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It is just going off 6:30am when the pair are rudely woken up by their hyperactive four-year-old who comes running into their bedroom, jumping on the bed and demanding their attention. Mickey groans as he turns himself over onto his back, peeking his eyes open to see his daughter looming overhead, to his right Ian groans as well, burying himself deeper into the pillow rather than turning to face their daughter and Mickey might be very tempted to push his husband out of the bed if he plans to leave Mickey in charge of their four-year-old rather than taking on some of the responsibility as well.
“We need to go pick our pumpkins Pops.” Annie says with an excited lit to her voice and her eyes sparkling with the thought of the day ahead, spending time at the pumpkin patch. Mickey wants to groan again, he puts total blame on Ian for this one. He told Ian they should have kept it a secret from Annie, should have given her a surprise but no, he wanted to get her all excited and now she is waking him up at 6:30 in the good damn morning.
“I know baby girl, but it is still too early. The pumpkin patch won’t even be open yet, so why don’t you lay down with me and your dad and we can try and get some more sleep; because we don’t want you to get too tired when picking the pumpkins because then you might not find the best one and you won’t get to beat all your cousins.” Mickey tells her, reaching out so he can pull her down to nestle between the covers with him and Ian.
Since their youngest, Mia, started sleeping through the night last month, Mickey finally though he would get back to a normal sleep pattern, and after having to be up early all week for deliveries, he really did not fancy having to get up this early, even if it was for his daughter who was well and truly wrapped around his finger, surely he could convince her to get in a few more hours of sleep before they needed to get ready for their day.
Luckily, and much to the relief of Mickey, Annie comes willingly, snuggling in close to Mickey as she lets out a rather big yawn. She mutters something about pumpkins under her breathe but Mickey doesn’t catch it since she says it quietly and riddled with sleep, instead he foregoes a response in order to close his eyes, completely ready to find peaceful slumber once more.
Just over an hour later and Mickey is woken once more, this time from the baby monitor at the side of the bed that signals his youngest is awake and wants some attention. By his side Annie shifts, snuggling deeper into his side but thankfully not waking up. While on the other side of Annie his husband seems to finally be waking up.
The pair make eye contact over Annie's head, engaging in a silent conversation that they have perfected over the years before Ian is letting out a sigh and throwing the covers back, sitting up and exiting the bed before throwing the covers back into place to ensure Annie doesn’t get cold in the autumn morning. Mickey sends him a silent thank you which Ian just brushes off as he heads out the bedroom and down the hallway in search of their youngest who is still crying for attention and comfort. Mickey keeps a listen to the monitor until he has heard Ian stepping into Mia's bedroom and greeting their youngest, then he settles back down in the bed with Annie and let’s sleep wash over him once again.
The third and final time Mickey wakes up it’s a little after 8:30 and he’s all alone. The bed beside him is cold so he can guess Annie has been up for a while. The smell of fresh coffee and bacon fill his senses as he finally stretches and exits the bed. The autumn air wrapping around him as he grabs his tatty old robe that he discarded the previous night. The robe is so worn that it doesn’t do much to keep him warm when he wraps it round himself, Ian has been telling him for years to just buy a new one, but Mickey can’t help but want to keep this one. It holds a special place in his heart for some reason.
He heads down the hallway and continues down the stairs, the kitchen his destination of choice as his stomach starts to rumble. He can already hear the giggles of his daughters as he makes his way through the house and he can’t help the smile that forms on his face as he finally enters the kitchen and takes in his family, a smile that forms whenever he enters a room and gets to take in the sight of his family. Mia is sat in her highchair eating a bowl of porridge with her hands rather than the spoon, while Annie sits at the table eating her small stack of pancakes and Ian currently has his back to Mickey as he cooks off some bacon.
“Good morning.” He announces as he steps further into the kitchen, Ian startles a little while Annie claps excitedly and Mia yells out Pops. She still doesn’t have a huge variety of words in her vocabulary, but she can say Pops, Daddy and Annie which is enough for them, especially Mickey who still constantly torments Ian with the fact her first word was Pops over Daddy. Ian held it over his head for years when Annie said Daddy first so call it revenge. Mia has also had a really good handle on the word no lately.
