My favorite photos from the pumpkin patch

Here ya go:

Halloween

We had a great Halloween. Church trunk-or-treat on Friday night, trick-or-treating tonight. I'll spare you the details, except to say that I decided to spare the kids my usual 30 minute photo session and just snake a few pics before enjoying both evenings. The only problem: I think my best picture is this one:She hates this sweatshirt, but she starts shivering when it's 65 degrees so too bad!

Ava at trunk-or-treat with two of her best friends, Mackenzie and Kea.

Pouty puppy:

Gwen's face for much of both evenings:
She was a ladybug, by the way.

Our little football player. I think people liked this costume best when they realized there was a girl in there:
Go Tech!

Ladybug #2, wearing her costume from her dance recital in the spring:

There's our happy boy! He liked being a puppy after all (after spending the last month protesting that he'd changed his mind and wanted to be a Clone Trooper):

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Sweetness and Innocence

Or mischief and mayhem?

Gwen is definitely both. I love her sweet kisses and enthusiasm for all the new things she's discovering in the world. She's talking much more; favorite words include "cacker" (aka, cracker, indicating any kind of food), wawa (aka, water, or any kind of drink), dog, bird, and Lila (her best friend in the whole world). So there's the sweetness and innocence. As for madness and mayhem, she is turning into quite the artist, lending her own special touch to walls, tables, and even (heaven help me) the leather couch at Lila's house. Thank heaven for washable crayons and markers and the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

Here is Mr. Wonderful himself. You know all about this guy.

Together they are something else. I don't know why I think I need to get dressed in the mornings, but when I do I can't always convince them to follow me upstairs. I never know when I come down in 5 minutes if I'll find them innocently playing, like this:

Or if I'll discover Gwen with a black crayon in hand, rapidly covering the back wall and back door in scribbles and Nate with the hose from the back yard, watering the family room carpet.

Yikes.

A flip out ensued. (I'm not ashamed. You'd flip out too.)

And then prayers of gratitude were offered for the Magic Eraser and my handy carpet cleaner, which sucks up water when times demand it.

Both kids are still alive. And probably plotting their next misadventure.

Is there anything sweeter?

My little guy has been wanting to go on a date with me for some time now. Brenna and Ava got mommy and me dates a few months ago and ever since then Nate has wanted one of his own. Finally a couple of weeks ago he insisted that it was the day. Here were his requirements for the date:

I had to rollerblade and push him and Gwen in the stroller.

We had to make it all the way to Los Angeles.

We had to eat burritos there.

Don't ask me where any of that came from.

So I strapped on my rollerblades, put Nate and Gwen in the stroller and pushed them for 2 miles, at which point I informed him we were going to have to drive the rest of the way to L.A. (2 miles on rollerblades while pushing approximately 90 pounds feels a lot farther than it sounds!) While he was not happy, he finally conceded the point and we went home and got cleaned up.

Now, maybe you're not so good with geography, but L.A. isn't close enough by car to schlep there and back before the girls get out of school, so I had to fool him into thinking a 10-minute in-town drive was all it took to get there. We pulled up to a local burrito place, I told some pretty convincing lies, and we went inside for a lovely lunch.

I enjoyed that so much I even took him (and little sis) to my favorite cupcake shop for dessert. He wants to do it all again very soon, although it's probably time daddy got a turn.

Yes, amidst all his energy and mess-making Nate is quite charming. Especially today when he very seriously and sweetly gave me a hug and told me that I was a "very brave mommy."

He must have seen some of the diapers I've changed over the years.

The great county fair

This year we took two trips to the fair; first, a date night with just me, Scott and some friends. Second, a Saturday afternoon with all the kids in tow. No pictures of the first trip, just the second.

We love to see the animals, like this beautiful mooing cow.

Initially Gwen loved looking at the baby chicks on display.

Just seconds later she decided they were pretty gross. Here she is repeatedly yelling "Yuck!"

The full grown chickens were not quite so disgusting. (Hands down, the grossest animal at the fair was the pig. We could hardly force ourselves to go get a quick look, they stunk so bad. The things they don't tell you in "Charlotte's Web"!)

Once again the hands-on play areas are fun. Nate dug in the corn.

Brenna still had fun with most of the kids' stuff. I wonder if she'll still like it all next year....

Ava saddled up and brushed down a giant stuffed horse.

A very tired Gwen enjoyed grooming the horse as well.

Here's Little Miss Sleepy Eyes making a mess of an ice cream cone just before she screamed and thrashed through most of the BMX bike show. Don't worry; she and I took a walk so we wouldn't disturb the awesomeness.

The kids posed with one of the BMX bikers. These guys were impressive to watch and the kids loved meeting them and getting their autographs after the show. Nate was adorable; at one point during the show one of the guys finished a trick and came around to all the kids in the audience and got high-5's. Nate was so excited, he yelled to Scott, "He gave me a high-5!" One of the highlights of his young life.

The girls took a ride down the big slide.

And Gwen finally got her much-needed nap.

So what do you like to do for fun?

Huh. No kidding?