Goblin Gardens Pumpkin Patch Trip - Bastiao Farms, Sacramento

First trip to Goblin Gardens Pumpkin Patch, Sacramento

Alina driving the John Deere tractor, this would have made
her Great Grandpa Crothers so proud during his farming days

Plenty of great selections in the pumpkin patch

Fun day at Bastiao Farms, they especially loved the seesaw

Little goblins at Goblin Gardens

Alina by the Haunted Barn, the paintings here are great!

Inside the haunted town of Goblin Gardens

We took our first trip to a new pumpkin patch for mommy's birthday this year. We visited Goblin Gardens Pumpkin Patch at Bastiao Farms in Sacramento. This pumpkin patch is the perfect place to go if you only want to spend an hour or two on activities and get some great photo opportunities along the way. With mama being hugely pregnant (38 weeks) and pretty uncomfortable walking long distances, I enjoyed our trip here as the pumpkin patch is relatively small, but there were still plenty of activities to entertain the kids. The admission here is pricier than other pumpkin patches we've visited, but the kids had the best time here despite the sweltering 90+ degree Sacramento Valley weather...is it fall yet, seriously!? 

Goblin Gardens Pumpkin Patch has a cool mini town area for the kids and they loved playing and exploring inside. Also, most of the buildings here are adorned with great paintings, which make for fantastic photos. They also have small hay and corn mazes, hay rides and a train ride through the corn field with costumed ghouls who jump out and surprise everyone on board. The hay pyramid here was one of the tallest we've seen yet. Dad, of course, helped the girls scale it...success! All in all, it was a fun/overly hot day. We went home with a few large pumpkins which will eventually be turned to jack-o-lanterns before Halloween. Mama had a fun birthday this year, though a part of me wished all my walking that day would have jump-started labor. I am over being pregnant and ready to meet our little man.

The fun kids town at Goblin Gardens Pumpkin Patch

Alina exiting the saloon 

Everyone ready for a very fun hay ride

Alina and Daddy, all smiles before the hay ride

They scaled their tallest hay maze yet

Smiles and waves from the top

Goodbye Goblin Gardens pumpkin patch!

October Costume Capers

October costume capers at the Halloween store

Itchy & Scratchy mask fun, yep they're BIG Simpsons fans!

One of our favorite things about pre-Halloween season is our visits to Halloween stores for what's been affectionately dubbed as "October costume capers". While the girls search for their official costumes they make sure to try on all the other fun masks, hats, and silly wares before finalizing their decisions. This has become an annual family tradition and I notice that with each passing year our October Halloween costume trips grow in frequency. The girls crack me up with their silliness and while they are building up their bravery around all the scary Halloween animatronic invaders, I have to admit to being amused by their tiptoeing around the "press here" pads on the floors and slyly finding ways to occupy themselves in the costume rows to avoid watching these creepy displays. Bottom line - they are both Halloween lovers in the making and in a few years they will likely be tormenting/scaring their little brother during Halloween store visits. Poor guy.

After a very fun search, they finally settled on their costumes. Elise is going to be a vampire this year, her first scary costume choice ever, which deserves celebration! Alina is going with two costumes this year to fit her dual personalities, as sweet and pretty princess Cinderella by day (for her preschool parade) and as a cute yet deadly little vampire by night (for actual trick-or-treat). Hopefully baby boy will arrive before Halloween to join in on the fun!

More costume fun with friends plus brave Alina

Masquerade masks never get old

Elise the tiger, and introducing Demonic Alien Baby, 
Evil Clown Baby's new partner in crime

Happy October Birthday Mama!

Beautiful birthday flowers from dad & the girls

Happy Birthday Mama!

