Witches, princesses, cows and an evil lego villain descended on our house this afternoon for some Halloween fun. We ate sausages, painted pumpkins and made Kleenex ghosts until everyone was gone and then enjoyed some much needed family down-time. Carson was very excited for trick-or-treating so in the evening the Geico money, Mr. Dragon, a Hershey's Kiss and momma with her little horns made the rounds in the neighborhood before heading down to our church for some Halloween activities there. Happy Halloween everyone! Thanks for making the day so special!

Carson had his first field trip this morning - to Farmer John's just outside of McMinnville where they learned about vegetables and farming, made rattles out of hazelnuts and took a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch. 18 three-year-olds on a field trip is a little, no, actually just like herding cats, but with the help of a lot of parents, everyone had a good time!

Dinner = Olive and Pineapple pizza!

 

Last night was pumpkin carving night... of which Nolan lasted all of about 10 minutes before he needed to go to bed.
But the rest of us enjoyed making our festive creations.... Boo!

The events are all done.
The football team is now 6-0.
And I've just attended my 10-year college reunion (what the heck?!!?), which was a ton of fun.

It's Homecoming at Linfield, which means mommy is working extra hours today and tomorrow so Daddy, Poppy and Nonna decided to take the kids up to the zoo!

 

Some people don't know there is a big sandbox tucked away at the zoo... our kids think the zoo is a giant sandbox with some animals around. Thank goodness for our membership - if the kids want to play in the sandbox and only see a few animals, oh well.

Nolan’s teeth take so long to come in that it’s almost comical. He was walking for a good couple of weeks before he had any teeth… then he got four at the same time around 10 months old… then nothing.

 

I check most mornings when I lay him down to change his diaper to see if there are any new ones but typically the answer is ‘no’. (Average for 16 months is about 12-16 teeth - for whatever ‘average’ is worth with kids.) So this morning, at exactly 1 year, 3 months and 16 days old I was surprised to look in his mouth and see the very tip of tooth #5 had finally broken through!

 

It doesn’t really matter… it’s just sort of funny. My only fear is that if they fall out at the same rate they came in, he’ll be getting his permanent teeth in about Junior High!

When we looked at the calendar for the rest of the month we decided that today was going to be Pumpkin Patch Day! (Due to a serious lack of free weekends between now and Halloween.) So after getting a few things done this morning we were off with Poppy & Nonna to Lakeview Farms! Some who live in this area may wonder why we drive an hour to find a pumpkin patch... after all there are dozens right around the corner. But the answer is simple. A train. In fact, Lakeview Farms has a train, a boat, a petting zoo, face painting, age appropriate mazes and, oh yea, a ton of pumpkins. In theory you can ride the train from the main area to the pumpkin patch and then take the boat back, or vice versa. In practice though, Carson always wants to ride the train both ways - so we've never actually been on the boat. (The boys did enjoy watching it paddle around from the dock though.) We had a great time, found some great pumpkins and some very tired boys are sound asleep in their beds. Pictures from our adventure are posted here.
Happy (early) Halloween!!

...the new artwork in my office!

“Look at me!
  Look at me!
  Look at me NOW!
  It is fun to have fun
  But you have
  to know how.”

“Have no fear, little fish,”
Said the Cat in the Hat.
“These Things are good Things.”
And he gave them a pat.
“They are tame. Oh so tame!
They have come here to play.
They will give you some fun
On this wet, wet, wet day.”

And they ran to us fast.

They said, “How do you do?”

Would you like to shake hands

With Thing One and Thing two?”

-Quotes from Dr. Seuss', The Cat in the Hat.