Pumpkin Patch 2011

Well, it finally happened! We made our annual trek to the Pumpkin Patch. It struck me how "grown" up my babies are becoming.

And once again, I had another opportunity to realize how blessed I am to be their mama!

Gabbi Girl is, was, and may always be, all about posing!

These two were a little more about piling E.V.E.R.Y small pumpkin they could find into this wagon. And in no way about taking pictures.

Take this for example. Cute as can be.

And now one can see the actual paparazzi for whom she was posing!

And so it began. They hauled that wagon all over the place to find all small pumpkins.

Ahhhh. And yet, I can still bribe them every so often! Today the bribe was all about cheering at the high school football game. And voila... it worked.

It worked so well, I even got a few poses!

And the pumpkin gathering continues!!

Today was the last day of the pumpkin patch, so we ended up with a whole, whole bunch of pumpkins. I have got to be the craziest person in town to buy her pumpkins two days before Halloween.

I figured we'd just really doll up the outside of the house for Thanksgiving. And, I promised the girls we'd have a painting/ glittering party for all those mini pumpkins.

Ellie held tight to Madi's doll, "Ulga". And Gabbi held tight to Madi.

WHOA!

Awww... may be one of my favorites!! By this time, Ellie had put her own hair up in a ponytail, but I like all three girls' facial expression. I may have to use this one as my wall decor!

I was lucky that Kimie came over to hang out and run around with us today. She was so helpful at the pumpkin patch. We even later braved the mall!!

Gabbi Girl LOVES her Kimie. See later... this is HER friend... noone else's, per her, ONLY HERS!

She and Kimie actually do share a love of animals, namely cats, so this is their common bond. Kimie never sees me in any situation where she doesn't bring my girls a little treat. And they do LOVE their Kimie!

GG has got to be the world's most affectionate kid!! When I come in from work everyday, she immediately grabs my forearm and starts hugging on it. She loves it and kisses it, and tells me how "beautiful" or "precious" I am. Now, that is Sa-weeet!! I wish everyone could have a Gabbi!

And then, just for the excitement level, I wish everyone could have an Ellie Sue too!!

She REFUSED to just smile. She had to poke that nasty tongue out!! And it seemed to start a trend.

See what I mean?!

Poor ol JinJin She wasn't asking for much!! Just a simple little photo with her grandgirlies!!

This is Melanie signifying "victory"! Wanna know why?!

Ok, remember when I told you about Ellie not wanting to cooperate in photos lately!?

I finally just held that kid down, had the other one sit on her and turned her head toward the camera. By then, she was all laughs! So, that's it... this year's photo of the three of us!

And don't you love it when it seems that a good shot is totally impossible, because of this poor cooperation?

That's what happened here! Another totally uncooperative 4 year old, who we made laugh by being silly, and then we kind of got a cute picture here!

The First United Methodist Church is our pumpkin patch of choice. Year after year after year. Remember Ellie standing behind the pumpkin at 3 months in her body cast? And then a six week old Gabbi being pulled in a wagon surrounded by mini pumpkins? Well, all at this very place!

There was a whole lot of running this way and that!

Not sure what exactly was going on with my hair, so just look at JinJin and Staci. I'll feel better about this picture that way.

Now, this is a rarity!! Kimie was with us today, so we had an extra friend (or at least Gabbi did. She told us "she's MY friend" any time we tried to talk to her or when Ellie thought she would sit in her lap) who could take the picture of all the girls for us!

Happy Halloween!! Take lots of pictures tonight. Never know when you might come to a MoZart Retreat, and we will want to make a mini Halloween book!!

MO