Bear Creek Pumpkin Patch 2012

The Bear Creek Church's pumpkin patch (benefiting Bear Creek High School) is back! It was supposed to start this past Saturday, but they didn't get their pumpkins in until Monday. We took a stroll there Monday afternoon. The temperatures were warm but windy, and leaves blew rained down on us from the neighborhood trees. 

I love being able to walk to the pumpkin patch for a few weeks out of every October. It's a nice change. Here are the kiddos picking out a pumpkin:

Sewing Project: Candy Corn Trick-or-Treat Bags

I am not the best seamstress. I need my mom's help with almost everything I make with the sewing machine, since I just don't sew that often. There was an easy sewing project on Pinterest, and so I decided to give it a go. It was simple, and I was able to do the entire thing myself (minus a question to my mom about threading the sewing machine). If you're just learning to sew, this project is a good one to work at!

You can get the free pattern and tutorial here on The Purl Bee's website.  The pattern is for three bags, so make some for your kid and your neighbor's! They aren't all that large, so they're perfect for little children.

Georgetown Loop Pumpkin Festival

Last weekend, took the Georgetown Loop to check out their annual Pumpkin Festival. The Georgetown Loop is a train that runs from the town of Georgetown to the town of Silver Plume. It used to be a mining route, but now the train runs for tourists and sight-seeing. It's only a couple miles long, but the elevation climbs by thousands of feet. To make it up the elevation, it has to spiral, or loop.

The Pumpkin Fest ran all last weekend and will be running this weekend. We almost went last year but were scared off by the price tag. This year, we decided to bite the bullet and go. Oliver loves trains, and so we thought it could be worth it. Children under 3 ride for free if they sit on an adult's lap, so both of our kids were free. Andrew and I each had to pay $25.50 a piece!

I wasn't sure if it would be worth the cost, but I have to admit that it really did. We had a great time.

We left the station out of Georgetown. I recommend leaving out of Silver Plume for the Pumpkin Festival because the Festival is actually at the Georgetown station (Devil's Gate). It would have been a little nicer to ride the train to Georgetown, enjoy the festival, and then ride it back to Silver Plume. Instead, We rode the train to Silver Plume (approximately 30 minutes), picked up passengers there, and then rode back for the 30 minutes back to Georgetown. Thankfully, the kids loved the train and were able to hang out in the train car for the full hour.

We bundled up because it was pretty cold outside. We expected the train to be cold since we didn't pay extra for the first class car. Thankfully, they added windows to the coach car and ran heat inside, keeping the train plenty warm.

 

Andrew and Oliver exited the train at Silver Plume to stretch and check out the engine. Then, we got back on and headed straight back to Georgetown.

Some photos from the way back:

Oliver loved looking out at the scenery from the train.

Here are the kiddos with Grandma Colleen:

When we got back to Georgetown, we enjoyed the Pumpkin Fest. The festival is free to everyone who had a ticket for the train, and every kid got to choose a pumpkin.

The kids walked through an actual maze of hay. Oliver associates hay with chickens (I guess he learned something from the Denver County Fair!) and kept looking for the chickens. At various stops in the maze, the kids could play simple games, like bean bag toss, and get their faces painted.

They'd erected a bouncy castle at the end of the maze. Imagine my surprise when Oliver actually decided to go in! He wouldn't stand and jump, but he bounced around on his knees a bit and had a good time.

The cost of riding the train is definitely expensive, but our kids genuinely had a good time. In fact, it was so much fun that we've been talking about riding the train again during the Christmas season. Rumor has it that Santa and his helpers ride the Georgetown Loop train beginning November 17!

100 (Attempted) Ways to Entertain a Young Toddler, Day 84: Pumpkin Finger Painting

A few weeks ago, while browsing Pinterest for ideas for the kids' birthday/Halloween party, I found a pin with a unique pumpkin decorating idea (here's the original pin). The woman used a spray adhesive to stick leaves onto her pumpkin, and then she spray painted the whole thing black. She peeled away the leaves, leaving behind an orange space in the leaf shape. It was neat!

