Carved
We spent Saturday night having a pumpkin carving contest with some good friends. Initially I wasn’t really happy with the carving party, not because I dislike our friends, but because they always manage to out carve me and I strive to be the valedictorian of the carving party!
I spent the better part of 30 minutes ripping the guts and seeds out of two pumpkins we bought a couple weeks prio. To busy her while I gutted the thing, I gave Cardin the task of putting the seeds into a bowl so that I could wash and bake them. The first time she touched the seeds she shivered slightly and was all “These are slippery Momma!” Really kiddo?? Listen Lady, I’m fisting a pumpkin and you want to discuss slippery; throw your hand in here and lets then lets talk.
On a side note, baked Pumpkin seeds are one of my favorite things and the trick to great ones are mounds and mounds of salt. Not healthy…but delicious nonetheless. I justify this by the fact that I only get these delicious items once a year.
Once I had gutted a full pumpkin, I gave Cardin a pen and told her to draw the face she’d like me to carve out. I instructed her that she’d need eyes, a nose, and a mouth. I’m convinced Cardin actually heard….”draw all over the pumpkin with wild abandon”. By the time she was done, she had managed to draw a a line down each crease in the pumpkin yet there were no discernible facial features.
I completed carving my pumpkin, which is supposed to be a spooky tree, but looks more like a creepy hand with six fingers. I picked what appeared to be a good spot on Cardin’s pumpkin and carved out some facial features to offset the serious maiming this pumpkin endured at the hands of a 2 year old loose with a pen. 
Here is one with the ham face posing (note that she is wrapped in a princess blanket).
Motivator
Work has been rough lately and this has become my only motivator.
Listen Lady, this is a double edged sword though because this countdown also means we are nearing my 29th birthday. We’ll actually be visiting Magic Kingdom on my 29th birthday, which means we are a mere 40 days away from the dreaded day.
Since we’re getting free dining with our trip, I’ve made a bunch of dinner reservations. While I was making reservations, I noted that there is a number you can call to order a specialized cake if you are celebrating while in the park. I nonchalantly mentioned this to Brett and provided him the phone number.
ZooBoo!
This year for Halloween, Cardin decided that she wanted to be a hamburger. This was pretty surprising to us since she’s very much into princesses, nail polish, and all things girly. Needless to say I was totally on board with the hamburger costume.
We hit up zooboo at the Senca Park Zoo over the weekend and did some trick or treating amongst the animals. Cardin could have cared less about the animals she just want the CANDY!
All the kids were dressed up and even some zoo characters. She took a picture with a giant lion, which is pretty impressive since I was having heart palpitations just looking at the creeper.
There are trick or treat stations setup throughout the zoo and as you hit each station you got a stamp. As we were heading between stations, Cardin decided she wanted to eat some of the candy she had collected. I satisfied her with a Hershey bar, but within a few minutes she was asking for more. She really hasn’t been exposed to a plethora of candy mostly because she gags on food like its her job, but I was feeling generous and risky.
Attempt #1 was with a crunch bar. I made sure to emphasize that there were crunchies in the chocolate. She took one bite, spit it out, and said “I don’t like it momma.” Fail #1.
Attempt #2 was with a box of nerds. She tossed back a couple and made a sour looking face. Then proceeded to tell me “I don’t like it momma.” Fail #2.
Attempt #3 was with a pixie stick (not that I had much faith after the nerds). I poured a tiny pit of the powder onto her tongue and she wouldn’t even retract it back into her mouth. With her tongue hanging out she said “I don’t like it momma.” Fail #3.
We finally settled attempt #4 on sour smarties. Again…I wasn’t overly optimistic and as expected she spit out the smarty and said “I don’t like it momma.” Fail #4.
By now Brett and I had consumed a portion of each of her pieces of candy and the glass wasn’t looking even a quarter full for the remaining pieces. Listen Lady, considering her track record with candy appreciation at the zoo, Halloween is looking awesome for Brett & I.
We finally distracted her with a trip to the playground. She ran around for 10 minutes going up and down the slide. At one point my delicate little flower got up to the top of the slide and there was a boy, dressed in a spider man costume, who was holding up the line. Cardin gave him one looked and yelled “GO”. Clearly she must be getting over her fear of bigger kids.
At the exit to the zoo, if you have collected all your stamps you got a small stuffed animal. Cardin picked the Heyna and hasn’t put the thing down since we left. We named him Henry the Heyna and as we left the zoo she talked to him the whole way in the car.
Moobage
This picture was taken from Associated Press and is the alleged California salon shooter. I wanted you guys to enjoy this image as much as my brain has.
LISTEN LADY, THERE WAS NO BETTER IMAGE YOU COULD HAVE CHOOSEN??? High speed lenses and this is the image that is plastered on the website. I’m not even going to go into the placement of the cops hand…its too frightening.
Grow Moore
This past weekend I took Cardin to Grow Moore Farms as they have a slew of Fall activities geared towards kids. It was a perfect Saturday afternoon, warm and sunny, and the kid was in her glory with all the activities that she could do for a meager 10 bucks. They have hay rides, a haunted house, mini golf, crafts, mazes….the list goes on.
She was hot to go straight to the tractor ride when we arrived, 
but I distracted her with some other activities while it came back from its last pull. She hit up a straw maze and made it through with a lot of coaxing and sideline interference.
As soon as she was out of the straw maze she made a beeline for the giant sandbox and small playground.
Luckily the tractor had returned by this point so Cardin could stop going apeshit over its location and we could go for the first of many tractor rides.
Since it had rained for nearly a week before the grass that the tractor was being pulled over was pretty muddy and as we went over the pile Cardin screamed out “WHOA…POOP.” Listen Lady my child is obsessed with this body function and you think that would assist in the potty training area, but you’d be wrong. 
After a few tractor rides we were able to depart this area and hit up the haunted house and the duck races. Cardin attempted the trike race but her legs are a little too short for their trikes. It attempt to help her, I was pushing her along, but almost got plowed over by some older kids. LISTEN LADY, you kids need driving lessons before taking to the road….I’m a pedestrian. We ended our afternoon with a painting party. I’m pretty sure painting the pumpkin was tops on Cardin’s list. She managed to cover every square inch of the pumpkin. I was even required to lift up the pumpkin so she could do the underside. 
We ended up having lunch at the farm. They had a section of picnic tables and up front was a small stage. Someone was playing children’s songs and after each song Cardin would look at me and say “What’s next momma?” At one point I responded “Lady Gaga’s Born this Way”. She took that under advisement and after several minutes told me “No Way!”