("You can ring the doorbell!" and "I'll give you a pumpkin cookie!") the costume was on. Yay!

p.s. Sorry the photos are so small. I'll work on the sizing before the real Halloween rolls around.


So here's my little frog ....



Armed with his Trick-or-Treat bag ..



Ringing the doorbell ...

Ready to hop ...

Getting tired of all the photos and wondering how he can get away!

Checking out what's in the treat bag ..

Realizing webbed hands don't work so well ...

Look what I was able to grab with my real hands!

Hey wait ... this is the same picture, only larger. How did that happen??

Oh well. He had fun trying out the Trick-or-Treating and definitely liked the candy! He didn't like the idea of only getting to eat one of the treats, though. He cried when he realized he couldn't have "yellow" candy. I guess come Halloween we'll only being going to two houses!