Mickey kisses his daughters’ heads as he walks past, reaching up to give Ian a quick peck as well before he finally reaches the coffee machine, ready to pour himself a mug of the hot liquid that will set him up for a day of pumpkin picking.
Once the family have finished with their breakfast, and once Mickey is convinced Annie is going too combust if they don’t start getting ready soon; they head back upstairs to get themselves ready for the day. Ian takes Mia while Mickey takes Annie. They go pumpkin picking every year, have been doing it with the rest of the Gallagher clan since before the girls even entered their life but this year it seems the excitement has reached new heights. Annie is old enough now to really feel the excitement and also have some knowledge of what they are actually doing, while Mia, although she is still young, was only a month-old last year and so has some more awareness this year, can at least get excited.
Mickey dresses Annie in the outfit they had picked out weeks ago, and when he says we, he means Ian who had found a cute Halloween dress and legging set for the girls online. Annie talks and talks and talks about the pumpkins she’s going to find and how she is going to decorate them as Mickey gets her dressed. Once she is dressed, Mickey tells her to go use the toilet and find her wellies while he goes and gets ready himself. Annie smiles and runs off to the toilet while Mickey heads back to his own bedroom.
Ian is already there and dressed, sat on the end of the bed as he pulls on his winter boots. Mia is sat on the floor beside him, playing with one of her many toys and dressed in an outfit identical to her sisters. When they first learnt that Mia was going to be another girl and Ian had immediately started buying matching outfits online for the two of them, Mickey had been a little wary, not wanting the girls to look ridiculous. But even he melts at the sight of them in matching outfits, he’s not biased but his daughters are definitely the cutest little girls ever born and they look even more adorable when they are matching.
It doesn’t take long for Mickey to get changed, pulling on a pair of skinny jeans with his usual long-sleeved T-shirt - which he’s pretty sure is actually Ian’s - and a plaid shirt over the top which he’s cut the sleeves off. Annie comes rushing in as he’s about to head to the bathroom himself, her wellies in hand as she presents them to Ian to put them on for her.
Finally, once everyone is officially ready the family pile into the car. Ian and Mickey strapping the girls into their car seats and making sure Buster is secure in the boot of the car; they head off to the farm for pumpkin picking. The drive always takes 45 minutes to an hour depending on traffic; they once tried a pumpkin patch a little closer to home but it wasn’t as good, so they decided the drive was worth it. They are booked into the patch for the 11am slot and they are meeting the rest of the Gallagher clan at the entrance. The drive isn’t too bad today, the traffic is light and the weather although cold is pleasant with the sun shining and before long they are arriving at the farm and Annie is letting out excited claps from the back seat.
They park up and help everyone pile out of the car, Mickey takes Mia and gets her strapped into her pushchair, they’ll remove her when they get further into the patch but it’s busy and so it’s easier to have her in the pushchair to start with, he also ties Buster’s lead to the pushchair while Ian gets Annie out of her car seat and helps her put on her winter coat. By the time the family of four are ready, Lip and Tami are pulling into the parking spot beside them.
Annie gets excited at the sight of her cousins, jumping up and down as they all exit the car. Lip’s three boys are all older than Annie, Harry their youngest is five years old, George is nine and Fred is twelve; but even so she still loves spending time with all her cousins.
Ian greets Lip with a hug, like the two brothers haven’t seen each other in weeks when in reality it has only been a few days since they last saw one another since even after years of living in separate houses with separate families, the two brothers are still pretty inseparable. Mickey greets Tami with a one-sided hug when she reaches them, walking a little slower than normal thanks to the six-month baby bump she is sporting; something which was a surprise to the entire family when she first announced she was having another.
The two families head over to the front entrance where they meet up with Debbie and Franny, Liam and Carl. The family all ready to head inside and pick some pumpkins and see what other activities they have to offer. Mickey keeps hold of the pram with Mia in it, while Ian keeps a tight hold of Annie’s hand as they pass through the ticket barrier.
