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Pumpkin Carving 2010

Yes, you read that right…2010. Last year I never got around to posting about our ever-so-exciting evening of Pumpkin Carving. Those of you who have been with me for a year or more were probably in tears when the detailed update never surfaced. For that I apologize.

Lucky for all of you I’m going to tell you about it right now. Perhaps even luckier is the fact that looking back on the photos I don’t recall any details or anything fascinating (or completely boring) to have much to say at all…which is probably why I’m trying to make up for it with this completely dull and unnecessary introduction.

2010 was the first year that Cool Daddy or I had ever attempted to open, empty, and carve a pumpkin without our parents’ supervision. Apparently it wasn’t something we cared to do prior to having children. Now we’s all growed up 😉

We went to several pumpkin patches last year and got a pumpkin each time. We decided to only carve one of them.
Here’s Adaline with the three other pumpkins.
(Click on any photos to enlarge.)

Opening up the pumpkin.

This is absolutely disgusting. I likely won’t be doing this ever again. *gag*
Unfortunately the cute apron and fancy gloves didn’t glam it up for me at all.

The pumpkin is just about ready to be carved.

Cool Daddy and I took turns carving out the pumpkin.

Adaline is bored and busies herself by bothering Muppet.

This is my tongue. I’ve had it all of my life.

Our first family jack-o-lantern…

To see the fate of last year’s jack-o-lantern click here.

Note to email and feed readers: In case you’re interested I tweaked my blog header slightly to give it some fall flavor. Click through to the blog if you want to check it out!

Coolest Family on the Block is committed to helping you find creative ways to have fun and make memories with your family all year-long. Don’t miss an idea, tip, or trick…subscribe and have updates sent directly to your email!

Wordless Wednesday: First snow fall 2010

Dec 1

Posted by Jenn Rian

Today was the first snow fall of the season in 2010. It’s nothing to get excited about, there’s hardly anything there. I actually think there were some snow flurries earlier in the week, but to my knowledge it never stuck to the ground…so I didn’t count it. It’s my blog so I make up the rules, right ;)?

Nothing says “Christmas is coming!” like a Jack O’ Lantern with his face caving in. Poor fella, I still haven’t even posted a picture of him when he was still alive yet. Oh well.

Do you have any traditions for the first snow fall of the season?

Posted in Seasons, Winter, Wordless-ful Wednesday

6 Comments

Tags: photos, pumpkins, snow, Wordless Wednesday

Halloween Parade: Fall Fashion

Nov 3

Posted by Jenn Rian

So there’s this awesome giveaway going on over here where you can find the best blogging tips. To enter you need to write a post about your/child’s Halloween costume or Halloween plans.

Adaline is 15 months old. She’s too little to eat candy. Cool Daddy and I certainly don’t need any candy (not that we don’t want it). And Cool Daddy always has to work on Trick or Treat night. It is for these reasons that we haven’t taken Adaline out Trick or Treating the past two years, and therefore have had no need for a costume. We did, however, go to a bunch of pumpkin patches and fall festivals this year (read all about here in the “Festival of Festivals”, although, I’m really behind and have 3 more posts I need to put up!). I was certain to dress her in pumpkin patch appropriate attire.

Here is a glimpse of Adaline’s Pumpkin Patch Wardrobe.
I apologize for the lousy photos. When you see them you will realize how much I need that awesome camera! So many of them are fuzzy or washed out. The delay from when I snap a picture means that I never catch the moment. And for whatever reason sometimes it just refuses to take a photo outside forcing me to try to take the same picture 5 times.

THE SPRING HOUSE
This cute black cat long sleeved tee was a gift from Grandma GiGi. I’m not sure where she got it, but I think it was Macy’s. The hair clips (which you’ll see in pretty much every photo) are from Gymboree. The striped turtle neck is part of her Halloween outfit which you’ll see later on in this post. The Carter’s pumpkin bib is from Kohl’s.

THE APPLE CASTLE Fall Festival and Craft Fair
This sweet ”Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch” long sleeved shirt is from Gymboree. We got the tiny hiking boots at Wal-mart.

The Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch 🙂

HOZAK FARMS
This adorable happy pumpkin face long sleeved tee is from Kohl’s. Cool Daddy’s shirt is from Wal-Mart and mine is from Target. Yes we match. Yes we’re awesome. Yes, we are the coolest family on the block.

