Halloween Wrapped Up

One Red Power Ranger

and One Blue Power Ranger

and One Octopus

Went Trick-or-Treating...

Back to our house to survey our loot:

A low-key Halloween.  Just what I wanted.  Early Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood, drove up the hill to a busier neighborhood, then home early, candy bellies, one post-sucker bath, and two in bed with plans of a bath in the AM.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween - Preschool Style

First event of the day: Reade's Halloween party at preschool.  Super quick and super cute.

Since I had a babysitter, I thought I would take Reade out to lunch after his party.  I have been eyeballing the Four Spoons Cafe.  Overpriced and not the greatest food.

Here is a picture one of the chaperones sent me from Blake's pumpkin patch field trip (that he is currently on).  This is him and the gang he likes to hang with.

Busy day and it is only noon!

Crazy Carvers

We carved our pumpkins last night.  The kids got to help scoop out the pumpkin pulp and then Andrew and I went around carving their pumpkins for them.  We had Halloween music on and decided to videotape the moment:

Harmony

I just unpacked one of the last boxes from moving here.  Inside was my harmonica.  I love this thing.  Time to practice up on my Thanksgiving and Christmas tunes!

Piper is definitely my harmonica sidekick. Who's ears suffer more?

What Piper and I watch together:

School Harvest Carnival

First school harvest carnival.  So different to be indoors.  I had so much fun at the carnivals at my elementary school.  I hope Blake enjoyed it as much as I used to.  Mmmmm...I got to eat those yummy bake sale cookies.

Bean Bag Chairs

I have reunited with walmart.com.  I have forgotten how much I love that website.  Here are our new bean bags for the playroom.  It allows us to kick the kids off of the couch while we watch movies.  I am sure our days are limited before video game consoles enter the mix.  

$25.00 Bean Bag Chairs

Fog Farm

The mornings here have been super foggy.  I guess I should say days because our neighborhood is socked in until about 4pm and then the fog returns around 6pm.  The fog horns are audible and I do miss my view of the Sound.  Yesterday morning was a great one because Piper asked to go outside early in the morning.  I put our jackets on and decided to let out the chickens for some breakfast bug buffet.  We had just made pumpkin bread together so it was a bit Norman Rockwell to come in from the cold smelling pumpkin heaven inside.

Meet Piper's new disgusting baby.  She grabbed it off the shelf at the thrift store
and I couldn't say no.  That baby has seen better days
and was pretty gunky under her pink outfit.  Let's just say the thing
got sprayed from head to toe with bleach.

Tubaluba

Our neighbor, Janet, is the lead singer in a local band named Tubaluba.  Their first music video came out and I am so excited to finally be able to share it with you.  Their first hit is "Tubaluba Tidal Wave" and you can now go to The Backdoor and order yourself up a Tubaluba Tidal Wave at the bar.  Say Janet sent you!!!

 

Day 2

We finished yesterday with a quick trip to Mt. Rainier.  I never have liked Yosemite much and I think I know why.  I am captivated by volcanoes.  Glaciers, not so much.  I love the idea that the thing could explode at any moment and wipe us all out.  I love my family, but I also like knowing the world is in control.  The kids ran around screaming "I see it" and acting like complete bizerk crazies in the woods.  Our campfires, one w/kids and one w/out kids, were super fun.  This morning was spent cleaning up camp and chasing deer.  We are now driving to an apple cider farm.

1st Night

First night of camping down.  While driving up we encountered a huge deer in the middle of the road causing us to screech to a halt and yell expletives.  Andrew honked while slamming on the brakes which scared the thing half to death so it slipped in the road before scrambling off onto the shoulder.  The RV park owner told us it could have been an elk.  It did have a fuzzier rump.

Anyways...

Then I hung my head when we got to the campsite because I realized that all of the boys' clothing was sitting in piles on their beds back at home.  How did I forget to pack that?  All Blake and Reade have are the Jammie's on their backs.  No underwear.  At least I put socks on them for the drive.  They don't care at this point so I am trying to laugh this one off (while feeling terribly guilty).  I did grab all the coats and shoes.  I grabbed all of Piper's clothes.  Reade fits into Piper's pants, but he saw the pink bow and said the equivalent of his "hell no."

We are having fun though.  We are near the entrance to Mt. Rainier.  Wish the kids were older so they could do a day hike.  It will be a long, hopefully relaxing, campfire tonight.

Almost...

Late start, but at least we are out of our driveway.  First stop gas.  Second stop new fuses (half the RV's lights are out).  I can't wait to chill out since I have spent the last 10 hours running around getting ready for this trip.  I forgot how fun this is (and I am not being sarcastic).

Temporary Hiccup

Learning a little bit about getting the RV down our drive.  This thing is huge.

Jumped

We are getting the RV ready for our first Washington state exploration trip.  The poor thing hasn't received any attention since we drove her up here.  All of the batteries are dead so Blake and Reade got their first lesson in jumping cars.  Nothing like playing in a rusty fishing yard before school.

Hipster Olympics

I usually can't sit through these things, but this had me laughing:

 

More Family

Why does my mommy make me pose for photos?

I asked Andrew's cousin, Erin, to send me some baby pictures.  I had the feeling there would be some resemblance between her and Piper.  Boy is there!  

See for yourself:

(Andrew is on the left)

Passed On

Andrew's uncle forwarded him an email with this picture of his grandmother Irene (Ellen's mother).  It is so fun to see this picture because her genes are so prevalent in her children, grandchildren, and now great grandchildren.  She is the one in the middle and I love seeing so much of her in Piper.  Rock on genes!

Void

The kids definitely miss having their grandparents around.  Lots of art happened and Ellen taught me how to can.  It is a fun skill and I look forward to attempting lots more jams in the future.  Everyone - expect nothing more than jars of food product for Christmas!!!  That might get expensive on shipping costs.  Maybe I will have to knit everyone a thinking cap?:

Knit your very own!

So Much...

Wow oh wow.  I have tons to share.  Let me begin...

I made Ellen drive a half hour north so we could explore the Bothell Country Village Shops.  It started out with a few odd experiences, but things smoothed out and we had a great time (I took Blake and Reade on a great little train ride while Piper and Ellen shopped).  We then hit up the Yakima Fruit Market and found some great produce at great prices.

Bothell Country Village:

While out and about, Andrew and his father went to Best Buy and bought us a TV for the playroom.  The TV ended up being a hair bigger than I expected  (it is the size of a dining room table for heaven's sake)!  My only request was for Andrew to bring home a Roku 3.  It streams all of our internet stuff like Hulu Plus and Netflix while adding 1,000 extra channels.  I think I have lost my kids into the abyss of TV land!

Then, like I always do to out-of-town guests, I made them hit up the Unicorn/Narwhal in Capitol Hill for an early birthday bash.  I took them to the Mimosas With Mama drag queen brunch.  It was overwhelming and over stimulating, but tons of fun no doubt!

They chose a "bear" out of the audience for a number.

Right now their last number is Dreamgirls.

Ellen got to wear the special birthday girl hat.

What a good weekend.  Andrew is off to work, school happens, and the real birthday celebrating begins.