Halloween 2014

Earlier in October, we spent a festive Saturday morning with our friends, Michael, Phi and Parker, plus Todd, Sheela, Lily, Avery, Owen, and Gavin at the Irvine Regional Park pumpkin patch. The OC cross country championships happened to be going on there that morning, so we had to be bussed over from another parking lot due to the crowds.

Pretty much every parent with strollers and young kids could be heard grumbling about the lines and hauling everything onto the bus, but to the girls, riding a REAL BUS was a total bonus! Highlight of their morning!

The girls decided to wear their Doc McStuffins and Princess costumes to the park that day. Because why not?

Avery was such a cutie and offered to drive Amelia around on the tractor.

The ladies were cruising!

Owen sweetly offered to drive Samantha around, but she decided she didn’t want to ride at the last second, so Owen drove his little bro around instead. Meanwhile, the sweet Lily tried valiantly to entertain Samantha over at the bounce house, but Samantha was just too upset!

She changed her mind again and REALLY wanted to ride the tractor after all. Every time we went over to the tractor race to let her on, she had a complete meltdown since she wanted to drive it by herself. Judging by her driving skills on Parker’s toy mini cooper in the neighborhood, this was not happening. Poor Samantha gets so worked up sometimes, she just can’t calm down and make rational decisions. That girl shows her emotions like no one’s business!

Flash back to last year’s outing to Irvine– the girls were desperate to drive one of the tractors then too!

Fortunately, the train was sure to put a smile on her face.

Yet another failed family selfie.

The three little piggies: Lily, Avery and Amelia.

Panning for gold.

For some reason, there were several sets of twins there that day. I talked with two moms of twins outside the maze while the girls ran around inside; one had three-month-old twins and the other had nine-year-old twins. It’s always nice to chat with other twin moms at different stages, especially the ones with older twins. It gives me hope that if they can do it, so can I! It was also fun to see the baby twins– oh how I remember that Snap ‘n’ Go twin stroller with the two baby carriers… seems so long ago!

Even last year seems like forever ago.

The girls are ruined for life after going to so many fairs and carnivals over the summer since they know Daddy will eventually cave and let them play one of the carnival games– especially when they pronounce it “carvinal.” He melts every time. Thank goodness for the “Everyone’s a winner!” games. Jake has been known to waste a minimum of $20 trying in vain to knock down milk bottles in order to win a stuffed animal that likely cost 50 cents.

Samantha and Amelia slept for three hours after our morning out with our Phi and Sheela’s families in Irvine, so I’ll call that a win. Thanks, friends, for a fun morning!

Our pre-Halloween line-up also included a girls’ playdate with my friend, Susan, and the girls’ fellow birthday buddy, Grace, at Tanaka Farms.

Susan and I went on a Monday morning and pretty much had the place to ourselves.

The same birthday triplets!

Private tour of the farm.

Admiring the scarecrows.

I had a few mildly terrifying moments thinking I had lost the girls in the maze. I am so used to mazes I can see over, that this one threw me off as the girls ran amuck. These days, me running is not a pretty sight.

All three girls decided they had to climb over every single pumpkin to get to the top, ignoring the pumpkin-less path up the hay bales.

Despite my best attempts distracting them every time we walked past, the girls eventually found the petting zoo. I guess that’s what hand sanitizer and washing machines are for.