TRIPLE B FARMS
Adaline’s black long sleeved onesie with attached orange tutu and sequined pumpkin is from Babies R Us. I added the black Granimals pants from Wal-mart to keep her warm. The orange velour pumpkin cap is from Gymboree. It’s hard to see but I’m wearing a long sleeved black tee with sequined pumpkin! No matching shirt for Cool Daddy this time 😦 (We picked out an awesome green pumpkin…but it didn’t stay that way *sadness*)

HALLOWEEN JAMMIES
These cute polka dot pumpkin pjs are from Gymboree. The orange and white polka dot socks have black cats on them (also from Gymboree), but you can’t see them in any of the photos. She’s actually wearing them with all of her fall outfits.

PUMPKIN CARVING
Cool Daddy had to work during Trick or Treat so earlier that day we carved our pumpkin “as a family” (sorta). We all wore our matching pumpkin shirts again. Here’s Adaline in her happy pumpkin top and Granimals pants.

SOERGEL’S FARMS
It was too cold to take Adaline’s jacket off. She wore the same tutu outfit that she wore to Triple B.

HALLOWEEN
On Halloween Adaline wore this super cute pumpkin face jumper by Rare Editions to church (I got it here, but they’re all out of them now). The striped turtle neck onesie came with the dress (you saw her pictured wearing it earlier underneath the black cat shirt). The orange polka dot tights are from Gymboree. I had the hardest time getting a picture of her all outfit. The one of her trying to climb off of my lap is probably the best one 😉 It’s tough to get a 15 month old to sit still for a picture!

I hope that you enjoyed seeing all of Adaline’s pumpkin-themed outfits. I sure enjoyed finding them all for her to wear! If you’re interested in seeing more photos and descriptions from our trips to Hozak’s, Triple B, and our pumpkin carving experience…stay tuned. I’m hoping to get those posts published within a week, but I’m not making any promises. Maybe if you shower me with comments and requests I’ll be more motivated to get them published faster 😉

To read about our trip to The Spring House click here
To read about our trip to The Apple Castle click here

To read a post about all of my childhood Halloweens and costumes click here
To see the “Halloweens Past” link up at SITS click here

To read how to make a Kleenex Box costume click here
To see the “Halloween Crafts” link up at SITS click here

I want to thank the SITS Girls for hosting this giveaway. You can go to their website to find the best blogging tips. It’s also great if you’re looking for a way how to find blogs (Hmm, that wasn’t proper English). Also unicorns are real and Tiffany is pretty! (Hey, whatever I can do to get that camera, right?!)

Posted in Fall, Halloween, Holidays, SITS Girls

2 Comments

Tags: fall, festivals, Halloween, Holidays, photos, pumpkins, SITS girls

The Festival Of Festivals! 10/09/2010 The Apple Castle and Volant

Oct 16

Posted by Jenn Rian

Welcome to The Festival of Festivals!

Saturday October 9, 2010
The Apple Castle New Wilmington, PA

Last Saturday Cool Daddy, Adaline, my mom, and I headed out to The Apple Castle for their fall festival.

When we first arrived we went to take a look around the store. It’s a small store so it was very crowded. We went to see the bees. Since mom and I usually visit The Apple Castle in the winter this was the first time we really got to see the bees. There’s a hidden tunnel that leads to the outside so that the bees can come and go as they please. Adaline seemed to like looking at them, even though she looks bored in the photos.

“Daddy, I like this tiny pumpkin.”

Right next to the store they had set up a tent with displays of pumpkins and gourds.

Once again Adaline was very excited about the pumpkins. Instead of calling them “balls” this time my mom managed to get her to say “pump”. Since then she’s went back to calling them balls.

The Cutest Pumpking in the Patch 🙂

When Adaline saw some pumpkins turned on their sides she pointed to the indentation on the bottom and said “belly button” 🙂

The “Apple of our eye” at The Apple Castle…awww!

The Apple of Our Eye

We tried to get a family photo, but it was way too bright! (Yep, let’s frame this one.)

In front of the store they had a stage set up. We didn’t watch any of the performances but we did catch a glimpse of some ladies clogging in poufy skirts. Awesome.
They also had medics and the fire department there. I’m not sure if they were there for emergencies, but they were giving the kids tours of their trucks, which I thought was pretty cool.

Next to the Apple Castle is a huge field where they had all of the vendors set up under tents. It wasn’t the best craft show that I’ve ever been to, but it was nice. (If you want a really good craft show I recommend Christmas in the Woods…but you have to pay admission. Boo.) We found a couple of cute things for Adaline.

