G-Momma's Punkins, making their pumpkin Jack-o-Lanterns

Kids are great.  They are refreshing, honest, outspoken, funny, sweet, gentle short people.  I want to be a kid.  I don't want to be the adult me...the cynical, street smart, in-your-face person that I am now.  I want to revert to the person who believes in miracles, sandcastles, and doesn't count the day as lost when spent laying in the grass, at the river, counting clouds and caterpillars. 

I want the thrill of elementary school tetherball recess, and the joy of running down the big hill so fast you feel you could just levitate and fly.  I want to fly over fences, playing tag with more buddies than I could count on two hands, I want to thrill to my homemade kite on Art Hill, soaring; winter ice skating on the ponds at the parks; I want to take naps and have milk and graham crackers when I wake up.

Someone else can cook the beefroasts and mash the potatoes, they can do the dishes, and clean the house.  I'll work 50 hours a week, and just be a kid (a REAL KID) on the weekends.

And...wouldn't halloween be great again?  "Wouldn't that be lover-ly?

I had these thoughts while listening to the grandbabes gag over gutting pumpkins, and devising which faces should be drawn on the lumpy orange "ugly pumpkins."

I'll try to remember who said what, on which photo.

They arrived about noon.  I'm waiting for them, pumpkins (or punkins, as they say it) all bought, and waiting in the back of the truck...

They climb into the truck, and start carrying them into the house...

Below is Zackery Lee- age 5 , and his half brother Kai - age 7.  Boys think the guts of pumpkins are gross...but they love punkin seeds, and they didn't know you could make them yourself.  We separated them, salted them, and put them in the oven to roast slowly, with low heat. 

I bought enough "ugly" pumpkins that each child (and daddy Lee) could carve them up and take them home to put on their porch for Halloween trick or treaters.

Punkin Heads:

Almost done...

The day is the perfect temp, the sky is clear and blue, the sun is shining, and the leaves are all over the place...what else could one do, but rake them up for jumping into?

And hide in there:

And make them fly and float:

And giggle and be happy

And be the leaf monster:

Someone must teach me how to rotate photos on G.

And dress up to "be the reaper!"

Trick or Treat Time....

They go home to do that, with a "candy starter kit" and the pumpkins from the G-Momma.

An absolutely lovely day had I, with the babes, and a bit of a rest after all the commotion.

Sat down, quietly, with a good book, and my friend Jose.  (He likes reading, too.)

Blessed be, hope your day was just as fine.

Wilka