Making The Best of a Rainy Day

I guess I spoke too soon when I said we were making a day trip to Pittsburgh for a pumpkin patch romp with my sister and niece this morning.  Shortly after I wrote the post, she sent me a text message and said that the weather was nasty and it was just too wet and rainy for a day outside with kiddos.  My niece cried when she got the news.  My boys were disappointed too.  We always enjoy getting in some time with our family in the Pittsburgh area.  Plus, there isn't another time this month that we are able to coordinate our schedules, so this year we are going to miss the adventures at Riley's Farm completely.  Bummer.   

We were then left with the decision regarding what to do for the day.  It's cold and rainy here too, so going to a local pumpkin farm really wasn't an option either.  Since I did most of my cleaning on Thursday night and Friday morning,  I didn't have anything extremely pressing to do around the house, so we lazied around until mid-morning.  It was very nice to just kind of hang out and take our time.  It's not often that we have no obligations, and I truly appreciate those moments when our schedule is clear.  We decided to head out for some errands and see where the day took us, and it ended up being a pretty good one! 

First, we went to the post office (OK, not so much fun, but a necessary evil).  Then we went to a local farm market and stood in the drizzling rain, rummaging through great big bins of pumpkins in search of the perfect two.  It didn't take too long until we found the ones we wanted, and we were only moderately dirty and wet!  We paid for our pumpkins, and headed home.  When we got home, the cold and rainy weather called for some baking, so we worked together making a batch of brownies.  While the brownies were baking, the boys painted Halloween decorations and little gourds.  After they were done painting, they ate lunch and Andrew took a nap.  Jake and I decorated the brownies for Halloween in honor of the first day of October.  This evening, when Greg gets home from work, we are going to carve the pumpkins and roast the seeds.  Roasted pumpkin seeds are one of my favorite treats of fall.  Since we only get them once a year, I get really excited to make them!

I'll post pictures of the Jack-O-Lanterns when they are completed, but here are some photos from the course of today.  I don't know about you all, but this weather along with all the activity this morning has really worn me out!  I should have napped when Andrew did! 

They picked the biggest pumpkins they could find in the giant bins in the rain! I think they did a pretty good job!  Those babies are massive!

Maybe someone told Andrew that you can tell the freshness of an egg by smelling it.

Teamwork...a rarity in this house!

 Whoa!  Brownie mix!  Awesome, Dude!

What good is making brownies, if you don't test the batter?

Some serious focus going on for Andrew's bat decoration.

 Jake made a black widow.

Nothing beats being proud of your own work!

 The final line-up.

For future reference, the dishwasher doubles as an instant cat bath.

While the boys were doing their thing, the cat decided to make his own fun too, by tearing apart my dining room table.  Lovely! 

Our decorated brownies.  This is the best I can do...hey, unless you are Betsy Cron (my beloved "cake lady"), keep your thoughts on my artwork to yourself!