Happy Halloween!

After a crazy trip to St. Louis and Michigan, and the initial craziness that is always the first part of December, we are finally catching up on our blog!  I know it has been awhile, but just in case the cold, dark winter is starting to wear on you, here is a throwback to fall.  Halloween, to be specific.  We grew our first pumpkin plant ever this year and we were really happy with how it went this year.  We got four pumpkins out of our pumpkin plant and they were really big!  The two biggest ones hovered around 50 pounds!  Here are some pics of K-Man with our pumpkin harvest.

"I love pumpkins!"

"This one is my favorite!"

When he sings "If you're happy and you know it" this is how he does the actions to "your face will surely show it."  Usually kids put their fingers on their cheeks--he plugs his ears.  Ha ha!

K-Man with Daddy

Carving with Mom

He wasn't too sure about the guts

Peering in, not sure if he really wants to dig in there or not

Here's Mike giving a Halloween shout-out to his alma mater

The finished products

A picture of all three of us on the big night.  Mike went as one of our friends who is a biology teacher and does a lot of refereeing for the high school; I went as a gypsy; and K-Man went as a dragon. *Oh, and a side-note, after this picture was taken, Kable dropped our camera and it broke, so there are no pics of him trick-or treating this year :(

K-Man's first "real" experience with trick-or-treating went like this:  First of all, he was dressed as a dragon; people guessed lizard, and dinosaur, but we're going with dragon.  We only went to a few of our friends' houses because he didn't really "get it" this year, but we had a good time.  Without fail, this is how it went:  Our friends opened the door, K-Man would make his way under the candy basket and around their legs and into their house; we would go get him, bring him back to the doorway and hand him his trick-or-treat bucket; and he would at some point try to give them candy (either from his basket or theirs).  It was a pretty fun night with an adorable little dragon.

The Farmstead

The day after our visit with K-man's birth mom, we went to a giant pumpkin patch/corn maze called The Farmstead.  It is pretty close to where my parents live, and it was so much fun.  All of the parents thought that we’d be there for an hour or so, but we ended up staying for almost three hours!  There was all kinds of stuff for the kids to do, and once you paid admission, it was all free, which was pretty sweet.  So we rode on the cow train, played in the corn box, did the hay maze, went on a hay ride, navigated the corn maze, jumped on this crazy huge inflatable thing—we think it was called the bouncy pillow or something like that, and K-man and his cousins had a blast getting pulled in the wagon by Papa.  Amy’s mom really loves popcorn so she bought a couple of bags for everyone to share and K-man was all over that.  After Grammy bought the popcorn, K-man pretty much went wherever she went so that he would have the popcorn close by.  It was pretty adorable.

The corn box was pretty fun, although it took a few minutes for K-man to warm up to it

This slide was pretty cool, you basically slid across a bunch of rolling pvc pipes

Waiting to ride the cow train with Grammy, aunts, and cousins

K-man and Amy taking a ride with Perry, our cow

Some cousin love

Some Daddy love

Rocking the pumpkin tetherball

Some Papa love

A farmer, his wife, and an adorable little guy

What's more fun than a giant novelty rocking chair?

K-man wasn't 100% sure about the bouncy pillow

But he has been really into pushing things lately.

Loving him some popcorn with Grammy

Big kid time on the bouncy pillow

Aww, cutest couple ever?  Possibly.

Excited about the hay ride!

Shooting the corn blaster with Daddy

Fascinating flag

A little family pic after the hay ride

Navigating the corn maze with Papa and Daddy

Grandparents are the Best!

October has been so much fun!  Three of K-Man's grandparents have come out to visit us, and it has been AWESOME!  First, Amy's parents came out to visit, then Mike's dad came out (his mom wasn't able to make the trip this time), and then we went to Idaho to visit family and got to see Amy's parents again (but that will be a different post).  We couldn't help but make a special blog post dedicated to all of the good times we spent with grandparents this month:

K-Man hanging with Amy's mom

Reading a riveting story about animales, en espanol, with Amy's dad

Helping Grandma type some really important stuff on her laptop

"Thanks for the awesome Halloween basket, Grandma and Grandpa!"
Of all of the awesome things Amy's parents put in his basket (candy, toys, etc.) his favorite thing was the Halloween and Thanksgiving silverware (?!) which he actually took to bed with him during naptime.  You just never know what they're going to love!

K-Man with three of his favorite things: a big wheel, Grandma, and Grandpa

K-Man and Grandpa checking out some old farm equipment

A gratuitous shot of K-Man looking adorable

K-Man with Mike's dad, playing an intense game of blocks

K-Man quickly discovered where Grandpa keeps his candy stash: The shirt pocket!

We went on a cool hike up to a lake with Mike's dad.  Forgive the off-center shot, the sun was blazing into my eyes when I took this picture, so I couldn't see very well!

Even though Grandma couldn't come, she sent a fun Halloween package for K-Man with Grandpa when he came to visit.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

K-Man's two favorite things from Grandma and Grandpa, a Halloween book that plays spooky sounds and songs when you push the buttons, and a very cool light-up toy.

There you have it: proof that K-Man has some of the world's best grandparents!  Can't wait to see them again soon!