I decided to make a toddler version of the pin. First thing was first. We needed leaves! Good thing Oliver and Jo were up for the task. Note that dry leaves won't bend around your pumpkin, so you'll want green leaves for this project.

Then, I used Mod Podge (which is non-toxic) to stick the leaves to the pumpkin like so:

Guest Blog

You can find me as a guest blogger at the Raise Foundation, a group that educates people and helps those who are victims of domestic abuse. Here's my post!

Joanna is 11 Months Old

This little stinker just keeps growing up! Joanna is 11 months old today. We've started to plan her first birthday party, and I'm flabbergasted that her first year is coming to a close.

Joanna has a sense of humor. She loves to do things like pretend she's going to share her food with us, only to snatch it back at the last second and crack up. She also purses her lips together and says, "MMmm," for a kiss. When we move in for a smooch, she shoves us away and laughs hysterically. These are very funny jokes to Jo.

Joanna is good at communicating with us these days. She's learned the word "more" and points to whatever she wants and says, "More." Her first word was actually "Gesundheit," which she spoke on her 10 month birthday. She also says, "Mom." I cannot believe that she can say three words. It's crazy! She's also practicing new sounds, including a lot of S noises.

She's down to two nursings a day, one in the morning and one at night. She sleeps through the night most nights, and she falls asleep for her naps all by herself (I just put her in the crib).

Jo crawls everywhere. Although she's pulling up to a stand more often, she's still not very keen on it. She really only stands when she wants something, like to see inside the bathtub. She walks while I hold her up, but she doesn't walk on her own at all--not even while holding onto furniture. She also hasn't started climbing the stairs yet. Basically, I'm saying that our lives will become a little more difficult in the coming months as she chooses to do those things.

She loves food. She eats entire jars of baby food and baby yogurt, and she also loves chowing down on crackers, Cheerios, and other finger foods. Her favorite "real" foods are diced peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cheese quesadillas (I smear baby food on the inside of the tortilla to give her veggies).

At 11 months old, these are the things Jo likes and dislikes:

Likes
*Daddy coming home
*Nursing
*Being held, especially by Mommy
*Water--baths, the pool, the shower, anything water-related
*Food
*Tastes of peanut butter
*Playing her jokes on us
*Grabbing Mommy's hair
*Lego Duplo blocks

Dislikes
*Her winter coat
*The "snuffy" (nasal aspirator)
*Hats
*The car seat
*Prunes
*Bananas

Christmas Tip: Rewards Points

I know! I know! Some of you are rolling your eyes at me for posting stuff about Christmas in October. Some tips for saving money at Christmas are best utilized well before Christmas, like this tip regarding rewards points. Reward redemption programs work. You get free things for entering codes from the products you already buy. The only downside to them is that you have to actually save your codes and take the time to enter them, and getting your reward can take 6 to 8 weeks.

It's a small inconvenience, but start participating in reward programs. Pampers, Huggies, and Disney all have rewards programs. Even the YoBaby yogurt that I buy my kids has a rewards program! I attached links to all of those rewards programs. Enter your points, and every year before Christmas, cash them in for toys to put under the tree.

In my house, we alternate using cloth diapers and disposable, but we still have had enough points to get free rewards from Pampers and Huggies. We've gotten free potty seats from Huggies. I've used my Pampers codes to make free photo books and calendars on Shutterfly. All you do is enter in the codes onto their rewards website. If you follow them on Facebook, they also regularly post free rewards codes there.

As a Christmas gift for Joanna, I just ordered these bath tub crayons (with a rubber ducky eraser!) from Pampers. Redeeming points is entirely free!

I haven't ordered anything this year with my Huggies points yet, but I'm close to being able to afford this cute little bumble bee flashlight. Oliver and Jo both play with a little plastic flashlight that we have at home. I think this kids' one will be a hit.

I love Disney movies, but it's not in our budget to purchase movies at this stage in our life. I'm fortunate to have a dad who loves movies and buys DVDs a few times a month. So, I use his reward codes (He probably just found out as he read that. I love you, Dad!). I also use the free codes they post occasionally on their Facebook page. I once got a children's songs DVD with my rewards points. This year, for Christmas, I just ordered this 48-piece jigsaw puzzle for Oliver. Cashing in the rewards points is absolutely free (no shipping charges or fees). 

