Happy Halloween

And happy 39th Anniversary to my mom and dad, who, since becoming empty-nesters, have become (even more) totally inseparable, and ridiculously lovey. You guys are cute but stop pretending life is better without us around.

The kids did a lot of handing out candy tonight. James liked to tell people "you are scary" or "I like your costume" in his little voice. It was pretty cute.

He is sweet

Friday I had a parent/teacher conference for Ian. Miss Taylor said that he is kind and friends with everyone in the class. That made me proud. I just want my kids to be happy, and kind (and smart, and really really funny).

If you are wondering where that gouge out of his cheek came from - that was from his sweet little brother who attacked him after being teased too much. We are working on that...

Cat in the Hat corn maze

Think lots of mud, kids running around like crazy, and wishing the weather would stay like this forever...

We had to find 5 mailboxes each with a part of the Cat in the Hat's hat and then solve a riddle about how they fit together.






The prize for getting the riddle right was a real live gold fish. I guess now we have pets.

Halloween I

Yay for Halloween parties! Admittedly, it was a bit stressful getting costumes completed more than a week before Halloween,especially when you make the mistake of reading your kids Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone too close to Halloween and your 5 yr old insists, insists, insists on being Fluffy the 3-headed dog. Actually, I think I might be being punished for making them go as skeletons, which were really pajamas, last year (best/easiest costumes ever).
Here they are being scary.

In addition to picking their own costumes - this was also the first year for face paint.



We went to the church for a Halloween Carnival and Trunk-or-treat.




Ian, Kinley, James and Maya - checking out what they got at the trunk-or-treat and totally taking advantage of the fact that we weren't paying attention to how much candy they were inhaling.

When I was young my dad used to take a "tax" of our Halloween candy when we came in from trick-or-treating - I'm just realizing how brilliant that is...

Pumpkin Carving Party

Last night we had some friends over to carve pumpkins. We do the carving out in the garage and the eating and chatting in the house. It works our pretty well.
Here is Ian's first drawing of what to carve. We had to talk him into making it a bit bigger.

The kids and their pumpkins.


Jamesy's feet after hanging out in the garage for a while - the kids mostly road bikes around the garage while the adults carved.

I have been waiting to make this "House of Boo" since I picked up What's New, Cupcake earlier this year.

And my favorite fall treat - hot caramel apple cider with whip cream.

Ian talks on the phone

This morning Ian asked to call my dad. The phone call went something like this:
5-10 minutes - talking about various football teams; Ian says he likes the Seahawks because they are two of his favorite colors, and his dad really likes them, and his mom kind of does. He also likes the Cowboys and the Cardinals.
5-10 minutes - telling at least 15 completely random knock knock jokes about whatever is in his line of vision. For example: knock knock. Who's there? Shoes. Shoe's who? Shoes swimming, ha ha ha.
Additional conversation starters:
Grandpa do you know how old I am?
Did you know that baby Dallas came out of Aunt Ashley this morning?

My Dad was incredibly patient and must have really needed a break from work. Besides - the only thing any of us can think about today is baby Dallas - welcome to the family, little one.

Zoo Boo

It was supposed to be Halloweeny and scary at the zoo so we decided to stop on our way down to Mim's blessing in Olympia on Saturday. It was pretty much just the regular zoo with some pumpkins in the exhibits. Good thing the zoo is fun no matter what. Especially when you get to wear capes/dress up (we are not even nearly finished with the real costumes).

And you get to see the mascot of your new soccer team: the Seals.
And it is cold enough that you get to see lots of animals that you have never seen before because it is usually hot and they are sleeping. Besides the arctic fox, we also got to see the tiger and the tiger cubs, and the clouded leopards.

I guess the sun was in their eyes...

Pumpkin Season

means it is time to hit the pumpkin patches.

We went to Scholz Farm with the Thortons.






Cute Tailyn hanging out in the wheel barrows.


No kidding - Ian got bit by a miniature horse as soon as we got there - good thing he is tough.

Spooky Scary

Lately the boys want to tell me every time they are being nice to each other. They yell at me like something really bad is happening and when I see them they are hugging and kissing each other and giggling. It is nice, don't get me wrong - but I would kind of like that to be the norm... These are their new halloween shirts (they picked out the design and I made them). James says he really likes his shirt really much!

The boys and I were crafting today.

I actually kept my shirt on.

Napping

James has been transitioning out of naps for a while now - but every couple of days he gets super tired and I find him asleep randomly all over the house (as long as Ian isn't home).