A Family of Minions

My mom & I saw some Minion googles at the store, mentioned it to Sophie & that was that. Sophie abandoned her plans of being a rainbow unicorn & insisted on us being a family of Minions, which  I think, was a fantastic idea! We were like a circus show all day. People kept saying, "Wow! A family of Minions!!!!" One boy even said to Jeff, "Hi Minion!" like he thought we were for real. It was great! I'm kind of in love with the idea of family costumes now. People were really excited to see us but their faces always changed once they got to me. I think they didn't really know what to do with the bloody Minion. ;) I sort of hated the way my costume fit & wanted to jazz it up a bit. I thought I'd make some amazingly cute & creative boho Minion outfit with a pair of kitchen scissors & a stapler but things didn't work out as planned. Since I had a shredded costume it only seemed natural to transform into a Zombie Minion, which in the end turned out to be an awesome choice, way better then boho Minion. Lame. Our first Halloween stop was a trunk or treat hosted by a local church here in Georgetown. There were ten cars or so that were decorated & filled with candy for the kids. They also had pumpkin & face painting, hot dogs, popcorn, a costume contest, a petting zoo & hay rides. It was a pretty great Trunk or Treat event.   

Sophie tried her first hot dog! 

I imagine it's pretty fun having so many older siblings. I mean look at this girl fly! She doesn't have any complaints! The Trunk or Treat had a petting zoo. They had tons of bunnies, chickens, two super friendly & spunky goats & this big ole' bunny. Sophie loved holding the baby bunnies.

Even Chara got dressed up!

Obligatory family photo.

Jeff (my stepdad) does it big! I remember growing up always being amazed at the houses who gave full candy bars. We'd always go to the "rich" neighborhoods in search of them! Little did I know, Jeff has always done this! He was so excited setting them out.

Sophie girl being all cute & such.

After the Trunk or Treat fun we made our way across the neighborhood to a neighbors house for a fun Halloween party. They went all out! They're whole yard was decorated. They had tons of drinks, snacks & even a cotton candy machine for the kids. Once the sun started to set, all of the kids & parents from the party started on the Trick or Treat trek. This was amazing. I love trick or treating with them! It was so funny to see a herd of kids run up to each house (poor people!) & run back with their candy. All the kids were hilarious & it was so fun seeing them interact with each other. Sophie was the youngest of the bunch & was leading the pack the majority of the time. There's advantages to being the smallest & youngest! She'd push her way to the front of the door if she ever lagged behind. We had such a great Halloween. It's been so long since we've been in the States for an American holiday & this one didn't disappoint. :)

Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch

 

In an effort to complete items on my Fall Bucket List & Fall Photo Scavenger Hunt I googled corn mazes in Texas & it just so happened that just 45 minutes away was a huge corn maze AND pumpkin patch! So, I got some of the family motivated to join & we headed there one Sunday after church. That weekend my parents were babysitting Sebastian, my nephew, so he got to join in on the fun, too.  

The corn maze & pumpkin patch were located at Barton Hills Farm. They had tons of activities for the kids & adults to enjoy. They had slides, bounce bags, roping, hay rides, pumpkin painting & more. :)  

We got there slightly late, with only an hour before the Farm closed, so we decided to do the corn maze first. They had all different 'passports' to choose from. They had super easy to super hard passports. Each had 10 themed questions on them that had directions based on your answer. We picked the Corny Passport as it was a medium level & we had limited time.  

One super obvious thing that I didn't realize when making my Fall Bucket List was that a corn maze is a maze of corn. Ha! I mean, I knew this but I didn't think through what that meant. It sounds all romantic, running through cornfields, but actually, once you get in there, it's just the same view. Corn stalk after cornstalk. Had the stalks still been filled with ears of corn that we got to pick or something, it would have been more interesting. After a few minutes in the maze, you kind of start wishing you could get out & go to the beer stand & listen to that great music you hear in the distance. You know?  

But anyways, all that matters is that we did one & made it out with in a reasonable amount of time.  

The property was gorgeous. The corn fields were on the left & a river was on the right. Between was beautiful rolling (slightly rolling) hills (slight inclines of land), green grass & beautiful oak trees.  

Coming out of the cornfield by black ankle boots (so fall trendy, I know) were covered in dust.  

Sebastian & Sophie had fun playing on all the little toys they had. Well, Sebastian had fun escaping.

 

Freedom!!
 

This was Jeff's experience most of the day. Chasing after an escaped & adventurous Sebastian!  

Sophie & Mommy on a "baby & mommy horse." Such cuties! 

We really liked this game! 

Two photos because it's not that often that you get this little bugger to smile! 

Even Brother "Ack" got in on the fun. 

After the corn maze & games, we made our way to the little pumpkin patch. Technically, I don't think this counts as a "real" patch as I think I was imaging pumpkins still on vines or something, but I'm checking it off anyways. :)  

Sophie was all kinds of cooperative this day with photos! Which was wonderful. Sebastian on the other hand was a little too sleepy & fascinated with the pumpkins to smile. But they're still precious, smiles or no smiles.  

After we got home we carved our little pumpkins. We bought three. One for Zachary & I, one for Sophie & one for Sebastian.  

As I'm sure you all know, kids don't really pumpkin carve. They basically just hold a spoon that they occasionally stick inside the pumpkin & pick up a seed or two with. My mom & I ended up doing all the carving. She did the scooping & I did the 'designing." :) We made Sebastian's a bat & Sophie's a cat. By the time I got to Zachary & I's pumpkin I was feeling pretty confident in my pumpkin carving skills so I tried to carve Dwight Schrute's face. Ya. That didn't work out so well! I ended up having a to create a huge hole in the back of the pumpkin & a normal triangle eye face on the front.
  I sort of loved carving the pumpkins with those amazing pumpkin carving kits you can get here in the States. I can't believe we carved 15+ pumpkins last year with kitchen knives. Our hands were calloused & raw at the end of it. Thankful for the little conveniences. :)