October 2011: Part 2

The last post got most of the way through October, but it would be wrong of me not to mention the Highwood Pumpkin Festival before I move onto November.

Coming from Nacogdoches, with the Blueberry Festival, Nine Flags, Multi-Cultural, Americana, etc, we feel a little bit more at home living in a quaint neighborhood that has festivals all year long.

During the Pumpkin Festival, which lasts 3 nights, people come downtown to carve pumpkins and place them on scaffolding that lines the streets (several rows high). They are all lit on the last night in hopes of breaking the record for most jack-o-latterns lit at once. 2011 was only the second year of the festival, but they succeeded! Over 32,000 pumpkins. It is quite a remarkable site.


Pumpkins can be bought from street vendors for $3 and everyone carves them while sitting on the sidewalks. Kids wear costumes. Eden was a monarch butterfly ($3 dance dress from goodwill, and pink wings we had painted black):

One view of a side street with scaffolding full of pumpkins:

Our pumpkins:

More scaffolding:

This year they had a lot more festivalish activities then in 2010. Aside from the carousels, fair games, petting zoo, pony rides, and live music they had a few unique things. One was a mini outdoor movie theater-projector screen with hay bails for seating and Halloween Scooby Doo episodes showing. The other was a dance floor (about the size of a small dining room) and DJ for a makeshift kiddie dance floor. Seriously- BEST IDEA EVER. We went two nights in a row and let Eden dance about 20 minutes each time. She would have danced all night. It was too dark to get good pictures, but that girl had some moves :). Black Eyed Peas Gotta Feeling was her favorite!

While sorting through October for festival picks I also ran across this:

Eden likes to make wishes in the mall fountains when we go to play at the indoor tree house. After seeing this ballerina mouse purse at Gymboree, and because of her love for Angelina (thanks Anna and Ryan!), she wished for it every time we went- FOUR TIMES IN A ROW.  So I watched online and when it went on clearance for less than $10 I ordered it. The fifth time we went, she made her wish (still for the mouse purse) and I pulled it out from behind my back. It was more exciting than Christmas :).

Sometimes being a mom feels like all work and discipline. It's really nice every once in a while to do something purely fun and magical.

*Disclaimer- the thank you to Anna and Ryan for Angelina love was NOT sarcastic. Thomas read this and thought it sounded so. We are huge fans at this house!