October 2019: Fall Fun and Festivities

October 1st was a lovely day, so Allison and I met up with some friends at two different farms. We started off at Craven Farm, which I call "the cute farm." It's my favorite one to go to strictly for photo ops.

They don't have many activities on weekdays, though, so when the kids were done posing we took them over to Swan's Trail Farm. Swans has a lot of fun weekday activities, but they recently started charging for adults, which I find annoying. Yes our admission now includes the big corn maze, but what are the chances I'm going to do a full size corn maze with my 4 year old? I learned later in the month that at last two other farms are now charging for adults too. I think it's ridiculous to charge adults simply for supervising their own child.

Our friends had to leave, but Allison and I stuck around for the hayride, slides, mini corn maze, and climbing the hay bales. We stayed as late as we could until we had to get back to pick up Tyler from his bus stop. Allison crashed hard on the drive home!

The following weekend we took the kids down to Fright Fest at Wild Waves. This is the first year they've opened earlier in the day for family fun without the haunted houses. This works out much better for us, though I don't like that so many family friendly rides are closed until evening (scrambler/bumper cars/paratrooper/etc). We got there at 1pm, so we weren't sticking around until 6pm when the other ones open.

I took Allison on the Carousel and a few other kid rides while Tyler and Oscar rode the Wild Thing rollercoaster. Tyler was happy to ride with daddy this time.

Once they were done Tyler joined Allison for a few rides and games.

This year there was a new hay maze. 

The kiddos rode the jeeps and the Froghopper together.

Tyler rode the Timberhawk with daddy while Allison rode the planes then they both rode the kids' train before we went back downhill to the magic show.

Tyler and I rode the Disc'O spin on our way out while daddy took Allison on the Carousel again.

Then I took Tyler on the hangliders before we started our drive home. The kids were both out like a light.

That's my girl - refusing to wear a coat because it was "nice and sunny," even though it was only 47 degrees and this playground is mostly in the shade.

The picture on the left is from a day that I woke up at 5:20am and saw Tyler's light on. I walked in his room and found him giggling hysterically while reading a book I'd picked up for him at the library ("there was an old austronaut who swallowed the moon"). He did fall back asleep, but I had to wake him up after 8:00am to get him to school on time. Who knows how long he'd actually been awake reading?

On the second weekend of October we spent the first part of the day at the Scarecrow festival at the Children's museum then drove over to Lake Stevens to Carleton Farm. Thankfully they don't charge for adults to supervise.

The kids started off riding the Pony Express then made their way over to the kids' Corral. 

Allison jumped on the giant Jack O Lantern while Tyler ran to see how quickly he could find all the pumpkins in the maze. She joined him towards the end of his race and then he went over and jumped too.

This was the best I've ever seen Tyler shoot hoops. He didn't make very many, but he was shooting more accurately than I've ever seen him.

From there we went over to the barn to play in the ropeswing and hay.

Tyler wanted me to take a video of him on the Corn bin slide, though you can't really see much from this angle.

After that we rode out to the pumpkin patch and picked out one pumpkin for each of us. Unfortunately two of them, including the biggest one, started rotting in spite of Oscar's putting bleach all over them shortly after we got home. Maybe next time I'll just let the kids take cheap little ones and buy the bigger ones from the store. We've never had an issue with store bought pumpkins, but this is our second large pumpkin patch pumpkin that started rotting prematurely.

My friend Liz and I decided to meet up at Stocker Farm on a lovely day. I'd never been since they've always charged for adults, but now that all the other daytime activity farms are doing that I thought I'd give them a chance.

She soaked her shirt and could have easily done rubber duckie races all day.

Then she swung on the motorcycle, horse, and dinosaur swings. 

Liz didn't think going into the activity area with her two little ones would be worth the cost, but we still met up in the pumpkin patch. There are plenty of cute photo ops without needing to enter the activities area.

I let Allison play until we needed to get back to get Tyler. Her favorite was the corn pit. They have toys in it, which I think every other farm should have. She couldn't get enough of pretending to make corn soup and feed it to herself and everyone around her.

