Halloween

This year Halloween actually felt like Halloween - meaning we had colorful leaves and cool temperatures, the perfect backdrop for trick-or-treating.  The only element we were fighting was the rain, which pretty much held off during most of our Halloween activities.

Stevie and the kids carving the pumpkins

The elementary school here actually encouraged Halloween.  Instead of discouraging kids to wear their costumes, they actually hosted a costume parade and most of the classes had Halloween parties.

I went in to help with Emmy's class party.  Somehow I volunteered to help at the "spider station".  I did this because it said I was going to get to read a story, which I love doing.  Turns out it was not a cute spider Halloween story, but a non-fiction detailed book with close-up pictures of all kinds of spiders.  Kind of freaked me out!  Fortunately, the spider craft (making spiders out of lollipops) took the whole time so I didn't have to read the book!

After the parties, the whole school participated in a Halloween parade through every classroom.  It was really cute to see the costumes.  This year London dressed up as "Hiccup", the main character in "How to Train Your Dragon".  I was surprised that Emmy decided to leave the costume choice to me and only wanted to be surprised on Halloween.  I made her into a mommy border collie sitting in the middle of her litter of puppies.  The total costume was very cute, but unfortunately it was a little bulky so she opted just to be the border collie for most of the day.

After school we had a little break before I took Emmy and London to downtown Gig Harbor for their Halloween activities.  It was crazy busy as the whole main street was blocked off and all the businesses were giving out candy.  They must have gotten through tons of candy!  We stayed down there for about an hour before the rain came and sent us running for the car.

This lady was funny - it's a sewing shop and she was a pin cushion!

At home, we had dinner (mummy meatloaf) and regrouped before all heading out to trick-or-treat our street.  Our street is not set in a neighborhood so their aren't many trick-or-treaters that come around and there are a lot of older people who live here and there are a lot of wealthy people.   All of these factors combine to make a trick-or-treat perfect storm - that's right...lots of candy!  The kids were amazed by the number of "full-sized" candy bars they received.  That's like the ultimate in Halloween loot!

I told Cannon he had to do more than wear his bow and arrows so he and Steve came up with this costume when I was in Gig Harbor with the kids!

The loot!

Emmy's Jack-O-Lantern Smile

Just in time for Halloween, one of Emmy's front teeth fell out giving her a perfect Jack-O-Lantern smile!

Pumpkin Farm

One of the things we missed most while we were in Okinawa was fall.  Stevie missed the cool weather and football and I missed the pumpkin farms and apple picking.  I mean Halloween itself was ultra cool on Okinawa with all the kids and decorations, but you just can't replace picking your own pumpkin at a farm with buying one out of a big box at the commissary.  So this year I was determined to get back to traditions and visit a farm.

Last weekend while we were driving to the swim meet, the kids and I spotted a HUGE field of pumpkins, followed by another HUGE field of pumpkins, followed by a field of corn and then a sign that said "Pick your own pumpkins".  I found my farm!  But since we were on our way from dropping Stevie off at the airport and on our way to a swim meet we couldn't stop last weekend.  But this Saturday the pumpkin farm was #1 on our to-do list.

This place was quite the operation and it was packed with people.  First you passed the piles of gourds, mini-pumpkins, pre-picked pumpkins and pie-pumpkins.

But we bee-lined passed those to get to the big pumpkins first.  We picked up our wheel barrow (these are BIG pumpkins) and headed out to the fields. 

That's a funny looking pumpkin?

There were thousands of pumpkins (and I don't think I exagerate) so it was impossible to go wrong with selection.  Of course, I always feel like I see a better one once my selection is made, but fortunately the kids only changed their mind once.  I opted for a green square-ish pumpkin - just for a change!

We told the kids they had to be able to lift their pumpkin in order to get it!  London's trying hard to lift this one!

The final selections - that's 80 pounds worth of pumpkin!

After coming in from the field, we revisited those stalls of mini-pumpkins and selected a few.  You then wheel your barrow over to the scales where they weigh everything and give you the total.  I think those pumpkins cost more than a Christmas tree!

But then there was the fruit and veggie stand which had me drooling too.  All kinds of neat finds like Brussel sprouts on the stalk, giant leeks and different kinds of squash (including Japanese kabocha squash!)  Even fresh apples for $1.00 a pound (unheard of in Okinawa where they cost at least $3.50 a pound for tasteless apples).

Our take home stash!

This was a great time - and we didn't even hit up the corn maze or hay rides.  I guess we'll save those treats for next year...

Bus stop

It was a momentous day today, Emmy and London rode the bus for the first time!  Since  Cannon started school, I have driven or walked the kids to and from school.  Why?  Let's just say that Stevie has a "thing" about it.  I thought he maybe had been picked on when riding the bus, but he corrected me and told me he used to pick on others on the bus! 

