Pumpkin Carving

Last week we went over to Tyler and Rylee's house for a Pumpkin Carving Play date. What a great idea that was. We picked up some Pumpkin's at Berkeley Bowl that morning and headed to Alameda.When we first arrived Holly wanted to explore the entire house, but the first room she went into had her enthralled. We just recently got her a play kitchen at home, and she is very into imaginative play.Tyler and Rylee had a very cool house, a big playroom in the Garage, there Kitchen in the living room, and two fun bedrooms. Holly had a lot to look through and didn't know which way to turn first.Here are some new friends, Mom Sarah and month old baby Yemaya. Its so hard to believe Holly was ever so tiny. She loved to look at the baby, but soon she fell asleep wrapped in her Mobi Blanket.Next Holly hit Rylee's room. Here she is playing peek a boo from her closet. She is into closing doors at home, we had to put tape on the inside of the door so it wouldn't click shut.She also found this neat princess castle and fun My Little Pony's to play with. When we first arrived Rylee was being very sweet and sharing all of her toys with Holly but was a little shy,Here is another doll house and a fun little car for some dolls, I don't know what type they are, Holly isn't that into them yet. Rylee is three, so for now Holly was more curious about the colors and parts.This might have been her favorite thing to play with. In Tyler's room we found this. We let her pluck the strings a few times, but then she wasn't being gentle we were afraid she might break one, and had to put it out of her reach.Tyler is fiveish and had a lot of big boy toys in his room, so we didn't think it was a good idea for Holly to spend too much time in there. And certainly not unsupervised.Here is Tyler helping with the Pumpkin Carving. We played for a little while before we got started. We were a little early, so we waited until a few more kids came and then Kat and I took turns watching Holly.Thankfully Kat did the messiest part, gutting the pumpkins, she cut the tops, and pulled out all the insides and then scraped the sides clean. That's also part of the play date that was so great, not having to clean up the mess.Here Holly is looking deep into our big pumpkin, she was very curious about what was going on. I had her sit in my lap during the big event so she could be part of it. She was very curious.We even convinced her to stick her hand into the smaller Pumpkin and pull out some of the filling, but then she got a seed and tried to eat it, I suspect it would have been ok, but I was worried about it being a chocking hazard.So we quickly took it away. Getting her hands all squishy and messy was not her favorite thing, but she has a tendency to repeat things at times even if she didn't like them the first time.So in her hand went again. It was a great sensory activity for her. But then she had enough, She wanted to wiggle off my lap and go run and play some more. So we left Kat to finish up the dirty work.Tyler was getting tired of digging out the insides too. He called his mommy over to finish up for him so he could run and play with the other kids. He came back later though when the fun stuff started.She took one more look inside the pumpkin and then had enough. Mommy wanted to squeeze her and keep her on her lap, but she could not be contained. So off she went.Here is Amy our host with her daughter Rylee. She didn't want to get messy either , but she was willing to use a spoon to scoop out a little bit of the mess. But that was about all she wanted to do with it.Later it was my turn, and i decided to clean out the insides a little bit more. Kat did an amazing job, but because my Pumpkin was so small, I wanted to get all of the little strings and lingering pieces.So I grabbed my little munchkin and let her help me some more. It wasn't as icky now that it was mostly cleaned out so she didn't mind as much. Here is Liliana and she is helping to carve out the bottom of her pumpkin. Her mom decided to cut a whole in the bottom so that she could place it over the candle.Holly was off finding other stuff to get into. I am not even sure what she is playing with here, or if it is something she is supposed to have. But she was very curious about it.Then she was back int he playroom. She really liked this little bowling set, taking things in and out of containers is one of the things she likes to do, she is good at putting them back when she is done.Here she is trying to play with the big kids, they were all back in Rylee's room and on the bed. She doesn't know how to jump on the bed yet, but she was trying. She would stand up.Then drop down to her butt in a sitting position, then get back up and fall down again. Whens he landed she would bounce a bit, which she thought was really fun. She was distracted by her snacks too.She liked following the big kids around and was trying to make friends with them. She didn't understand what they were playing, but she was very observant and liked to watch.Unfortunately they weren't so excited to have a little "baby" around. they were playing some type of chase, hind and seek game. First they tried to hide in the closet, but Amy said no, she was worried about little fingers getting pinched by the door.Then they went into Tyler's room for a bit and Holly stayed behind to finish her snack and keep jumping on the bed. Eventually she went looking for them around the house and to check in with Tanta Kat.Here Liliana and Rylee are hiding in her closet again, i love Rylee's sunglasses. I think they were also doing some type of dress up and they were collecting toys like a scavenger hunt.I love Rylee's toddler bed. it is actually a mattress and box spring on the floor, I think its a full size. It was a great height for Holly to climb on and off and not to high if she rolled off the side.

