We survived another pleasant pumpkin carving party.  The turnout this year was much lower, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but we did miss the regulars that didn't make it.  This was the first year Rita got to come (yay for retirement!) and she did a wonderful job keeping the kids out of our hair while we were getting ready, so it felt less rushed than usual.

Beside Rita's visiting, we had some other firsts.  The O'Reillys brought their home-grown jack-o-lantern pumpkins.  They weren't very big and a couple were still a bit greenish, but it was so cool for them to be able to do that.  I had seen them on the vine the day before and the pumpkin plants in their backyard are truly monstrous.  I am really tempted to turn the weedy flowerbed by our front porch into a pumpkin bed, but I'm afraid it's not getting enough sun.

I also took to opportunity to bring out the power jigsaw I bought this summer for working on my fence.  It really sped things up when it came to taking off the top of the pumpkin or carving the round eyes.  The only problem is that it spews mushy "sawdust" at interested bystanders.

Magda didn't carve a pumpkin yet. She and Kayleigh decorated some baby pumpkins with paints (most of which ended up all over Simone when she took over).  At my request, Magda drew me a picture of what her pumpkin was supposed to look like.  It was important that it had a stem (which meant I was going to carve her design on my bigun instead of the small, stemless one she had picked out) and it had to have bangs.  Not sure what was up with the bangs, but during the party she and Kayleigh got into trouble for cutting each other's hair, so maybe it was part of some theme.

All the pumpkins turned out great.  More importantly, the kids had a blast.  They decorated our driveway with chalk drawings and spent most of the time chasing each other around the house and the front yard.

Note: Meredith posted a bunch of cool pictures from the party.

Of all the plants we've planted in our vegetable garden, the sugar pumpkin has been the most fun.  It's been growing like crazy along our wire fence and has finally reached the privacy fence.  The plant is now over eight feet long.  It's still a single vine (I think that at some point they branch) with alternating large leaves and lots and lots of flower buds.  Even if we don't get any fruit from it, it's been fascinating watching it and seeing how much it can grow in a single day.

It's kind of cool that when you drive past our house, now, you can see the tip of the pumpkin vine straining over the fence.

The sugar pumpkin has large beautiful flowers.  So far, only the male flowers have been blooming, but I check every morning if any of the girls have opened up since I intend to give them a hand with pollination.  I had never really noticed any pollinating insects around our house, but the other day there was a big bumble bee rooting around the one flower that was opened.  The bee was black, but by the time it came out of the bloom, it was completely covered with yellow pollen.  So maybe the plants can take care of themselves.

Later that day, I told Magda and her friend Maia that in the morning I had seen a "tiny winged creature in the pumpkin flower".  When I asked the girls what they though I had seen, Maia pragmatically guessed I had seen a butterfly, but Magda excitedly-and a little hopefully-asked whether I had seen a fairy.


So far we've been lucky and our plants appear to be mostly pest free.  I did notice this bug on one of the female flower buds.  I'm not sure what it is, but the little fella seemed to like it there-he was still around when I checked the next day.  I'm leaving the insect for now, unless someone can tell me that he's bad new for my plants.

We had Magda's birthday party at Pease Park. Jennifer got her a cool Unicorn piñata and plenty of decorations. I made Magda's favorite meringue chocolate ice cream cake. I even scored some dry ice to keep it frozen - which was massive overkill, considering that the weather was so cold (we had way too much fun playing with it later at home, though).

Due to late planning, the flu going around and the unexpectedly cold weather, we ended up with a pretty small turnout, but that's not so bad. The kids had lots of fun running around the play scape and then whacking the heck out of the unicorn. It took forever to bust it open - and we didn't even use a blindfold.

And yes, Tiana was a hit, as was anything else fairy related. Oh well, 5 year olds will be 5 year olds.

This morning, still darkish around 7:30 I saw Magda coming out the dark dining room.When I asked her what she'd been up to, she excitedly told me that she colored the last piece in her birthday calendar.  Meaning tomorrow she turns 5.

She had been anticipating her birthday for a long time now, and coloring her caterpillar had become a cherished morning task.  Though some days she'd skip it so that she would get to color two circles the next.

Some parts of the wait have been fun, but other parts less so.  When in a store, she can be a little horror with "buy me this" or "buy me that".  Invariably I don't, but she doesn't appear to have noticed, or maybe she keeps hoping that this one time I'll change my mind.  I've been going the "thanks for letting me know what you like" and "maybe that's something you would like for your birthday" route.  Which, of course, made her change her spiel to "I want this for my birthday".  Argh!  I really wonder how exactly she imagines her birthday to be.

Of course, it doesn't help that she really, really, really wants and needs all the little-girl-crack that's out there that I hate.  How I loath the pushers Mattel and Disney.  But hey, it's a birthday, right?  We've made the mistake of making a healthy cake for her 1st birthday (she didn't care but I like my sweet stuff unhealthy).  So yeah, I'll go and get her the darn Tiana doll that she'd been obsessing about for months. Principles and all be damned!