Hooray for Halloween

We enjoyed carving some of the pumpkins we raised in our garden.

 Hudson had gotten permission from his teacher to take in peanut butter bars.  (They have become his specialty.)  I didn't hound him to get them made, so when he didn't have them made I figured he wouldn't be taking them.  To my surprise, he woke up early and whipped up a batch before school.  When he told his classmates, they were pretty impressed.

We spent the afternoon at the school helping with Hudson's classroom party and then watching the costume parade.

This year we had a My Little Pony, a lady bug, lion, and lion tamer.  We had fun putting them together.  We enjoy the challenge of creating original costumes.  Hudson found his whip during the summer at a garage sale so he came up with a costume to incorporate it.

This year, the kids decided to fore-go the ward Trunk or Treat in order to visit some of our older friends.  It was so rewarding to share some time visiting with them.  The kids would agree, that's more important than the candy.

Fall Yard Work

We patiently waited for a good frost to sweeten up the red delicious apples.  We were sure glad that we did.

Raking leaves was frustrating and rewarding all at the same time.  It is always a big job, so it was a race against time before Delsie had completely had it.  The kids were best at hauling the leaves away while I feverishly raked to get another pile ready. 

We had an abundance of pumpkins this year.  So many in fact, it became a chore to deal with them all.  One night when I was contemplating what to do with them all, Brent asked "Why did you plant so many in the first place?"  And since I can, I did.  We enjoyed sharing with friends.

Beautiful Fall

The Primary program prompted a visit from Grandma.  The kids enjoyed mexican crazy corn and icecream during an outing with her.

She is always a good sport and helpful when she is here.  Somehow I delegated a project to her and we finally manage to get it finished.

Ruby helped me wash up all our little pumpkins to share with all the first graders at the elementary school.

We spent a beautiful evening at the Riverwalk Trail.

One last bike ride before the season ended.

On a walk back from Grandma and Grandpa's the kids enjoyed hiding in the pivot tracks.

Working Man

It seems like only days ago I was carting this toddler around with me in the corn truck for hours and he'd sleep the days away.  Now look at him!  Hudson is becoming Brent's right hand man.  He has had a new excitement about harvest and can't get enough.  He used to get bored of just bouncing along in the chopper with Brent, but now that he has real, bonafide jobs he loves contributing.

It is a race to get out to the crew as soon as he's home from school.

He is still good kitchen help too!  He makes up a mean batch of peanut butter bars to take out to the field.

He's right in the thick of the other men, unloading equipment and setting up the scale.

He spent a good week of harvest break with the crew, taking moisture tests.  That 2-way radio gave him all the confidence he needed for the long hours.

Of course, he still enjoyed us visiting and bringing food.

He also helped open the tail gate for John to unload in order to speed things up.

His job was to engage the PTO and steer the tractor when we were harvesting and bagging high moisture corn.

It's amazing how much Brent depends on this guy.  He's such a responsible and hard working kid.