The best birthday view; cake and our sweet girls

Mama enjoyed a very fun birthday this year doing all her favorite October activities surrounded by the best people she knows; the fam! Being 38 weeks pregnant with baby boy somewhat limited the amount of walking I was able to do, but we still managed to fulfill my birthday request of visiting a pumpkin patch and decorating for Halloween. October is my favorite time of year, although the weather is still very warm here in the Sacramento Valley and we were sweating at the pumpkin patch. Despite the heat, we all had a fantastic time and took lots of photos (stay tuned for another post to come). Dad and the girls spoiled mama with beautiful flowers, a special birthday cake and helped deck out the house for Halloween. After the house was Halloween ready, the girls enjoyed creating a haunted gingerbread house and lighting candles to get into the spooky October spirit. We sat and told stories by candlelight and discussed how excited we all are for baby brother to arrive. We sure hope he gets here before Halloween, so we can dress him up and he can enjoy his very first holiday!

Early Halloween fun creating a haunted gingerbread house

Basking in candlelight after decorating for Halloween

LOVE these October flowers

Crazy Hair Day & Pink Princess Rides

Elise rockin' the rainbow hair for the day

Sometimes you just gotta embrace the wild side! Elise finally achieved her dream of rockin' rainbow colored hair during crazy hair day at school while Alina found her perfect princess dream vehicle at Toys-R-Us. These two girly girls make me smile.

Alina in her dream pink princess ride

Happy Fouth of July 2015!

Fourth of July festivities 2015

Cuties all ready for fireworks

Hanging out with Nana & Papa

Smoke bomb fun

Alina's first sparkler of 2015

Such a joy to watch the girls play

Happy Fourth of July 2015! We enjoyed a very fun and festive display on our court this year. The grandparents joined us along with some close friends and the kids thoroughly enjoyed lighting up the night sky with sparklers and fireworks. The biggest hit each year have been the smoke bombs. They love the colors and running through the vibrant smoke filled air (whilst plugging their noses and laughing hysterically of course). Later in the evening, once the fireworks were exhausted, they moved on to glow stick dancing and we had to drag them inside by the end of the night. It was a very fun holiday and so nice to be able to enjoy all this just right outside our front door, no crowds or traveling involved. We're certainly loving these lazy summer weekends.

Elise with her super sparkler XXL

Sparkler fun

Alina with her super sparkler XXL

Firework display

Glow stick dance parties are a must

Elise has got the moves

Alina's got the twirls down pat

End of a fun evening. Happy 4th 2015!

LA Trip Part IV: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History

Last stop - The LA County Museum of Natural History

T-Rex and Triceratops fossil display

Silly Elise posing by the dinosaurs

The girls loved the extensive dinosaur displays

Elise enjoyed the mineral display

Minerals & gems at LA County Natural History Museum

Animal exhibits and the preserved mega mouth shark

Our very last destination during our LA trip was the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. We got the double entry pass for both La Brea Tar Pits and the Natural History Museum and while we thought it would be a quick trip, it turned out that the girls did not want to leave and made sure to explore every corner and exhibit. They really loved this place and I would highly recommend making it a top go-to spot while visiting LA. The highlights were the dinosaur exhibit the extensive mineral and gem exhibit. The girls were in awe over the colossal dinosaur bones and Elise especially loved the colorful mineral displays. She declared that she planned to start collecting "beautiful and colorful rocks" once she gets back home. We also paid a little extra to visit the butterfly pavilion and they loved getting to locate and identify the different butterfly species on their guides. 

What a great end to a very fun trip. We had plenty of relaxation, family and beach time early on, so it was nice to spend the last day doing a bit of sightseeing. Elise was thrilled to see the Hollywood sign on our drive back since she recognized it from the movie "Hop". The kids did surprisingly well on the drive back home. We only stopped a couple times and there were no are we there yet's uttered, so all-in-all success. We are looking forward to visiting LA again soon. We want to see our family more often and visit a few more Southern CA beaches. I really want to take the kids to Laguna Beach as I have some great memories there visiting the tide pools with my grandparents. We also still have the California Science Center (home of the Endeavor Space Shuttle) on our future to-do-list. 

Cute Alina posing with the polar bear

South American art exhibit

The Nature Lab was another highlight for the girls

Elise identifying butterfly species; she had it down!

Fun in the butterfly pavilion

Alina found this beautiful monarch butterfly

View of the Hollywood sign on our drive home