Halloween 2009, Part 1

I’m trying to decide if I like Halloween on the weekend or not. It’s definitely less stressful with regards to trying to coordinate the travel logistics of getting the kids to each destination (school, Microsoft, neighborhood trick or treating, etc.) but then it becomes multiple days of celebration. Kate had her school party and her afterschool care (YMCA) party both today. Sugar, sugar, sugar, more sugar, a bit of candy, some cookies, punch, more sugar, and some… can you guess??? oh yeah, sugar. She had an excellent time and can’t wait for pumpkin carving and trick or treating in the neighborhood tomorrow.

Here’s Kate as a Jack Skellington skeleton mouseketeer (her costume kept expanding over the course of the day).

And she really wanted to show of her brethren from the front walk.

Plus, we had to get a close up of the mouse face painting she received at the Y from Meg.

I didn’t let Jake wear his skeleton costume today because I was worried his couldn’t last 2 days of wear, so I went the cheap route and dressed Jake as a PC.

He had a great day at Tim and Lisa’s hanging out with his friends. But he is very much looking forward to dressing up tomorrow night and going out Trick or Treating with Uncle Allen. Here’s Jake’s demonstration of the opposite of how the skeletons look.

 

 

Mr. Flexible and Kate meets the zombies

Just wanted to give you all a couple more recent photos of the kids. Here’s Jake showing off his flexibility.

And Kate showing off her Thriller dance moves before meeting all the zombies at Thrill the World.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

Not sure if you’ve all heard us talk about J4 in the past but we have some lovely friends we met through Aaron and Kim Stebner–Jerry, Judy, Julia, and Jillian (joined the clan a mere 6 weeks ago)–who brilliantly put out a call for friends to join them in some pumpkin hunting. So 5 kids, ranging in age from 6 weeks to 6 years, and 8 various guardians and consorts all joined up at South 47 Farm for some pumpkin-y, doughnut-y, corn maze-y, muddy, muddy, muddy fun!

 

We were lucky enough to hit a break in the rain so that we weren’t in a deluge as we were hunting, but the rain that was falling all week made for a near 4 wheel drive only experience in the parking lot and pumpkin fields. Here are Kim, Aaron, and Zach.

The kids found hay bales to run and jump on in addition to pumpkins everywhere!

 

 

Then we trekked out to the fields with our wheel barrow to find the “perfect” pumpkin… Kate bit of a bit more than she could chew (or at least than she could carry).

And Jake found his kindred pumpkin spirit with great efficiency.

Finally it was time for some doughnut refueling, courtesy of Uncle Aaron. Kate, Jake, and Julia all figured out the drill very easily.

 

Fall is here

While we’ve had the most amazing summer I can recall, fall is holding it’s own as well. There are the most beautiful maple trees lining our street that have turned that gorgeous crimson color whose depth and tone is next to impossible to copy. The photos don’t quite do them justice but I can’t resist trying to capture them for those bleak, gray, leafless days of February.

 

 

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Colts 34, Seahawks 17

With the NFL season under way, it was time for another Seahawk party at the house.  Unfortunately, the Blue Thunder turned out to be more like a pitiful drizzle with the final score being closer than the game actually was.  The good thing was we got to hang out with our friends and had a great time seeing everyone (and many finally got to see my haircut in person).  Aaron & Kim brought baby Zach with them, and Scott & Helen showed up in the fourth quarter with baby Brian so everyone got their baby fix.

Before everyone arrived, the kids were helping clean up.  We snapped a quick photo of everyone showing their support for the Hawks.

Crazy Hair Day

We’ve had a lot of focus on hair in the family recently, what with Pete’s “decennary” haircut just happening, but then Kate’s school sent home word of its first pep day of the year and the theme continues… Crazy Hair Day. Kate fully planned out the effect the night before.  The morning of she was a trooper in getting up early so that I could assist her in the plan. Which basically boiled down to “How many hair clips can you get on someone’s head?”

We determined the limit at a little over 30 hair clips–when we ran out.

She had a lovely time at her first school pep day and can’t wait for the next.