Eventually Liliana and Rylee locked Holly out of Rylee's room. it was there secret club house, and according to Liliana, there were "no babies allowed" Holly totally didn't understand, she kept trying to open the door and they would shut it on her. Eventually I took her into the other room so she could say hi to Eliana and Jayden. I totally understand why the 3 year olds wouldn't want a baby following them around, especially now that Liliana has her new baby sister Julia.

Holly didn't really seem to mind as long as I redirected her, so we went to check out the vampire pumpkin that Tanta Kat had carved, and gave her some Pirate Booty to snack on and she was content.It was Mommy's turn to carve her pumpkin. Holly was eyeing the front door, making smooshy faces at the screen, so Liliana let her out. She is big enough to reach the knob, and told her to go and play.Luckily Kat was keeping a close eye on her followed her outside. She was so excited to run around int he cool breeze and play, so she let her walk around for a little while.Then she brought her inside to play with Jayden. He is only a few months older then Holly and was so sweet to her. he was shy and sticking with Mommy at first, but later he warmed up and the two of them had a really fun time.This is Nicole, Charity and Marlem, Mom's of Jayden, Liliana and Mia carving pumpkins with me. there were a few dads at the party, so they were able to watch the kids while the moms carved.Here is Amy and Tyler carving his pumpkin. He did such an amazing job. he drew the face and the shapes himself and even cut them out. The pumpkin walls are thick though, so he needed a little help from mom.Here is Holly checking out my work. She likes to check in with me every so often, especially after she has been far away, like outside with Kat, so she ran over to visit and get a mommy hug.I think she was getting a little tired. She sat in Kat's lap and watched me carve for a little while. She liked seeing what was going on and wanted to know what everyone was doing, grown-ups too.This is Sarah with her finished pumpkin. I know she Will get some great pictures of Yemaya's first Halloween and this pumpkin, it was such original.Here are Holly and Jayden playing in the kitchen. It is amazing how quickly she catches on to knew games. She totally got the idea that it was like a breakfast bar, and each person wa son either side.She would help cook and Jaden would get the food from the cabinates and the dishes from the sink. They were such a quite team. I wish I had room for something like this.I think this is the cutest picture of Holly and Jayden. It looks like Holly is peeling some veggies here for a stew. They were so cute playing together. She had a lot of fun with the kitchena nd her new buddy.

Later she was up on my shoulders while we were saying good bye and she loved the view, the whole solar system was hanging down from the ceiling and she wanted to touch the sun.

Here she is in Tyler's room. He had a more traditional toddler bed, a single size with a bed frame and a tent. She had fun crawling into the tent. Come to think of it, he probably had this bed because he was grown up enough to sleep on his own.

I am totally just speculating here, but Rylee might still need mommy to lay down with her at night when she goes to sleep. I only speculate because we have been debating on what type of bed to get Holly.

Now I am thinking that I totally need to get something that is big enough that I can lay down comfortably next to her while putting her to bed. Otherwise we won't transition to it or use it.Here is Mia playing in the Kitchen. She is looking so grown up these days. It has been such a long time since out last play date together. She is in preschool now, so her and Holly keep missing each other.Here we are back outside again. By this time Holly was getting a little restless and wanted to go home. Mommy was finishing up the final touches on her pumpkin, so Tanta kat brought her outside to distract her for a few minutes. With so many people it was also getting a little warm inside, which was another reason for her being ready to go. I am sure the long sleves and jeans didn't help matter's any either.I love the idea of having the cash register in the kitchen, I think it is actually supposed to be like a cafe kitchen. They have a set up like this at Habitot, of course more elaborate, but Holly doesn't understand the register part yet.Here she is playing with Rylee's make-up bag. It had a cool hand mirror and a blowdryer and a brush and some other fun stuff, like pretend bottles of perfume or shampoo I think.Mostly thought she was just emptying out the bag. Soon we were ready to go and made the round and sad our good byes, it was getting late and was time to pcik up daddy from work.Here are our final pumpkins. I was inspired to do a "Muno" pumpkin in "costume" with his star eye. Kat had a vampire with bat eyebrows that I added on for her. We were so happy with the finished product.Just before we left Amisha and her daughter Eesha arrived. I was sad that I didn't get more of a chance to chat with them before we had to go. This is Charity's Pumpkin, we were amazed at what a good job she had done.

The headless horseman riding off into the sunrise, it was very cool, especially with the opening ont he bottom. Here is little Eliana so cute in her princess costume saying goodbye to us.

And finally Holly's way of telling mommy it's time to go. Emptying out every last item from her diaper bag. She did this while Kat was taking the pumpkins to the car, I literally turned my back for maybe 15 seconds and it was almost empty.