Racing through October--and Halloween

The kids had a week of half days for parent teacher conferences so I took them all to a roadside pumpkin patch.   There were a few animals to feed, some horses to ride and some pumpkins that were too expensive.

 See the huge pumpkin in back?

 Heidi really liked the white ones

 They all found the perfect pumpkin, several times, but I wasn't going to pay 15-20 dollars for each one, so Heidi and Brett found some little ones for a decent price but we headed to Walmart afterwards where the kids could pick whatever pumpkin they wanted for 3.75 from a bin! Fun Fun.

 They did get spoiled a little though and got to ride some ponies.  I was surprised that Brett was willing to ride by himself and didn't get scared.

 Saturday afternoon lunch with Aunt Marilyn

 Ward Trunk or Treat--complete with games to earn tickets for jumpy houses and other prizes, a fishing pond, cupcake/cookie decorating, haunted house, crazy scientist booth, free cotton candy and more!

Amber sneaking candy while Curt isn't watching

 Fairy Princess friends

 owl eating cotton candy

trunk or treat exhaustion

 Amber up until today hasn't really liked her baths.  Curt brought the bumbo into the tub and voila, she is a happy camper now, splashing and kicking in the tub.

 I took Heidi with another preschool group to a bigger pumpkin patch

Hay bale maze

The corn was awesome.  I wish we had one of these in the back yard.  Heidi and Brett could have played there for hours.

 Brett filling his sock with corn

 he also LOVED pulling a wagon around and picking out his own pumpkin

 First foods

 At the school parade.  The high school band of several hundred was bussed over and they played music while the kids paraded around, it was pretty cool actually.

 carving pumpkins

 Nicole got invited to trick or treat at a shopping center with friends so she opted out of the pumpkin carving.  I cleaned one out for her and she ended up carving hers the next morning.

Brett held firm with wanting to be a "kitty" until we were trying to put a tail on him.  He didn't really like the ears or whiskers either, but was willing in the name of candy to oblige.

Heidi called herself a "fairy princess flower girl"

Ryan's favorite animal right now . . . maybe the fin is a little large?

Isaac was really grateful to me for his bat wings and hat--happy kid

 Yes we reused this from last year . . . I think there may have been some disappointment at first, but Nicole couldn't think of anything she'd rather be that was semi-simple, so she stayed with the owl.  She ended up getting a lot of attention for it so I think she was happy with it in the end.  I was too since it meant one less costume to worry about, AND since I spent enough time on it last year it was nice to get two uses out of it. 

 Amber was ready for bed when we were leaving, so we couldn't get any smiles out of this little pink leopard.

 The kids ate a bunch of candy, did some trading around for favorites, then they got to keep a few and traded the rest in for books (the older three) and toys--Heidi and Brett.  Hoping this limits the weeks of sugar overload and begging for their Halloween candy.

 Brett had been waiting patiently for me to carve him a happy face earlier in the day but it was too crazy, so right after we laid the kids down I carved him a quick happy face.  He was pretty pleased.

 Nicole finally got to carve hers . . . an owl of course

Brett's Big Boy Bed

Brett learned to climb out of his crib.  For a few days I could lay on the floor by him and he would stay in there and not climb out.  Then he found other ways to entertain himself while I was laying by him.  On this particular day Heidi was laying on the floor next to me--she had promised a vow of silence, only to be broken by giggling when she saw this.  I sent her out of the room (was still not taking recognition of Brett trying to pretend I was asleep) when Heidi told me I should see what he had done.  He had all of his little animals in his bed looking down at me.  It was time to move on--plus the baby needs the crib.

 So here he is the first night on his big boy bed.

 success, now he just needs a quilt

SRI and The Ghosts of Stanford Past

We went for a drive over to the Peninsula and Curt showed us where he works, and we also went back to our apartment courtyard at Stanford.  Thought it would be fun to show the kids, see what they remember etc.  I wasn't prepared for the emotions . . . probably still too close to our moving . . . I was fighting back tears.
                                         Here is SRI, Curt's office is on the bottom floor I believe just behind the gate in the right most picture.

 Driving towards our apartments on El Camino Stanford soccer fields to the right.

 Cecy's apartment

 Standing by our building looking out to Stanford Ave.  All those houses straight ahead did not exist before.  Now there are lots of faculty and coaching housing over there.

 SO. MUCH. TIME. SPENT at this playground

 Our gate was the one in the background with the blue towel on it.

 I used to tell Isaac to get off of this play house every five minutes.

 Heidi on "the" slide

 Wheelers apartment was just beyond the grass.

                                                     That's our door in the middle there . . .

 cannot count how many times I ran down this road

 We got to see the Lunts' some BFFs from our Stanford days.  She had just gotten back from running the St. George marathon the day before!!

Spud Smiley

Have your vegetables ever smiled at you before?  Mine have.  Take a look.  I was just minding my own business getting some spuds ready to bake and low and behold I cut off the end of one to see this!! In case I might have been delirious I quickly asked Heidi who was coloring at the table what she saw.  "A smiley face."

Almost all caught up

Just realizing there are lots more pictures of the little ones that I'm home with during the day . . . I need to work at getting more of the older three.  

Amber's hair has a bit of red to it as of late, and I like when I'm cradling her the long hair on the top of her head flops back and forth while I'm walking, rocking or swaying with her.

 When Brett takes naps he gets to stay up a little later and have some one on one time with me.

 Nicole is taking a cooking class and made us an orange Julius for some extra credit!  Also it was nice because one night as we were getting ready for a Halloween party we were attending and I was trying to do 600 things at once I could ask her to make some frosting for the treat we were taking and she was able to do it by herself!

Soccer

                     This has been our life for the past two months.  You'd think I'd have more pictures!