Adaline loved walking around.

They had an apple press there and they were giving fresh apple cider demonstrations. I thought it was pretty neat and I would’ve volunteered to press the apples when I was a little girl. I would have tried some of the cider, but there were bees everywhere, so I kept myself away from there.

And there was also this.
Although we didn’t bother to get any because it was so hot outside.

They had these horse and wagon rides, but we didn’t bother to ride them. It was just too hot out to go sit in a pile of hay with strangers.

While my mom and Adaline went back to the car for a diaper change and to cool off in the air conditioning, Cool Daddy and I went back to the pumpkin tent to pick out a pumpkin. After that we decided to go. We had spent about 2 hours total at the festival.

After The Apple Castle the plan was to go to the Volant Autumn Pumpkin Festival a little ways down the road. There really is only one place to eat in Volant, so I recommended we try a restaurant on the way there. We stopped at this cute little restaurant. I really liked it. It had the old fashioned country décor that I love so much. They were very busy so we were seated upstairs (where it wasn’t near as cute. Boo!). Adaline ate her food while we were waiting for ours and then she became obsessed with a stuffed lion that was on a set of bookshelves behind her. She would stare at it and point and say “Do Do” (her word for “dog”). It turned out to be a puppet…and oh do I love puppets. So I kept us both entertained until the food got there. At some point we noticed that Adaline was wet. Cool Daddy went out to the car to get the diapering stuff and then I waited for the bathroom to be available. I opened the door, stepped in, and stepped right back out. Not only was there no baby changing station, but there was barely room enough in there to change your mind. There was a sitting room area behind our table where there was a leather sofa that no one was sitting on. I decided that I would change her on the sofa. I couldn’t get to the room because someone was blocking the way so I decided to go out of the room and go in the other door. When I was doing that I noticed a whole other dining area that no one was at and so I put the changing mat on the floor and changed Adaline’s diaper in this pretty little tea room. It was very uncomfortable because I was kneeling on a wooden floor and it really hurt my knees and I was wearing big hiking boots that made it difficult to bend my toes. Adaline really wanted to get up and I was worried because there were two sets of stairs with no baby gates. Needless to say it was quite an experience. As if that wasn’t bad enough right before we left she got an even dirtier diaper. Thankfully the entire upstairs had left and we were able to change her on the leather sofa. Despite the whole diaper debacle I found the restaurant quite charming with good food and I would really like a chance to dine on the first floor to see what the atmosphere is like down there.

As if the details about diaper changes weren’t exciting enough, there’s even more! After we left the restaurant it was finally time to go get our Volant on. I was excited because I’ve always loved Volant, but we usually go in the winter and sometimes it’s just too cold to enjoy it. Well, it was busy. It was very busy. It was insanely busy. There was absolutely no where to park. There was traffic everywhere. There were people everywhere. Apparently a lot of people wanted to get their Volant on too. It was at this point my mom informed me that Adaline had fallen asleep in her car seat. I decided there was no point in looking for a parking space and we would just head home. I was bummed. I was even more bummed that we were practically out of Volant before I thought, “Hey, I should take some pictures of the traffic to post on the blog.”

So here are some completely underwhelming photos of traffic. Take this times about 20 to get an idea of how busy it actually was down in the hub of the whole thing.

As we were heading home I decided to ask my mom if she remembered this time that “blah, blah, blah”. I’m not going to tell you the whole memory I asked her about, but here’s the gist of it: I was 16 it was winter and I remember a covered bridge with a big field next to it. My mom had no idea what I was talking about. I wasn’t exactly sure either which is why I asked her. Then I saw a sign that said something about a covered bridge and I had my husband turn down that road. We were going down this bumpy, windy, wooded road and my mom and husband kept joking that there was no covered bridge and the name of the road was covered bridge road because there probably was a covered bridge a long time ago but there isn’t anymore and hardy-har-har-har. And then, hey what’s that…

That would be a covered bridge folks. Oh, yes it is. And wait, what’s this right here…

Oh yeah. That looks like it might be a big ole field right next to that there covered bridge. Oh, vague memory of strange detail, we win again!

Now that we’re done hunting for covered bridges we are really on our way home. We pass the restaurant that we ate at and I take a picture of the front of it through the window.

