Fall

The PNW has been KILLING IT this fall. Cooler temps and lots of sunshine have lead to two of my favorite activities: leaf crunching and pumpkin patch-ing. Lily had her first preschool field trip to a local pumpkin patch, which was also MY first field trip in like 13+ years (old.) Highlights (according to Lily) included the popcorn we ate before we left and the cows pooping. I guess I have her 4th birthday party planned…

Without further ado, this is how we do fall.

{Stinky.}

Dear October, I love you.

Pumpkins in the Sun (and a Giveaway!)

Last weekend we had the most amazing sunny fall day, so I decided it was the perfect time for some outdoor (less mess for me) family pumpkin carving! I was lucky enough to be sent this awesome pumpkin carving package from Pumpkin Masters. The whole kit is valued at $35 and if you make it all the way to the end of this post (you can do it!), you can win one too!

 

We have used Pumpkin Masters products for carving in the past and have always had great success (as great as it gets with limited artistic skill), but this kit included some tools that none of us had ever used before. They also included some flashing LED lights to put in our carved pumpkins, a much easier (and safer) alternative to a candle.

My dad went with the basic carving kit that we have all used in the past and was pretty proud of his ghost.

 

I used the pumpkin shaving technique, which was harder than I imagined. I figured it out about halfway through the design, unfortunately, that left me with a slightly wonky owl. I will definitely do this one again now that I have the technique down. This is a good option for carving pumpkins early because you don’t hollow it out and it should last longer before becoming a squishy putrid mess.

 

Mila had a great time chasing bugs and eating leaves. When I say “no! yucky!” she laughs and puts them in her mouth. Awesome.

My mom unknowingly chose the hardest kit, which uses punches to cut holes into the pumpkin in various designs. This process would work best on a pumpkin with a thinner shell (not sure how you can tell that before carving). She got about halfway through her design and the side caved in! She also had trouble getting the chunks of pumpkin out of the punches. Once she decided to freehand her design and space the holes further apart, the pumpkin held up and I think her design turned out to be one of the best despite a frustrating start.

 

Ryan and Lily used the kid’s carving kit and ended up with the winner of the evening in their creepy cat. It was fun because even at 3, Lily could really help. Unlike the other kits that use tools to poke holes in the pumpkin to mark your pattern, the kid’s kit uses a crayon, so she could do it herself! She really liked participating in the actual cutting (with Ryan’s help) and thought the insides were “stinky”.

 

We had so much fun carving together and I know each year will be more exciting as the girls get older and more creative with their pumpkin designs. We will definitely be using our Pumpkin Masters kits year after year. 

 

If you use a Pumpkin Masters Kit this Halloween, you can also enter the Pumpkin Masters Carving Contest! Share a pic of your carving via Instagram or Twitter with #PumpkinMasters2013, submit via the Facebook app, or send via email to: social@pumpkinmasters.com to enter for the chance to win one of six prizes, including $5,000 for the Best Pumpkin. The contest is on now and runs through October 31st! 

 

Use the rafflecoptor entry form below (it is super easy, you can sign in with facebook!) to enter to win the exact kit we used! Giveaway runs through Sunday night (10/13) at midnight! If you don’t win, all these products are available at your local grocery, drug, and craft stores, and nationwide at Target and Walmart! Happy carving!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Walla Walla

This last weekend Ryan and I headed across the state back to our Alma Mater, Whitman College, for Ryan’s ten-year reunion (HE IS SO OLD.) Walla Walla holds a lot of fond memories and a few not so fond memories (but those are fuzzy anyway) and it is always exciting to return to the place where we met (roughly twelve years ago. WE ARE SO OLD.) 

It has been nine years, two kids, one house, one car, one wedding and two jobs since I graduated, but every time I go back it feels the same. I do, however, find myself looking around and saying: “who the hell are all these people?” It is quite possible the youngins saw me staring at them in confusion and assumed I had wandered away from my nursing home in a fit of dementia. 

Regardless, it was a lovely weekend with lovely people. I did lots of super grown-up things like going wine tasting, spending $60 on a sweatshirt, and going to bed in a NyQuil haze at 9:30pm (thank you sinus infection.) Ryan may have done some less-grown-up things like playing beer pong at a frat house until 3am, but what happens in Walla Walla… ends up on my blog.

  (This is actually only eight years ago, but it was the oldest picture I could find because we DIDN’T HAVE DIGITAL CAMERAS BEFORE THAT. old.)

 (In 2013 you can take wine tasting selfies without shame. Or just with a little shame if you prefer.)

 I think we have aged…gracefully…

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