I just opened a rewards account with YoBaby yogurt today, so I won't be able to redeem our points for anything this year. It looks like a great program, though. They have some sing-a-long CDs and some kids' crafts.

If you're buying these products anyway, you might as well get some freebies for doing so! If you already participate in any of these rewards programs, start browsing and ordering items now to make sure to get them before Christmas.

Pinterest Find! Halloween Footprint Dish

I found the cutest painted plate on Pinterest. Here's the pin, if you're interested in repinning:
http://pinterest.com/pin/216383957067061530/

Last month, one of those deal sites offered a half-off voucher for a local paint-your-own-pottery place. I printed out a copy of the plate and went there with some friends. The woman there helped me stamp Jo's feet onto the plate, and then I painted the rest of the plate just like in the pinned photo. I wasn't sure how well it would turn out, but it was fantastic!

Here's my plate before firing:

And here's the finished product:

I love it! I swear, Pinterest is the best resource for craft ideas. I'm going to try to get back to the pottery place sometime soon to paint a Thanksgiving plate with my son's hand print. I'll paint it into a turkey!

Weekend in Aspen

Andrew and I took the kids on a long weekend to Aspen, Colorado. We made a few stops along the way in Vail and Glenwood Springs. The mountains are stunning at the end of September due to all the changing aspen trees. The highlight of our trip? Maroon Bells! I wrote about our trip on my travel blog here, but I thought I'd share my favorite photos from our mini-vacation here.

Little Girl Costumes

I came across this blog post on girl versus boy costumes. I don't know if the writer has a daughter, but she was still disgusted with the catalog of costumes that came to her house. The girls are posing prettily in their costumes with their dress shoes on, and there is a bubble over one of the girl's heads that says, "I'll be the cutest girl in Gotham!" in reference to her Batgirl costume.

I can't raise my kids in a bubble. They're going to get exposed to these ideas. That doesn't mean it's not going to upset me. It upsets me that girls learn from a young age that it's important they look attractive and cute at all times--even on Halloween.

I'm pretty sure the adult version of this is all the "sexy cop" and "slutty monster" costumes for women. I just went to Google and searched for "costume shop." I clicked the first link that popped on my search list. As of this posting, the first three costumes shown on their website are the Princess Leia Slave costume, the Army Babe Costume, and the Charming Cheetah costume. The Princess Leia Slave is, of course, wearing almost nothing. The Army Baby and Charming Cheetah are also quite revealing. What's are the first male costumes on the page? A Stormtrooper, a whale, and the Pope. All three of those costumes completely or almost-completely cover the person head-to-toe in costume.

Here are the first costumes shown on that website for men and women:

It's true that a lot of women say that they dress that way on Halloween because it makes them feel good about themselves. My point is that we're teaching women, from the time they are little girls, to feel good about themselves by making themselves look good (cute or sexy, depending on their age) for others. It's upsetting to me.

In case you're wondering, here is an image of the first costume that pops up under "girl" costumes on that same site:

                                     

Growing up, my mom always had a rule for Halloween. My sister and I had to be something scary. We understood that to mean that we couldn't dress in costumes like a bride or a princess. Our costumes through the years included a devil, a tiger, a pumpkin, a ghost, a witch, a vampire, Jason (from the horror films), and a black cat. OK, I was a panda and a sheep for a couple Halloweens, too.

Here we are back in 1991:

I plan on implementing the same rule for my daughter.

It's true that I love to doll Jo up in dresses, and I look forward to the day that I can braid her hair and put ribbons in it. However, I don't want to teach her that her ambition in life is to attract a man or to value herself as an object for viewing pleasure. The truth is this: Beauty fades. That's why it's so important not to put too much emphasis on that stuff. My daughter (and yours) should should be valued for her interests, her humor, her intelligence, and/or her skills.

Where do your opinions lie? Do you think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill? Does it disturb you to see what kind of costumes (or every day clothes) girls and young teenagers are wearing?