falling for fall

i love holidays. it could possibly be considered an obsession, an unhealthy obsession at that. it starts in september/october with halloween. halloween has become one of my favorite holidays. to me, it is more of a child's holiday, a holiday that celebrates imagination and creativity and self confidence. those things are much better than the halloweens of the past, right??

i love halloween so much i have a tree. a small black wire-y tree that we decorate with handmade paper ornaments each year.

and, i definitely think i could create an advent-type calendar for this time, too. we have several yearly traditions, like the pumpkin patch.

we go to the same one every year. this year, because josh works from home, we were able to go during the day. interestingly enough, the sun shines right through all the trees leaving bright sun spots and weird shadows that you have to watch when taking pictures. note to self: next year, go in the afternoon even if it is fall break ;)

someone kept dropping all the pumpkins we were trying to show her and hand to her. sometimes, it is overwhelming when you are the youngest.

we picked out 6 pie size pumpkins for school projects and carving and one really cool green/gray pumpkin that we never took a picture of. too bad because it was the most perfect pumpkin even if its friend was housing a black widow spider-yikes!

the next day, we headed to do something i have been wanting to do for years. this was definitely a good year to start.

the maze!

we spent lots of time walking in the dusty dustiness. yes, it was so dusty it needed to be reiterated. it was so fun . . . even if we didn't always agree.

but, somehow, we made it out even with so many opinions.

then, just a few days before halloween, we had our annual pumpkin carving night with our friends, the tillmans.

i was inspired by martha's october magazine cover to use pie pumpkins instead of regular pumpkins. it was so much easier! each child had their own pumpkin and there wasn't so much work for us when they decided after the second scoop they were done cleaning it out.

and, they looked adorable in my kitchen window!