Shiver me Trick or Treatin'

It's been a little chilly in Ohio. In all fairness, I understand it is Ohio. I understand that winter is coming. In fact, I welcome it. I love warm sweaters, crunchy leaves, warm green tea with lemon or hot chocolate (ick to coffee.) I have to say, it was a might chilly for a trip to the pumpkin patch this morning. Look:
Yes, that is my car thermometer from yesterday morning. A little brisk, eh? I say Amen to that! So, we shuttled off to the pumpkin patch, kind of grumbling since this was scheduled two weeks ago and it was postponed due to a light mist falling from heaven. At least it was warmer then. It didn't require the fleece lining of the coats to be zipped back in, heavy sweaters, turtlenecks, hats and gloves.

The pumpkin patch was really quite lovely. They did a great job of teaching the kids about what they do there and different uses for the products that they grow. They grow corn, soy and pumpkins. They gave each child a bag, so as they went through the process of teaching them about their farm, they gave them a variety of things to place into their bag. They were sent off with soybeans to plant, a coloring book printed with soy ink, soy crayons, soynuts with a candy shell (the soy version of M & M's and they are rather tasty!), then as we walked, they allowed the children to pull a dried ear of corn from a stalk to take home with them to feed the critters. (Ours was VERY frosty!) In the end, they took us out to a very slippery pumpkin patch to pick a little guy of our own to take. When we got home, guess what we did?

We carved pumpkins! (Surprise, surprise!)

I carved the big one with templates of Cinderella and the castle. (Those can be found at the Huggies website.) K- decided that she wanted to carve her own pumpkin, so I allowed her to wield the safe pumpkin carving knife. She had a great time! After she was done, she went to the backyard to play a bit and look at what she found:

That would be a whiffle ball with a lot of ice around it. We're not talking the little fragile delicate ice. Ice thick enough for a 4 year old to play with it mid afternoon and still remain fully intact. Trick or treating tonight at my parents house will be a little chilly. Good thing we scored a big fuzzy bee costume! Nice and toasty. The right price, too! I got it at the thrift store for a whopping $5.00. My friend lengthened it a little and we're good to go. Lookie here here at the Hubs and K- trick or treating this past Sunday:

I know it's a little dark, but it was trick or treat and I did the best I could!

While I'm bugging you with far too many photos today, allow me to give you a glimpse of the little guy who has been living here for a while. I call him Buddy.

He's missing one big ole back leggin'. We're thinking that a bird tried to snack on him. It was great to see him around today. In fact, K- and I were surprised that he was still up and around. We thought he had gone by way of Grasshopperscicle a while ago.

Have a fun time trick or treating! Save the Heath bars for me!