The Witching Hour

We spent the day scavenging for witches at Gardner's village Saturday, along with about a thousand other people. It's our tradition every October to go pick pumpkins at a pumpkin patch, while also taking advantage of all the scenic backdrops so advantageously placed round about the pumpkins. It seems like the best pictures of the year come from this day, and thus, it's very important for posterity. This year, however, I bought pumpkins for .09 a pound at the grocery store. I saved like $8 on pumpkins, but then I thought, "Oh no! The precious photo-ops." Instead, we took a bunch of pictures at Gardner's Village, and, though they aren't as festive, they'll have to do for this year.

In reality, Ty and I have not been great at taking pictures to document the fun things we've done as a family. It seems like the camera always has a dead battery, or gets left at home- like on our honeymoon in Maui...that still irks me. But on this particular day, I was prepared. I charged the battery, put the camera in my purse the night before, and spent time doing both my girls' hair before we left.
It was quite a lot of work, actually. Alli hates having her hair touched, even to brush it, and I had to endure several stages of a temper tantrum just to get her to put her hair in pigtails so she could decide later to just wear a hat.
And I've decided something. When you do all of that work, the entire experience is about stopping to take another picture. That was the day. It was lots of fun, but I think it would have been even more fun without the camera and with disheveled hair. Sure, people might give each other disgusted looks at the macaroni scum sticking to my kid's faces and hair, and we wouldn't look like the fairy tale family that we totally are when stopped in front of the tea parlor by old work acquaintances, but then I ask myself, "Do I really care?"

Yeah, sometimes. But I'm going to stop beating myself up about our lack of family photo documentation. At least we're out having fun, and in my memories there is never any macaroni scum anyway.