pumpkin carving

halloween night

Our church didn't have its annual Harvest Festival this year, so we went to a friend's house for her amazing pumpkin chili and trick-or-treating. I forgot to take pictures of the kids without their coats on. The boys wanted to be Transformers (Jared is Optimus Prime and Caleb is Bumble Bee) , Lily wanted to be Cinderella and Gracie wanted to be Sleeping Beauty.

Sorry about the hand...I must have been bossing a few kids around. :)

a visit to the dentist

All 4 kids had dentist appointments this morning. Jared's an old pro at going to the dentist. It almost looks like he's running the entire office from this chair.

Caleb chose banana flavored toothpaste this time.

Gracie chose chocolate...that's my girl!

Lily chose cotton candy toothpaste for her cleaning. She was so excited to see that the staff members wore their purple Dora shirts today.

I couldn't get over how little the girls looked in the chair! Good news: no cavities! The kids got to put their names in the "No Cavities Club" box for a free drawing to win frozen yogurt or a t-shirt. I got to enter our family in the family "No Cavities Club" box (I'm not quite sure what that prize is).

snuggle time

Phil gets to come home on Tuesday nights, because he doesn't have school/work on Wednesday. Lily loves to have him home. Before he leaves, she tells him, "I'll save my snuggles for you." This is what we woke up to this morning. She had set the couch up for their snuggle time and was waiting patiently for Phil to wake up and join her.

playing in the front yard

the pumpkin patch...sorta

Last October I was so disappointed with the prices at the pumpkin patch! Last year we played in the corn maze, took lots of pictures, but then stopped by the grocery store for our pumpkins on the way home. This year one of my favorite grocery stores, Yoke's, is selling pumpkins for 15 cents a pound, so I took the kids to pick out pumpkins yesterday. It's great to tell the kids size doesn't matter this year and then pay only $6 for four pumpkins!

first day of school

The kids were excited to start school this week. We waited until Phil started school, so we could enjoy summer vacation with him.

Jared is in First Grade this year.

Caleb is in Kindergarten.

Gracie is in Preschool.

Lily is in Preschool, too.

So far, their favorite thing to do is rotate through our math, reading, science and art centers during Center Time. Here's Lily exploring our Science Center.

Gracie drew a really great picture in the Art Center.

Caleb found a good book to read in the Reading Corner.

And here they are doing a little bit of schoolwork.

time away

Phil and I went away for a belated 10th Anniversary trip. Corinne very graciously came and stayed with our kids for a week so we could go away before Phil began his year of clinical rotations.

First off, we stopped in Leavenworth, WA, and stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast on the Icicle River. The rooms are all very cozy and had lots of fun amenities. One of my favorites was an old typewriter.

We had a feeding tray on our back deck for blue jays,

a backpack, picnic basket, bikes,

...even homemade bubbles!

Talking to the kids

Phil had to attend classes in Seattle for a few days, so we drove over and stayed in a hotel in the University District. I love Seattle in the fall!

With me, no vacation is complete until I find really good Tiramisu.

To top it off, we made reservations at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant.

Yum!

We had such a great week, but it was nice to get home to the kids. There's just nothing like being with our little fan club!