Jakob started his Halloween costume planning with the hopes of dressing as Darth Vador. While Jim and Jakob do enjoy Star Wars, I was less than attached to idea of making a Darth Vador costume. I have fond memories of my homemade costumes and want to continue this practice with Jakob as long as I can. I had some ideas for it, but feared it would turn out cheesy and leave him wishing I'd just bought for him the even cheesier $19.99 costume at Target. I was rescued however by our second visit to the Rodeo this fall when Jakob decided being a cowboy would be much more fun! The cowboy plan further developed with a souvenier cowboy hat gifted to him by his Grandma Stratman. We shopped together to pick out his fabric and he knew right away he wanted his vest and chaps to be out of the cowprint fabric. The rest was pretty easy - boots from WalMart, flannel shirt from Target, and handed down jeans from our friend Tyler.

October was a good month for us.

We visited a new pumpkin patch and much to my dismay, it was nothing like the one we've always gone too. I left sad, longing for the all the great photo opportunities I would have had at the original place. But replaced by great would-be photos, was the company of our friends. Jim was very busy completing his teaching portfolio so we joined Jakob's friends Jack, Liam & Grace. The kids had a great time playing in huge tubs of dried corn and picking out pumpkins in the field. After the little friends left, Jakob and I tried out our first corn maze. We found all of our points and it was interesting walking amongst all of the corn... not something I'd ever experienced before. I imagine that we've started a new tradition, as Jakob really liked it.