Enjoying. Celebrating. Halloween.

This weekend was all about Halloween and fun. Now I have to remind myself  that Halloween hasn't arrived yet. I am so thankful we live in a great neighborhood and live in an area where we can enjoy beautiful Fall foliage and have our choice of pumpkin farms. Here is a bit of the weekend at a glance: 

 In our house decorations are to be played with.They don't make it to the next season usually. They are whacked, pulled, tossed etc. Surprisingly, I am o.k. with it. These decorations give us much delight on rainy days. 

 designing their pumpkins. Greta designed, cleaned and carved her own pumpkin and then said she was TIRED. Fieldy drew on his and then decided to combine his two pumpkins. The top one is snoopy laying down and the bottom one is his dog house... Snoopy laying on the dog house. Love his imagination. Love Greta's creativity. 

 Enjoying the glowing pumpkins inside

 Trick or treating downtown. Captain America stops to seat test a carousel animal. His new sidekick? 

 We need to get used to the rain(not snow) on Halloween. Only a real super hero remembers to wear Sorels on his adventures. 

We invited a sweet group of neighborhood kids and a cool group of parents over for a little Halloween party Saturday. I loved watching the kids do the eyeball in the spoon game and monster freeze. Very fun. I was part of a neighborhood "ratpack" when I was younger. I was very lucky to have so many kids near my own age around me and I have fond memories. I am glad our kids will have the same experience and memories. 

 Me and Captain America and the Ocean princess. Below are Vampire cupcakes the kids and I made. They worked so hard and it paid off. 

Mish Mash

I was reading some of my old blog posts recently and realized that I have gotten extremely lazy with my writing, photography and topics. I am going to try to up my game a bit starting tomorrow.... or Thursday. Saturday? yeah, maybe then. 

No photos to share today. See what I mean. Future me should be furrowing her brow about now. I know! Current me sucks sometimes. 

There is not alot happening. Lots of little things, so I will make note of them now. 

What we have been up to: Fieldin loves Super Mario wii  and Snoopy right now. Greta likes computer time and Garfield. I like them playing and drawing. I've been pushing the seasonal art projects. The kids love perler beads at the moment and it gives me a chance to dig out the dusty iron to melt their creations. Our iron is only used for crafts. It is so sticky & etc it couldn't iron clothes if I tried.. so I probably shouldn't :) 

We are eating lots of pumpkin and squashes & seeds. We are drinking apple cider. The rain has started so we watch Halloween shows on Netflex, we read alot, I am working on a knitting and paper craft project, We are listening to Christmas music(don't judge), we are all a bit lazy. Jeff caught a couple coho salmon Saturday so we are going to bread them, fry them and disguise them with ketchup. I hope the kids will eat it! 

We have been baking and baking and baking. We have moved on to watching lots of Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. We are all doing well. 

I think that is it in a nutshell. Alot of lazy days as we adjust to the new weather. 

Shall We All Dance To The Monster Mash?

http://www.brownielocks.com/monstermash.html

Enjoy :)

Three Pumpkin Patch Trips

Another reason why I love where we live: Pumpkin patches... everywhere you turn. These pumpkin patches are not meek, quiet patches either. They are 3 hours of fun and activity wristband type of patches.  We come home filthy type of fun. Love it. 

Patch trip # 1: Fieldy's pre-school trip 

 The weather was good, the farm was beautiful and the kids loved the hayride and playing in the haypiles. Fieldin was on a wild goose chase for his pumpkin with followers chasing him to the faaar side of the patch. He was the last to find a pumpkin but he settled on one finally. I expected him to grab a gynormous one and roll it to the car but he followed the rules and found one he could carry. 

 The kids were all so cute. Having their snack at a picnic table and being so good. It was very fun. 

Patch Trip #2 Family Time 

 Again, a lovely day. We brought cider and homemade pumpkin bread for a snack break and spent the afternoon/early evening playing at the patch. 

 getting lost in the corn maze

 fast slide 

 me and kiddo and Greta with her pumpkin

 Greta at the bottom of the fast tube slide. 

 We also went on another hayride, went through hay mazes, they trike raced and we all found our perfect pumpkins.

Pumpkin Patch Trip #3: Impromptu Friend Trip 

 we didn't bring this pumpkin home :) 

 Fieldy and his friends on a hay ride 

On a John Deere Trike. 

I have a feeling these won't be our last trips :) 

Around Here

I have been ignoring the blog and my camera. The weather change is making me a bit lazy. We have been enjoying Fall. This weekend was finally a bit rainy so we stayed and played games, did mad libs,  watched netflex, did crafty things and layed around alot. It also forces us to stay in and organize and clean...

I love this time of year for so many reasons:

I get crafty with food. So far I've made kids cheesy phyllo pumpkins and meatloaf mummies. 

 lovin the smell of Fall. We took the kids to Peavy for our yearly leaf collection. Then we bring home the haul and make leaf rubbings to hang up. 

 I love, love the colors

I also love being outside especially with the kids. If its cold, its nice to come inside get warm and comfy and do an art project. I've made more runs to Micheal's this month then I did all summer ;) 

I'm yawning again. Tea time. 

Hope you all have had a chance to splash in some puddles and jump in some leaves :) 

This Weekend

Another weekend is almost over. They go way to fast. Here is a bit about our weekend through the lense. 

 Soccer practice. 

 pre-game football fun. Benny didn't give us Cougs much of a bad time. 