This year we finally made it to the trunk or treat Halloween party at Tyler's first preschool. We've been meaning to go for years, but it's always conflicted with something else we had going on.

This was our first year of themed costumes. Allison wanted to be a dinosaur and received a costume/pajama for her birthday, so when all the managers at Oscar's work decided to be dinosaurs too, Tyler and I figured we'd better be a dinosaur family.

Mom and dad came up to visit us for a week while Oscar was in Colorado on a business trip. There was a Harvest Festival happening at the Shoreline YMCA the night they arrived, so we stopped and played there on the way to pick them up from the airport.

On the way home we dropped by Red Robin, which had a bit of a wait since it was Saturday night. It's connected to the northgate mall, so Tyler and I walked around a bit where he was delighted to see these Luigi characters.

I gave mom and dad my room and I stayed in Allison's room while Oscar was gone. She looked so cute and peaceful sleeping that I had to take this sweet picture of her! You can't tell from the picture, but she loved cuddling with Tyler before bedtime. While we were enjoying sweetness Oscar had snow in Denver in October!

Later that week we took the kids and my parents over to do pumpkin painting at Chick-Fil-A. It was fun but crazy crowded! It was far busier inside than I've ever seen it even on Cow Appreciation day where you get free food for even remotely dressing up like a cow. We ended up getting our food while the kids played in the play area then leaving and eating it in the car since there was nowhere to sit.

The next day we took the kids down to the Harvest Fest at the Everett YMCA

And on dad's final day we all went down to the Children's Museum for their harvest fest. Some of the activites were finding pictures of pumpkins and pumpkin puking.

We met up with Malia and the K-pod then dropped dad off at the airport before heading home.

That evening was our ward Christmas party. There were root beer floats and a bunch of games before the Trunk or Treat. The best by far was the Harry Potter shooting match.

 Bobbing for donuts!

And the most impressive - the gigantic claw machine!

The next day Tyler painted pumpkins in the backyard. Later that week Allison got a new dinosaur for her recent potty training success, and I got to have my hair done since mom was still there to watch the kids.

At Tyler's back to school night he entered a raffle in their farm area and won a free pumpkin the day before Halloween. He wanted to have it carved, and when Oscar asked him what he wanted the carving to look like, he said "like I love daddy." So Oscar carved hearts and an image of himself into the pumpkin (which smelled a little like cantaloupe). It looked kind of like a Mexican man with a moustache.

Here's Oscar with all the other dinosaur managers at work.

Unfortunately Oscar got sick later and had to leave work. We went trick or treating at a nursing home then called to see if he'd be up for meeting up with us for Trick or Treating at his work, but even then he still wasn't feeling up for it. :( We had to trick or treat at his work without him.

After we were done at his work we went over to Mariner High and then did a little trick or treating at the homes in our neighborhood I remembered were good from last year. It was really nice to have mom with me. I would have had a hard time having both of them at the high school by myself. She borrowed Oscar's otter costume from last year which kept her nice and warm during the outdoor trick or treating.

Tyler had the next day off, so Mom and I took the kids to the museum during the day then she watched the kids in the afternoon and evening so that Oscar and I could go to the temple. The following day she had to catch her flight at 4:15pm, but traffic can be terrible going into Seattle at that time, even on Saturday, so we decided to go down to Wild Waves at noon in order to be south of the airport rather than north. It was their final day of the season since there's no Wild Waves with lights this year. :(

Here are the kids on the Frog Hopper and Coastal Clipper. Allison just now measures 42 inches so she got to do the Kang-a-bounce for the first time. She had a bit of a worried look on the highest bounces, but other than that she loved it!

Mom took Allison on the ferris wheel while Tyler and daddy went over to do crafts and games.

The kids did the jeeps and airplanes while Oscar went to Costco to pick up lunch then Tyler and I went on one last roller coaster ride before we met him at the entrance and dropped mom back at the airport.