Francie's First Halloween and Pumpkin Patch Visit

October has got to be my favorite month. It's not the super busy holiday season, there is usually not much going on, and there are plenty of opportunities to hang out as a family.

When Abigail was born, a friend and I decided to start a tradition and take our kids to the Arboretum Pumpkin Patch and take photos of them in a special outfit each year. Unfortunately for that tradition, she and her family moved away after only two years and two photo sessions. The Arboretum is very expensive, over $50 per visit, even with at least one of us getting in for free! That, coupled with it being potentially crowded on a weekend when Bean could join us, and it being a 30 minute drive, and since Francie girl doesn't love sleeping in the car, we decided to just make a new tradition!

We found a pumpkin patch closer to home and it was amazing. It was free to get in, we were able to buy a couple of pumpkins at a reasonable price, and they had other family friendly activities at reasonable prices. We didn't feel guilty doing all of it and leaving after about an hour, although we could have easily stayed longer. 

Big sister wanted to match baby sister "exactly" and I was in love with the outfits we came up with. 

The headband Francie wore is the same one Abigail wore to Aunt Jess' wedding when she was 3 months old, along with a ruffly romper that Bean was lucky enough to get to change a poop diaper in. I was busy being a bridesmaid. 

We put the baby in a wheelbarrow. It was super dirty.

As a whole, we were most excited about the corn maze. Abigail was most excited to get her face painted like Elsa. Ever since we went to a festival and she got her face painted like a tiger, she's been obsessed with getting her face painted again. It's been really fun to see her reactions.

We made it out of the corn maze and it was harder than we thought, but so much fun! Francie got hungry while we were trying to find our way out and I nursed her as we walked- that was certainly a first! I've never nursed walking through a corn maze before, and don't know if I ever will again.

Our favorite conversation starting in about August is "What are we going to be for Halloween?" We all toss out ideas- I look forward to hearing what Francie has to say when she can talk!- and narrow them down to what would work best for everyone. Poor Bean usually has to shave his beard for whatever costume we decide, and wigs are very popular around our house. 

The top three options this year were the one we ended up with, Frozen, or Rapunzel. We decided Frozen might work better in a future year, and we were close to doing Rapunzel except I really didn't want to be the mean stepmother. Because she's awful and plays mind games with Rapunzel. Francie would have been cute as Pascal and Bean could have tolerated Flynn Ryder. 

I think we were all happy with what we ended up with! I was psyched to do the crazy Ursula makeup. Most of our costume stuff came off of Amazon- my dress was only $20! Abigail's outfit came from Etsy, as did Francie's hat. I made Francie's tutu and my tentacles. All of Bean's came from Amazon, including those silly boot covers.

We are really into Halloween. I spent so many hours making these tentacles out of pool noodles, and I was so proud of them except we didn't come up with a good way for them to actually stay attached to the dress. As soon as I started to walk, they started to fall off (please see the one in the background). We went trick or treating around the neighborhood. Flounder and I made it to a few houses before we came back for bedtime, and Prince Eric and Ariel stayed out a little longer. 

There were lots less kids out this year and we ended up with a full bag of unopened candy. Can anyone enlighten me on the ethical opinion on returning unopened Halloween candy to the store for a refund? I felt weird about it so I didn't take it back- mainly because I don't save receipts and I know how annoying that is for people working in retail- but also because it seems like bad karma to return candy that is being marked down every single day. Any thoughts?

Here's a close up as an ode to the tentacles. I was so proud of the work in cutting and taping and painting them. I was trying to channel Donna's infamous baked potato costume, and Liz's love for any villian character. I know they would be proud of our family costumes each year!