We have really enjoyed having our backyard finished this year. Dan and my Dad worked very hard putting our yard in and I have to say they did a great job. We love having grass to run around on, the girls love their new swing set, Dan loves the water fountain he made and my favorite is having a garden.
I love the fresh veggies you get from having a garden. We decided to grow our own pumpkins this year and they took over the garden. The vines were growing half way down our patio. We also had tons of tomatoes and zucchini. We tried watermelon, green peppers, and squash too but didn't have a big success with them.
At the beginning of October we had cold weather and most of our plants in the garden froze, so it was time to clean it out and pick the pumpkins. Rylee was Dan's little helper. She was bossing him around telling him to pick the pumpkins faster.
We ended up with 12 pumpkins. We thought we only had 10 but as we were cleaning up the garden we found 2 more hidden in the mass of vines. Most of them were still green, but they quickly turned orange as the weather warmed up again.
Dan gave Rylee the job of picking tomatoes. She loved it. Our tomatoes were mouth watering. I would eat one almost every night with a little salt and pepper--yummy!!
Rylee found that the zucchini was quite entertaining. She kept "calling" us. She was on the other end of the patio and kept yelling, "hello, hello are you there". She would call Grandma, her friend Hudson, Grandpa, and then Daddy...
To her surprise, Daddy answered and they had a great conversation over the zucchini. It was fun entertainment!
Our zucchini was a huge success. I made zucchini bread for 2 months and just kept giving it away and freezing some. My good friend Jami gave me a great recipe that freezes well. We just pull out a loaf when we want some more. We'll get to enjoy it all winter long.
It's seemed like the vines never ended. They just kept going, and going, and going...
It was fun to say that we grew our own pumpkins this year. Although I do love the pictures you get at the pumpkin patch. O-well, sometimes it's good to mix things up a bit. I think our pumpkins looked great in our yard!
My 3 little girlies were so excited to carve their home grown pumpkins this year. They had so much fun watching THEIR pumpkin grow all summer long.
Cleaning out the guts is sooo messy!
Oooey Goooey!
Brinley even got pumpkin guts on her head. She was trying to look inside her pumpkin and went a little too far in.
Rylee loved it. This is the only time she can make a big mess and get away with it.
The top green pumpkin is Baylee's she painted at school and named Frankin' Poo. The next one down is Brinley's. She wanted the whole family on her pumpkin. We only cut out one person and she drew the rest on. That one person took a while to cut out. The bottom pumpkin is Baylee's also. She cut out a Tiger and it was her own design. She wouldn't let any one help her or see what she was doing.
The big U was Dan's this year. I usually do the U but let him do it this time. Our neighbors give us a bad time because we like the Utah Utes so much. My pumpkin is a bat. I never go into this much detail for pumpkin carving but thought it would be fun to do this time. It took way too long (thus the reason Brinley only got one person cut out of her pumpkin!). It took forever and made it hard to help the girls. It was fun though. I think I'll stick with the U next year.
Rylee wanted Polka dots. Her idea. It turned out crazy though. I bought a LCD light to put in a different pumpkin this year and it had colored flashing lights (I didn't notice that when I bought it) so we put it in her pumpkin and it was like a disco ball. She loved it!!
I love Halloween and carving pumpkins!!