Every year the farm always has many activities and events happening over the month of Halloween. The entire place is decorated in Halloween decorations, the large pumpkin patch is situated towards the back with thousands upon thousands of pumpkins for families to pick. There is also a large corn maze, hay bays for children and families to climb and a tractor ride around the farm.
The afternoon is spent at the patch and enjoying the activities. They all ride on the tractor, except for Tami who sits it out with Buster, they get lost in the maze and most importantly they pick out their pumpkins. Ian had the bright idea to suggest a pumpkin carving contest between everyone, that the families would take their pumpkins away, carve them and then bring them over to Lip’s house tomorrow for the party and they could all vote for their favourite pumpkin.
The girls get way too excited in the patch, Mia just enjoys getting to crawl between the pumpkins and hitting them like they are drums, while Annie runs around wanting to pick every single one of the pumpkins, even the small damaged ones because she feels sorry for them. Eventually she settles for a medium sized one for herself and then asks for a massive one for the contest and since both Ian and Mickey can never say no to her they end up with a pumpkin so big they can hardly carry it back to the car.
Once they have all picked out their pumpkins, they settled down in the cafe for some food and coffee before they head back to the cars ready to head home and start their carving. Luckily for Ian and Mickey both girls fall asleep on the way home, both having worn themselves out and so the drive back is nice and peaceful. By the time they are pulling back into the driveway the sun is starting to set and Mickey wonders how much carving they will be able to do before the girls need to get ready for bed.
The open the door at let Buster into the house before coming back for the girls, each taking one. Annie wakes up easily and is talking her usual mile a minute by the time Ian has unstrapped her; Mia isn’t so easy; clearly not impressed by getting woke up, her face scrunching up as she starts to cry immediately. Mickey tries to sooth her as he places her on his hip and starts to rock her as they head inside, and thankfully it doesn’t take her long to quieten down, although it’s clear she is still tired and so they put her down for another nap while they prepare the dinner.
Once they have finished eating and all four of them have got into the matching Halloween pyjamas that Ian bought them - Mickey swears his husband gets worse and cheesier as the years go on - they sit down in the living room, ready to put a movie on and carve their pumpkins.
Mia sits in her play pen, Buster lies by the side of the play pen and Annie picks Hotel Transylvania from the list of child friendly Halloween movies on Netflix and then they start carving. Ian has his own pumpkin and is in charge of helping Annie with hers, while Mickey has his own and Mia’s since their youngest daughter is too young to go near the pumpkins and the carving tools.
The evenings nice, Annie manages to stay up longer than they expected following their busy day, but none of them are complaining because they all love the time spent together. They manage to get all four family pumpkins carved and then, while Annie tucks into the Halloween candy meant for tomorrow, and starts the second Hotel Transylvania movie, Ian and Mickey work together to carve the pumpkin for the contest at Lip’s tomorrow.
It doesn’t take them long, and soon they can wrap up on the sofa with Annie and the candy between them, a blanket over their legs and Mia sleeping soundly in her play pen beside the sofa. Buster jumping up to join them on the sofa and rest his head in Mickey’s lap. It’s calm and quiet after a full and exciting day.
They have more to come tomorrow, the day of actual Halloween. They have plans with everyone, Annie already excited that she gets to go trick or treating with all her cousins and collect lots of candy. They will take her trick or treating with the rest of the Gallagher clan before they head back to Lips for a night of food, dancing and voting for the best pumpkin. It’s a holiday tradition that started years ago as a way to bring everyone back together, but it’s only grown over the years as everyone’s families have grown and so has the excitement.
The day is going to be hectic and none stop, with the children bouncing off the walls after eating too much candy and there is probably going to be an argument if Mickey's pumpkin doesn't win the contest. But it will be nice to spend the day together, to all have some fun together where they aren't thinking about other things such as work and responsibilities. It's something the whole family enjoy every year and that's what matters the most.