Halloween 2011

Here's my version of Halloween decorations this year. Kim was here when I went to Halloween City to buy things, and she helped me pick out some really good stuff! So below are three pictures from daylight progressing into the dark.

The skulls, lights, and skeleton are all new this year.




Actually, I bought the orange lights at Christmas a
couple years ago, but the purple lights are my favorite.




The scary pumpkin and the spider on the door, as well as ghost in the bottom
right hand corner, all move up and down and make noises. Very cool.

Here's a short video of the action.

It was a successful evening. A good friend of mine came by with her kids (7 to 9 years old) and said they were too scared to get out of the car and come up to the door. So she walked them up.

YES!

Bishop's Pumpkin Farm - pt 3

Chris, Lorna, Kayla, Ian, and Emmett were here for the annual visit to the Pumpkin Farm. It was great fun for all. This year we started at the other end from where we usually start, so the Caboose was one of the first attractions.

Kayla with half of her teeth missing;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Emmett lookin' good
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Later we wandered through the giant pumpkins and tried to get worthwhile photos of the kids on a BIG one. Well, two out of three isn't too bad - better than when we were taking Chris and his siblings there as kids.

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One of the best attractions is the wooden train over by the apple processing barn. I don't know which is more fun, playing around in the train - or watching the kids do it.

(I love this picture of Emmett)

One of the favorite things is to pet the goats. Or in this case, brush them.

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It was really interesting to see what things interest the different grand kids. Pam's kids played on the twisty slide coming down from the barn with the maze upstairs until we had to drag then away. Chris' kids didn't go in much for that, but instead went for the digger machines in back of the barn. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

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And always a crowd pleaser, the BPF Line (Bishops Pumpkin Farm Line)

Bishop's Pumpkin Farm - pt 2

Now for the rest of the photos. This top one is actually the last thing we did at the pumpkin farm. We bought treats and scarfed them down!

Kim looking pretty as ever (in spite of her short hair), Mom looking as pretty as ever
(because she always does), and Pam looking pretty as ever (while feeding the kids).

Lucy in the caboose, and getting a piece of candy from "Little Bo Peep."

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Molly in the caboose and with her head out the window (she is such a live wire).

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And I couldn't get any still shots of Grant, so here's a little
video where I managed to catch him for a second or two.

Next up: Chris, Lorna, Kayla, Ian, and Emmett. Woohoo!!

Bishop's Pumpkin Farm - pt 1

So our first trip to the pumpkin farm this year was with Pam and her children (Grant, Lucy, Molly), and Kim. Below is one of my favorite "scarecrow" designs from the annual contest. (I like the body parts coming up out of the ground. Pretty spooky.

Our first stop is always the petting zoo area. It was pretty cool this time because all three kids got in the act of combing the goats. Thy are loosing their fears about animals.

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The photo below is a near miracle - not because all three of them could stand on those slippery, uneven pumpkins, but because I was able to snap the picture at that rare moment when all of them happened to look my way!

And finally, I tried to catch each of them as they came off the curly slide down from the top of the barn (their favorite slide on the whole place). Molly almost got away before I could shoot.

There's more photos to come as I get time later this week...

The Double Nickel

I had a great 55th birthday. Pam and her kids, and Kim came for the week, Chris' family and us did Face Time with our iPod/iPads, David called and Shelly is recovering from her and her kid's illness (I saw that on Face Book).

I had doughnuts for breakfast, leftover gyoza for lunch, a chocolate dipped soft-serve from Dairy Queen for afternoon snack, and HAMBURGERS! for dinner. Kim made a really great mummy face on my orange cake - Yummm!

Below is probably the funniest birthday card I've ever gotten. Thanks for a wonderful day sweetheart.

Outside of the card

Inside of the card

The Cake