 Greta's art work. Of all the things I would hope she remembers about me, I never thought it would be me barking... 

 I am in total Halloween mode. Today we decorated the house inside and out. 

 Lots of eating and drinking anything pumpkin. Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes.... the list goes on. 

And more football fun... 

I absolutely love Fall. 

Celebrating Fieldin

We celebrated Fieldin's birthday for about a week. 

Preschool cupcakes, a weekend b-day trip, his true birthday celebrated at home and then a party with friends on Friday. Fieldin keeps asking me if he is still 4. He loves being 4. 

 On his real b-day at home. 

 Opening more presents. 

 On his b-day blowing out the yearly birthday train. 

 

 Decorating at his party. He had 6 friends celebrate with him and he had sooo much fun. 

 His b-day cake. 

 After party good byes with his treat pail and cape. He has a tootsie pop in his mouth because apparently he didn't get enough sugar. 

 Ready to blow out his candles. With his buddy and their colored masks below. 

Well Said Nathaniel

This about sums up this beautiful Fall we are having:

"I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."

-Nathaniel Hawthorne

This quote always comes to mind this time of year, especially on days like this. 

When People Are 4 According To Fieldin

Fieldin had a very nice birthday and was very excited about turning 4. 

All day he told me what people can do at 4. Here are just a few:

"When people are 4 they can draw hearts."

"When people are 4 they can run better than sisters."

"When people are 4 they can go to bed by themselves." 

"When people are 4 they can flip."

"When people are 4 they ride big boy bikes." 

"When people are 4 they stand on their heads." 

"When people are 4 they fly on a cat."

"When people are 4 they put on their own sleeves." 

And the best of all is :

"Greta, I am going to be nice to you now that I am 4." 

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

Happy Birthday 4 Year Old

Even though you are four, you will always be my baby. Always. 

Happy Birthday Buddy! 

Here is your Birthday poem: 

"Watch out bad guys,

You can't run anymore. 

Our Caped crusader is 

turning FOUR!

Now that he's a big boy and doesn't need naps,

he has more time to catch you in his traps! 

Looking forward to your week of car/super hero celebration. :) 

Fieldy Birthday Weekend: Part II

A Vortex, A "Bat Cave"(as close as we can get for our resident Batman), and seven stitches. It was a very, very fun day and also a little stressful. Shall be begin?

Here are the kids at the Oregon vortex. A bit creepy. We all left with headaches. I think the optical illusions made my cynic of a brain hurt. I do have to admit there is something weird here. We all were able to participate and I was able to make a broom stand upright alone for a bit. 

 Kids at original house of mystery holding onto handrails. There is at least an 8 foot slope in this house. 

 Is Greta crooked and the house straight? :)

 Greta and Grandpa...I think the vortex is making Greta look as tall as grandpa..:) that must be it, indeed.

 wildlife turkeys, I mean the kids in Medford. Skipping rocks, taking a walk and stretching our legs. 

 The sign says it all. Great ,Great tour we had. Note to future rangers: NEVER tell Fieldin that their is a black  bear in the cave. Not if you want any piece and quiet for the 90 min tour.. When we found the bear, we found bear bones. Highly anticlimatic for an almost 4 year old. Though he did decide the rest of the bear bones were taken by pirates and he needs to go to their house and ask for them back. "hey pirates, you have the bear bones" he said. We literally heard about the black bear for over 2 hours on the way home. He finally broke his adventure down in these words" We heard a story about a bear, looked for a bear and just found bear bones". We will never forget it or you Fieldin. In the meantime, Greta was the Ranger's pet. Answering all the questions right and spewing names of rocks. This girl loves her geology. She brought up new tour topics about coral looking rock. She was a cave rock star. She even lead the pack a few times. So   I hear Miss Greta talk about rocks and stuff alot so my favorite Greta quote went a little something like this: 

                                                Ranger: Cavers in the 1800's toured these caves on their bellies...blah blah blah. I spaced out here but then he showed us beautiful signatures written on the marble. He asked why no one has been able to clean off the pencil signatures. 

Greta: "Because they didn't have eraser's" 

love it.

 We saw bats, we saw paradise lost, we found wood rat pooh with fungus...

 

and when we were almost done with this 90 min tour where Fieldin was a total hike/climb stud he and Jeff started hopping and Fieldin went splat on his chin. A trip to urgent care and 7 stitches later we headed home. He was so brave getting those stitches. Each time he has had stitches we've been out of town and marble was involved. If we avoid those things we may get lucky. If not, we need a head stitch punch card. 

Birthday Weekend Part 1: Wild Life Safari

Fieldin kept "reminding" the waitress at lunch that it was his birthday.....EVERY time she walked by. 

 This boy will be partying it up this week as he turns into a 4 year old. Our special boy. With Grandpa along for the trip we took these two to the "drive thru zoo" and it was very fun. We got there at a time when the animals were active so that made these two happy. 

 Checking out the wildlife and I think they were more excited about not having to wear seatbelts than anything else. 

 A bear giving Fieldy the eye. His favorite animals were the monkeys and bears. Greta liked the monkeys, buffalo and the bears. 

 They could not wait to ride a camel together. Oh my! The excitement. No fear here. They loved this. Greta asked if she got a camel drivers license if she could always ride one for free. Fieldy liked that the camel's name was Frank. They both were so excited about the animals and really about the whole thing. I loved watching them more than anything else...