A Halloween & Weekend Recap

I'm gonna preface this by saying that I've been having a hard time photographing my child lately.  She is so not interested in the camera right now.

For example, at the beginning of last week, I tried to take some fall pictures of Eden.  My dad's cousin, Nancy, had a cute little set-up at her house for her own grandchild, and she invited me over to take pictures of Eden as well.  She had such cute props.

Too cute apparently.  There was no looking at the camera, that's for sure!

For Halloween, Dustin's parents got Eden the biggest pumpkin I've ever seen.  I, for real, had no idea you could even buy pumpkins that big.  The night before Halloween, we carved pumpkins, and the giant one got an E.



Eden was fascinated.  She alternated between looking inside of them and running around really fast in front of them.

Dustin finally got her to sit for a picture... She looked terrified?  I guess it's fitting.

The day of Halloween was a preschool day.  And I got a picture.  Because it was really early, and I think she was too tired to resist.

Halloween is the only day of the entire year that I wish I lived in an actual neighborhood instead of out in the country.  Growing up, we averaged one trick-or-treater every other year, and thanks to a gate, Dustin and I have never had one.  If you live in a neighborhood, you probably take for granted that you can just walk out your door and trick-or-treat.  Don't take it for granted!  Some of us can't do that.  I love all the neighbors who gather together... the ones who assemble in lawn chairs in a cul-de-sac and pass out candy together as a group while drinking beer and having a little neighbor party.  I'm kind of jealous. 

Fortunately, we have friends that DO live in a neighborhood, so we went to their house, and Eden got to trick-or-treat.  She was a pig.

And my goodness, was she cute!  Unfortunately, "pig" is not one of the animal noises that she can make.  Lord knows I tried.  I think she purposefully refuses to do that one since leading up to Halloween it was the one I wanted her to do the most. 

Moving on...

Yesterday morning we took Eden to Dewberry Farm.  I've been wanting to take her there since the beginning of October and get pictures of her in the pumpkin patch, but between rain and four thousand birthday parties (is it just me or does October seem to have a unusual amount of birthdays?), we never made it.  But I figured November is still a pumpkin month, so it's all good.  Um, wrong.  We hop on the tractor that is supposed to take us to the pumpkin patch (because that's what it did last year when I went in OCTOBER), and once we're all loaded up, the driver asks if everybody is excited about taking pictures in the Christmas trees.  And everyone is like YEAHHHH!!!  And I'm like UM, WHAT?  IT'S NOVEMBER 2ND, AND I WANT TO GO TO THE PUMPKIN PATCH!  So we get dropped off in the middle of a field of Christmas trees, and Dustin and I trek through the mud to get to the pumpkin patch.  Which is really just a bunch of pumpkins thrown into a field.  And the pumpkins are disgusting.  And rotting.  And smelly.  And ugly.  Because nobody cares about pumpkins anymore.  It's time for Christmas trees.  And Eden starts pointing at all of them and shouting, "YUCK!!!  YUCK!!!  YUCK!!!".  So it took some work... I had to search for some good ones and turn the rotting sides away from the camera the best I could and fight an almost two year old who really did not want to take pictures, but in the end, I got a couple of cute ones.

Also, it was really windy as you can see from Eden's Alfalfa hair.

After we got that over with, we could move on to the fun part of Dewberry Farm!

Alcohol!  Just kidding.  I wish.  I could have really used a beer after the pumpkin patch.  Dustin really wanted a beer too because he was REALLY, REALLY annoyed by all the city people who actually thought they were on a farm.  Unfortunately, no beer.

But watching Eden with all the animals was just as good.  Okay, better.

We fed ducks and geese.

I liked this guy:

Eden was a big fan of the pigs.  I was too.  They're pretty dang cute.  Not as cute as her as a pig though.

But the highlight of the day was the pony ride.

The first time Eden rode them, I went with her, and I held her the entire time.  Dustin went with her the second time, and he never held her.  I was on the other side of the fence yelling, "DUSTIN!  DUSTIN!  DON'T LET HER FALL!"  I think he was pretending he didn't know me.  He seriously never acknowledged me.  But she did just great.

I'm pretty sure it was the highlight of her life actually.

Okay, so... even though the pumpkins were gross and sucky, I will still never again go to Dewberry Farm in October EVER AGAIN.  November is the way to go.  WAYYYYYY less crowded since I guess everyone has already moved on to Christmas things.  I'll just have to find a different pumpkin patch for photos next year.

After Dewberry Farm, we had a birthday party.  Another one.  And it was awesome.  It was at one of those bouncy house places where an entire gigantic room was full of giant bouncy houses, and Eden had a BLAST.  Seriously, when it was time to go, she would NOT come to me, and I had to climb onto a bouncy castle and chase her down.  And she RAN from me.  She went down this gigantic slide approximately five billion times.  And every time she landed at the bottom, she would bounce up and then land again on her belly and face. 

I thought it looked kinda painful, but it didn't phase her a bit.  And yes, that's her third outfit change of the day.  Dustin thought it was ridiculous.  He was all, "What's wrong with what she's wearing now?", and I was all, "That's not a birthday party outfit!", and he was all, "What the heck is a birthday party outfit?", and I was all, "Something colorful, fool!".

When we got home, Eden went through her party favor bag and found play-doh.  When I told her it wasn't food and she couldn't eat it, this happened:

So pitiful.

The girl slept GOOD last night.