Phil took the boys through a corn maze this afternoon at the pumpkin patch.
They found their way to a castle, and then to a pirate ship! 
All who entered the maze were given a key to open a treasure chest hidden inside the maze. Caleb's key opened the treasure chest! He won a pirate bandanna. Phil and Jared were given chocolate gold coins as consolation prizes.
We spent a wonderful evening downtown. We stopped by Sonic for slushies, we went to the "big red wagon park," and then we had dinner at the Spaghetti Factory...YUM! Gramma's going home tomorrow. Our plan is to visit an apple orchard and pumpkin patch in the morning before heading to the airport.
This one was just too cute not to post! My sister gave this robe to Jared when he was born. Phil put it on Lily after her bath last night...a little too small, but oh so cute!
Jared wants this to be his new chore. He wants to roll the empty garbage can back into the carport on garbage day. Fine with me!
Jared wanted to make applesauce today. However, he told me he was bored after slicing only 2 apples! I made him stick with it, though. We'll enjoy the "fruit" of his labor tonight at dinner, then he'll be glad he finished!
I was going to title this post "Ha! Ha! Nana and Aunt Corinne" but that would be cruel, wouldn't it? Gramma came to visit this week! The kids love having her here. Her plane flew right over our car as we turned into the airport! Jared wanted to stop by Sonic on the way home so he could show Gramma that the waitresses roller skate out to the cars and bring slushies. He made her stare at the door so she wouldn't miss it.
Yesterday we went to the mall to play in the squishy playground and then Gramma treated us to ice cream at Dairy Queen. Today we're going to show her our new library and if it doesn't rain, we'll play at the park for awhile.
Have you ever watched Monk? He's an extremely bright detective who suffers from Obsessive Compulsion Disorder. I think I do, too. In our new house, we have a light switch at the top of our stairs leading down to the basement, and another switch at the bottom of the stairs for the same light. It really bothers me if both light switches are in the "on" position when the light is off. This morning I actually walked down to the basement to turn the switch to "off," and then walked back upstairs again. Ahhh...much better! Am I weird? Do any of you do things like this?
I need parenting advice! I really have no idea what I'm doing...I just pretend to know.
My boys dropped their morning nap when they were about 15 months old. Then they took 3 hour naps in the afternoon, and still settled in at their normal bedtime. Are girls different? My girls will be 2 next month, and I think they still need their morning nap. I tried to drop it this summer, but they just couldn't make it to lunch time. Maybe things seem worse than they really are, because I'm dealing with 2 babies at one time. I really don't remember my boys being this fussy all morning before they turned 2.
I'm letting my girls nap in the morning again. When I let them do this, one of two things will happen: either they won't nap in the afternoon, or they do nap in the afternoon and then they're up until almost 10:00 at night. This causes them to be tired in the morning, requiring a nap by 9:00 a.m., and thus the vicious cycle is repeated!
This picture was taken last night about 5 minutes after I put the girls down. They were SO tired! It was nice to have them fall asleep so quickly, but the long day with fussy girls almost wasn't worth having a longer, quieter evening.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Here's a view of the kitchen looking into the dining area. I've yet to hang pictures on the walls, but I'm eager to get started.
Looking into the living room from the kitchen...
The boys are playing on the computer in the corner of our dining area.
Here's our living room. The front door is to the left of the couch.
Here's another picture of the living room. Caleb thought the entertainment hutch should be closed for the picture. The kitchen entry is on the right.
Corinne found this picture of Phil on his first day of Kindergarten back in 1974 (the year I was born). It kind of looks like I'm waiting there with him--or maybe even Lily--but it's his little sister, Becky. Isn't this the sweetest picture?
Phil stayed home with the kids this morning so I could go out for awhile. I went to a thrift store which is owned by a rather large Christian school in the area. Most of the items in the store were 50% off today. Here's a picture of some of the things I found. The creamer and sugar bowl were $0.49 each! My next stop was Starbucks, of course! I sat in Starbucks for an hour, read the newspaper and enjoyed a decaf Pumpkin Spice Latte. My last stop was Hancock Fabrics. I'd like to make new kitchen curtains, so I spent almost 2 hours looking through pattern books for inspiration.
Here are a few of our Fall decorations. The kids would rather skip Fall and go right into Winter, because we told them it snows up here in Spokane. Another reason they want to skip Fall? We don't have any leaves to pile up and jump into! We have 8 beautiful pine trees in our backyard, but brown pine needles just don't go "crunch" when you jump into a big pile of them. One thing they do enjoy about the Fall is candy corn. When Jared was 1, I told him it was "Mommy candy." A year later he saw them in a store and called out, "Mommy candy!" This is what our family now calls candy corn.
Despite the absence of Fall fans in my home, I'm determined to enjoy the season...apple cider in the crock pot, chicken and dumplings, warm apple pie, candles burning, turning on the heater in the morning, and tea before bedtime.
When I work in the kitchen, Gracie isn't far behind me with her little stool. She scoots it up to the counter where I'm working and is eager to get to work...no matter what I'm doing. Sometimes I'm making a shopping list and she scribbles her requests over mine. Sometimes I'm rolling out a pie crust and she begs for a turn with the rolling pin.
Lily, on the other hand, walks right past me in the kitchen, only stopping if she thinks I have something yummy to offer. Here she is on that very same stool--only she would much rather work on projects around the house with her Daddy or fix the tractor with her Grampa. Phil was trying to fix a battery charger last night after dinner, and Lily thought she'd offer her services.
My little sweeties are making sweet things for their Daddy!
The problem with Autumn is that bags of little candy bars call out to me at Wal Mart and every grocery store I walk into! One whole aisle of Halloween candy isn't enough--they have to place the bags of candy on every end display, as well. And they do this months before Halloween! I broke down and bought a bag of Milky Way. At home I tell myself, "These are small, so I'll just eat 3." I'm eating one right now as I sip my cold coffee.
The other day Phil smelled a candle burning and thought I had baked sugar cookies. Nope! But yesterday we did and we surprised him when he got home from school. We decorated them after dinner...frosting, sprinkles and all! Aren't the girls cute in their little turtlenecks? They look like school girls. The crisp Fall weather comes a bit earlier up here in Washington than in California. It's refreshing after spending a very warm summer in Lake County.
Phil bought these for me last night to dress up our new porch. 
Jared had a haircut yesterday. Caleb said he didn't need one.
Caleb is trying to arrange the numbers on our new address plaque.
Everyday is getting easier for us. We finally have some sort of routine, which puts most of us at ease. I put the girls down. I sit at the computer to blog while sipping my cold cup of coffee. Ah, the familiar!
