In the Spirit of Halloween

Pumpkin Rice Crispy Treats!

Yummy!

We went to our local park for their fall festival. I was really impressed with this and it was all free! They had a tractor hay ride, pumpkins for the kids, animals, music, pumpkin painting and this hay pile that they hid candy in! Ashley carefully picked which candy she wanted.

The ghost project you see in the front was a lot of fun and the kids really go into it.







The kids were so cute decorating the slider last week. Brian was out of town, so it was a perfect project while I made dinner. They each took turns and waited for the other to be finished. No arguing, just fun!

Pumpkins!

Brian went hunting this past weekend at Hagg Lake with his buddy Jeramy. It was the first time he's been and he got a deer within the first few hours! While Brian was "handling" all that deer stuff (he loved it since he does surgery for a living), I took the kids to my parents house Saturday night and had a pumpkin themed adventure on Sunday. Since they live in Tualatin, I had the idea of taking them to Lee's Farm which is really close to their house, but doing a little research online I found a fun day trip to Canby. Turns out my Dad had the same plan, but it was supposed to be a surprise! He had checked it out when getting bushes for their back yard back in Sept. Oops! It didn't matter who's plan it was, though, we had a blast. We left the house around 10am, took the Canby ferry (a first for most of us), then spent a few hours at the Flower Farm. This was one of my favorite farms. They have a pumpkin train that you board and it takes you around the farm to the animals that you can feed and pet (Ashley even got in and fed the goats!) and then to the pumpkin patch where they have a hay pyramid you can climb with a hay maze underneath (we'll have to bring flashlights next year). Ashley climbed straight to the top, I couldn't believe it, she's so adventurous now. We sat in the warm sun after picking our pumpkins and enjoyed apple cider and caramel kettle corn... yummm!!! After the Flower Farm we went to Fir Point Farm. I forgot, but we had been to this farm before Ashley was born. Although, when you have kids it's soooo much cooler! I got the idea from a friend who's blogged about the "Nut House". It looked like so much fun, I wanted to take the kids there. They loved it! They also had a ton of animals. The kids favorite was the mama and baby pigs. We could have watched them for hours, they're adorable. Mama pig was a little cranky, though, and flung one of the baby pigs up in the air because it was trying to eat one of the ears of corn! Don't mess with that mama! After all that fun we sat down and had lunch. The kids were exhausted so we headed home around 2pm for naps. Brian met us at my parents house for dinner, so he could tell us all about the big catch and show us pictures. Then he had Monday off from a call weekend, so we took the kids to Liepold Farms, another pumpkin patch near our house. I love this time of year because of all the things to go do outside. It also helps that we've had such gorgeous weather. We rode the hay ride around the farm and learned about how a pumpkin grows. Isaiah even got down to volunteer a demonstration. We picked out pumpkins for Mama and Papa, a bail of hay, and a huge thing of cornstalks with the ears of corn still on them! I've never bought these before, but always wanted to decorate with them. I didn't know they would be so fresh, the one's I've seen are dead. We laughed so hard the whole way home because Brian opened the sun roof to get the corn stalk inside the car. It was like a jungle in there!







Isaiah loved feeding the donkey's

Ashley... not so excited

He was surprisingly gentle with the bunnies



Ashley feeding the goat. Each time it took some food she would scream because it tickled







Ashley picked out her pumpkin all by herself. I watched her run off somewhere and this is what she came back with, no help carrying it at all.

Isaiah loved his pumpkin, he carried it around everywhere. When it came time to leave her dumped it for another one.

I think he saw a ghost

"Hazel's Nut House"



Mama pig and her babies.

Liepold Farms

I think this is so funny how the kids are both looking at me. "Mama, what are you doing???"

Fun with Papa

Pre- Ballet Class

This is the first class that we've signed Ashley up for. She was so excited for it to start.

Ballet Class

She did great! The first 3/4 of the class she was up front and center, watching and listening carefully to the teacher. Towards the end the teacher had the kids all line up in the back and one by one run across the room and jump over a shape on the floor. Ashley wasn't quite up for this one and sat out, but she's excited for next week and says she likes her teacher. Even Papa and Isaiah got to come and watch. It was Brian's call weekend, but luckily it was slow and he got off early. He made sure it was a priority to see his baby girl at her first ballet class.

Isaiah 21 months

The small things in life... can be so funny!

Nathan's 2nd Birthday

I took the kids up to Seattle for Nathan's 2nd birthday party. I was a little nervous making the drive by myself, but I left a little before nap time so they would at least sleep a little in the car and get a nap before the party at 2pm. We made it and the kids were great, slept and hour and not even DVD's to keep them entertained! Any longer, though, and we may have needed them. The party was really fun, it was great to see everyone. They had it at Joana's parents house in Poulsbo, so we got to ride the ferry back to Seattle to stay at D and Hani's. The kids loved this! Sunday we had breakfast and took a walk to the park and headed back home around 2:00, again a nap in the car to make the drive a little easier. It was a short trip, but always worth it!


Nathan's Uncle got him this powered car for his birthday. Ashley was the first passenger, but quickly got out when crazy driver Nathan started gunning it. Then Isaiah jumped in and laughed every time Nathan punched the gas. The adults got a good laugh out of this. Eventually Ashley got back on and even drove it around.



Mmmm, yummy cake

This was Isaiah and Sawyer's first time on a ferry.





Ashley, I month shy of 4 and Saywer 3 months.

Randoms

Cuddle bug, she's so sweet.

The kids got these fireman hats from the firemen that came to our house a few months ago. One of the smoke alarms tripped the entire house and I couldn't figure out how to get them to stop. I could silence them for a while, but then they would all go off about 5 minutes later. After an hour of dealing with this, I called the non-emergent police # and they recommended that a fire truck come over to make sure it wasn't something else. Very embarassing moment having a firetruck come to your house over a dead battery. The alarms are hard wired into the house, but little did I know they all have battery back ups. Why didn't it chirp then? Who knows, it was just my luck that day! The kids loved all the commotion though, thank goodness Gram was on her way for a visit and showed up in the middle of it all to help save the day!

Gram brought cute umbrella's for the kids. Isaiah got a frog and we're not quite sure what this one's supposed to be, but Ashley loves it anyways!

Concentrating hard on the design for her sign. When Sammy comes to stay with us, Ashley noticed that Brody always eats his food. So, her solution was to make a sign that says "Sammy's Food, Brody Stay Away!" Pretty good idea!





Playing in the Digger Pit at the Children's Museum

Painting faces. It was cute to see how Isaiah was watching Ashley to figure out what to do.

Playing with clay

My mom found this vest for Ashley and Isaiah decided he wanted to try it on for looks. Cute, huh!!??