Hang on, there’s a really uninteresting story behind the photo and you really don’t want to read it, but I’m going to go there anyway. So here it is: When we were leaving the restaurant I wanted to take a picture of it. I was explaining to mom and Hubby that when you mention something in a blog post, people like to have a visual of it. I got a picture of the entrance which I posted earlier, but I was unable to get a photo of the front of the building. There was this group of people that I assume were related to one another. There were probably about 10 of them and they all had cameras around their necks and they were taking pictures of each other. In fact, they were so engrossed in their picture taking that they didn’t even bother to close the door to the restaurant…so I went back and shut it. They were all over the front of that lawn. I can’t blame them. I would’ve done the same thing if I was having some sort of family get together. Oh wait, I was having a get together and trying to get some pictures but I couldn’t because The Family Von Takealltheroom was hogging the space. But seriously, it’s okay because it really seems like this is the first time these people had gotten together in years and I loved that fact that they were getting so many photos of their family together. I’m the same way, so I totally get it.

After we got home and put the princess to bed, Cool Daddy and I ate a loaf of this…

Yummy bread from The Apple Castle.

And here’s everything we got at The Apple Castle that day minus our big pumpkin (which was outside when I took this photo) and the loaf of bread we’d scarfed down.

I got some fun gourds and mini pumpkins and pretty Indian corn. Not for any particular reason, just because I thought they were cute. We also picked up some apple cider (Duh! And also…yum!) and of course the homemade bread.

We got Adaline some adorable hats that she’ll probably never keep on her head. We were trying them on her at the booth and everyone just raved about how cute she was. The vendor even commented that she should keep her there to help her sell more hats.

I absolutely adore the hand crocheted Care Bear. It was only $15! If I had known at the time that we wouldn’t be going into any of the Volant Shoppes, I would’ve bought more of them. We tried several different bears and animals, but Adaline kept going back to Grumpy Bear. I said that it’s because it reminds her of her mama! The ladies at the crochet booth had a little Chihuahua there with them. Adaline was so excited to pet it and say “Do Do! Do Do!” I wish I would’ve asked these ladies if they had a card because their crocheted animals were so charming and reasonably priced, I think I would’ve referred all friends and family to them for any and all of Adaline’s future stuffed toys. I wished they had a Cheer Bear Care Bear available…I would’ve bought it whether Adaline wanted it or not. Cheer Bear was the one I had as a child and I have no idea how or why she got replaced over the years. That’s definitely one of the toys I would’ve chosen to keep. It would’ve been great to “replace” her with a handmade crocheted version of her. Oh well.

So there you have it. All of the painfully dull details. Despite my drab story we really did have a nice time. I think we wouldn’t mind returning to the Apple Castle Fall Festival and Craft Fair again next year.

Check out our trip to The Spring House!

Be sure to stop back to read about our trip to Hozak Farms that we took on Columbus Day!

Posted in Fall, Traditions

3 Comments

Tags: fall, festivals, Holidays, photos, pumpkins, Volant

The Festival of Festivals! The Spring House 2010

Oct 8

Posted by Jenn Rian

Welcome to The Festival of Festivals!

Saturday October 2, 2010
The Spring House – Washington, PA

Last Saturday we went to The Spring House. We had a pretty big group: me, Cool Daddy, Adaline, my mom (Grandma), my mother-in-law (GiGi), my sister-in-law (Aunt Leah), my sister and her husband and son (Aunt Jessie, Uncle Matt, and Dominic).

When we got there we first walked through the forest of pumpkin characters.

Then we reached the picnic area where there were some bunnies. They were very friendly bunnies (I think they wanted out!) and Adaline loved them!

And then this happened…

We saw some fake cows.

And then we saw some real cows! Adaline loved them too!

Then Adaline spotted a dandelion.

And you guessed it…she loved the goats too! She even learned to say the word “goat” (but she would only whisper it)!

She was not as impressed by the calf…but I think that’s because it was much further away and there was only one.

“Look, mom! I see pumpkins!”

Adaline loved hitting the pumpkins, or as she calls them, “balls”.

Time to measure Adaline to see how tall this fall!
(I actually have no idea how tall because she wouldn’t really stand still!)

On the hayride up to the pumpkin patch.
(Cool Daddy is wearing a camping backpack that we brought instead of a diaper bag. Me smart.)

