Making Halloween 2008

If I had more time, I'd do "cool stuff" with these photos (I had great black and white and orange visions!), but life is what it is and tomorrow is Monday, so here you go. This year's 2008 jack o' lantern masterpieces.

We had six pumpkins in total. Here is Kel posing with a few of them before we began the process of gutting and cutting. Or cutting and gutting. Or, really, cutting, gutting, and then cutting some more!







Half way there. Nic carved the cat. The face was a Daddy and Kel joint effort. The pirate ship is mine. And, yes, that is supposed to be a skull and crossbones in the mast. And, no, I don't want to hear about it.




All six. At last. It was a long afternoon, blisters, sore hands, and all. We've got some faces, a cat, a bat, a ship, and of course, a letter "K"! Who knows how they'll look come Friday, but we don't have time to carve during the week, so we did our best. They look nice with the lids on too, but I was letting the sun do a natural candle light effect for my photos!

2008 School Portrait

If you're on the Christmas card list, you'll be getting your own personal copy in December, but since I know that the excitement and anticipation could be too much to bear, here's a preview copy of Kel's 2008 school portrait. Look, he inherited his father's slouch! Its not worth doing the retake in hopes of a straighter back because the smile is nice, the face is clean, the hair is reasonably tidy, and the ensemble looks good. He's a handsome young man. He's our handsome young man! I will simply send him with a ruler in his shirt for next year's portrait...

Kellan's ringing announcement

Look what I just stumbled across! As ringers, we didn't send out a birth announcement, but instead rang a Quarter Peal of Grandsire Triples to celebrate Kel's arrival. Fitting for the birth of a son to two parents who met while ringing.

Riding the Ghost Train

Today we took our annual excursion on the Ghost Train from the railway museum in Monticello down to spooky Cemetery Rd, passing lots of creepy things in the woods on our way. They do a great job with this event and the daytime version is perfect for kids of Kel's age. We're at least a couple of years away from the "lights off" scream-fest that is the night time version, but I'm looking forward to it!


Matchy matchy. So cute. Or, as Nic says, "We can pinpoint the exact moment that drove him to a lifetime of therapy".









Looks brave, doesn't he? Once again, Kel absolutely lost it while we walked through the Haunted Box Car (lights on and all), started shrieking, crying, and tearing full speed in the opposite direction. Setting off a few other kids in the process. We never do quite make the exit from the box car and instead come tearing back out of the entrance year after year. Still, he tries...





Very squinty face, but it would have made a good photo otherwise. Next year...

Allerton Park

This is apparently a gem so special that my Springfield friends have been keeping it to themselves for fear of leaking its greatness to the outside world. Well, you have now been foiled! We spent part of today hiking around Allerton Park and had a wonderful time enjoying the sunshine, the fall foliage, the lakes, the gardens, the trails, and all that this beautiful preserve has to offer. We will be back often.

Halloween at the Carillon

I am pleased to introduce Sir Kellan Evans of Archer Avenue. Our Halloween Knight!








Another year and another great evening at the Jack O' Lantern Spectacular. You can't quite see the "2", but this is the 2008 display at the entrance to the event. 2008 gorgeous jack o' lanterns and spooky carillon music to set the mood. This is an amazing event.






Kellan, Caden, and Olivia had so much fun exploring the pumpkins. Mom didn't have so much fun trying to get a decent photo of the goofy trio!










Our pensive knight sitting by the fire and enjoying the carillon concert to end out a perfect evening (I'm not even going to mention the bus ride over, we'll just forget about that part...).

Abe's Corn Maze

We spent a super fun afternoon at Abe's Corn Maze. The maze was incredible. And challenging! But so much fun. I highly recommend this to all of our Springfield friends. There were also hay rides, sports games, and other fun stuff for the kids. And, much to Kellan's delight, the chance to have his photo taken with "Mr. Lincoln". Kel saw this man across the parking lot and started shouting, "Mr. Lincoln! Mommy, its Mr. Lincoln!!!". So he came over to let Kel have a photo taken. Very cute.






Here is Kel squinting at the entrance to the maze.




He was really surprised to find corn. In a corn maze!





We're about 45 minutes in now and he's tired, thirsty, and weilding corn stalks against any potential attackers from "wrong paths". We followed the map. We didn't get lost!




Success! The exit. It was super.