While it’s true that I could’ve just stood in front of the “enter” and “exit” signs to the corn maze to have pictures taken…let me assure you that I walked through the entire thing! It was much hotter than we thought it was going to be, so I was dying from carrying Adaline around (so glad for my Ergo Baby Carrier!). The Corn Maze was rough terrain. First of all you’re walking on knocked down corn stalks, then there’s the chunky (sometimes muddy) dirt, and it was on a hill so there was an incline. Definitely not easy, but still fun. This made me feel much better about my purchase of hiking boots the week before.

There was a grandmother and her two grandsons in the corn maze with us. At one point we had to walk past a groundhog hole. The younger of the two boys was scared. “I’m scared of groundhogs, I don’t want to walk past it. What if it comes out?! I don’t want to go!”. Naturally I told him that there was nothing to be afraid of and we were making way too much noise for the groundhog to come out and it will only take a second for him to walk past it. He finally hurried past it when I heard Cool Daddy call after him, “They don’t bother people…unless you’re wearing green.” Which, of course, the poor child was dressed head-to-toe in bright green (you can see a little bit of his green shirt in the picture). I’m not sure if the kid heard Cool Daddy or not. I was certain to tell him that he was being mean, but I also laughed a little bit. I guess I’m mean too! So we all made it out of the corn maze without passing out from the heat or being attacked by a groundhog.

After all of the Corn Maze fun it was time to go pick our pumpkin.

When we got back from the pumpkin patch and the hayride/tractor was still pulling in the red tent that was the ticket center got caught up by the wind and flew into the goat pen. The goats ran as fast as they could as far away as they could get. They were huddled together in the complete opposite corner terrified! I felt so bad for them, poor goats! After all of the excitement of watching goats get attacked by a tent, it was time to eat. Grandma showed Adaline the pumpkin that was just her size sitting on the table. Once again she loved playing with the pumpkin, touching the stem, and picking it up.

When we were done with dinner it was time for some (free!) homemade ice cream. You can tell that Cool Daddy went to get the cone because I would’ve come back with chocolate!

After sharing part of the cone with Daddy it was time to share some with Mommy! Then Adaline stopped eating the ice cream and started poking it with her finger and then sticking her face in the ice cream and going “mmmm”!

Once our sticky baby was all cleaned up it was time to go home. It had been a very long day, but we had a good time!

Related Posts:
*Beaver County Fall Festivals October 2011
Who knew there was so much to do in Beaver County?!

*The Festival of Festivals 2010
*The Spring House 2010
*The Apple Castle 2010
*Fall Family Fun 2009
*Ghosts of Halloween Past: My Childhood Halloweens
*How to make a Kleenex Box Halloween Costume
*Halloween Parade: Fall Fashion

Posted in Fall, Halloween, Local, Traditions

9 Comments

Tags: fall, festivals, photos, pumpkins

The Festival of Festivals!

Oct 6

Posted by Jenn Rian

During the month of October I shall present to you…
The Festival of Festivals!

Cool Daddy and I were anxious to take Adaline to a pumpkin patch this year and soak in all of the fall fun. After doing a lot of research online to find the perfect place to visit I found that there are just too many great farms in Western PA to choose just one of them! Cool Daddy had some vacation time coming to him, so he’s taken off the weekends and we plan on visiting as many of the pumpkin patches that we can. Hopefully by the time it’s over we will have found “the” place that we’ll go back to every year. Every Friday I’ll post about our latest trip to a fall festival. Our plans could change at any time due to weather.

Here’s our tentative schedule so far:

Saturday October 2:
The Spring House: Washington, PA
~~Pumpkin Patch Trolley: Washington, PA~~
(*The Pumpkin Patch Trolley was scratched due to a very tired baby!)

Sunday October 3:
Hozak Farms: Clinton, PA
Janoski’s: Clinton, PA
(*This trip was canceled due to rain.)

Saturday October 9:
Apple Castle Fall Festival and Craft Fair: New Wilmington, PA
~~Volant Autumn Pumpkin Festival: Volant, PA~~
(*Volant was scratched due to no available parking.)

Monday October 11:
~~Trax Farms: Finleyville, PA~~
(*Trax was replaced with Hozak’s because we were unsure of their Columbus Day schedule)
Hozak Farms: Clinton, PA

Saturday October 16:
Triple B Farms: Monongahela, PA

Saturday October 30:
Soergel’s Wexford, PA
~~Shenot Farms~~ Wexford, PA
(*Shenot’s scratched because of an overtired cranky baby!)

Here’s a sneak preview of our trip to the Spring House.