Anyways, I've always taken them and picked them up from school, but today starts a new era as they'll ride the bus home from school.  Why the change?  Well, it was me sitting 20 minutes in the pick-up line or them riding the bus 1 (yes, it's true, one) whole stop (we live 2 minutes from the school!)  I think they enjoyed it!

Here comes the bus!

And here come the kids!

Welcome to the rainy season

After living here for almost three months and experiencing 0.3 inches of rain in that three months, I think we had a "real" Washington weather day today.  It was wet and rainy all day.

Still a pretty view!

Well, we were able to get out for a little this morning after church to pick some apples at a city park, but from the minute we left the park until I write this tonight, the rain hasn't stopped.  Of course, there is something kind of nice about having a cool, rainy Sunday.  The kids were happy decorating pumpkins and playing with their friends and I cleaned up the pumpkin decorating, walked the dog in the rain and made a comfort food meal of meatloaf and baked potatoes.

London and Drew painting their pumpkin.

Emmy, concentrating hard.

Trying our best to get those apples!

The apples we picked.

Swimmers take your mark

Cannon and London have both joined the swim team at the YMCA and have been practicing hard for over a month.  Saturday was their first competition - a swim meet at the Y in Puyallup!

Both boys chose to swim the backstroke, freestyle and breast stroke (I mean, really, who swims the butterfly anyways?)  The good news is that we were there on time at 12:30 and geared up to go in their new "jammers" (no picture, I didn't want to embarrass them too much).  The bad news is that by 2:00 they were still on event 11 and London's first event wasn't until #31.  Ugh.

I was feeling a little restless and harried by this point so Emmy and I went outside to check on Mick who was in the car.  Outside it was blustery, spitting rain and cool.  It was at this point that I felt better that my kids had picked swimming since at least I got to stay warm and dry unlike those poor soccer parents huddled under their blankets and umbrellas!

Back inside the pace of the meet had picked up and soon London was swimming his first event - the 50 meter backstroke.  He buzzed through it and came in first (although they weren't announcing winners...)  Next came Cannon's back which he did great in too.  Steadily after that I watched them swim their hearts out doing breast and then free.  They did great but were tired and cold by the end of it all.  I'm so proud of the boys - way to go guys!

That's London leading the pack in backstroke.

Here comes Cannon with his backstroke.

Finally

Cannon is a saver.  In fact, if I didn't push him a bit he'd never buy anything.  I guess it's a good thing and he probably gets it from me, but sometimes you just need to spend your money.  And on Tuesday that's just what he did.  After several years of saving, Cannon bought his first computer - a MacBook Pro.  Great, now my kid not only has an iTouch which I don't have, but he also has a better computer than me.  What's wrong with this picture?

I can say that I took this opportunity to teach Cannon a little about comparative shopping by taking him first to Best Buy who said they would match a competitor's price.  We then skipped across the street to the mall and visited the Apple Store.  They couldn't match Best Buy's price so we went back across the street to make the purchase.  Cannon was mortified that we had to tell the Apple sales person that we were ditching his store, but I hope I made it clear that buying a computer was not about the salesman's feelings but about keeping more of that hard earned money in your own account.  He felt better after he told the Apple guy that he might buy his warranty in the future!

So proud of my little saver (and thanks for letting me borrow your computer to write this!)

Zumba

Since we joined the YMCA for swim team, I've been trying to hit up some of the exercise classes.  I really wanted to do the yoga, and maybe the pilates, but it seems that there's always a zumba class on whenever I have time to exercise.  So you could say that I've done a little zumba lately.  The funny thing is that the kids, especially Emmy, are fascinated by this loud music, rockin' class.  She stands and stares in the window of the Wednesday night zumba class as we are waiting for the boys to come out of the locker room until finally one of the ladies came over and told us that there is a kids zumba class on a  Sunday afternoon!

So Sunday we decided to give it a try.  The Y has conveniently scheduled an adult zumba class next door to the kids zumba at the same time - perfect!  When London found out we were going he cheerfully joined us - he's my boy with rhythm.  Cannon politely declined to go!

The funniest part of this story is that Emmy told me exactly what she needed to wear for the class - her "pisgetti" strap shirt.  Yes, according to Emmy, "that's what all the ladies wear to zumba".  Where does she get this stuff???

Ready to zumba!

In our pisgetti strap tops and ready to dance!

London turns 9

London has been counting down his birthday for a long time now.  The poor kid is last in our family's lineup of birthdays so he has to suffer through watching everyone else get their presents and birthday meals.  Since his real birthday is on a Monday, a school day, we decided to celebrate on Saturday instead.

We've been promising him a surprise trip - something to do with animals - for a while so he was virtually bursting with anticipation come Saturday morning.  After our waffle breakfast, and the opening of presents (a bike and a watch were the main presents), we piled in the car to head out to Northwest Trek.

On his new bike.

This is a wildlife park associated with the zoo, but with a different, wilder side.  Located out in the country a bit, Northwest Trek is a combination zoo and drive-through safari featuring animals found in the Pacific Northwest.

We weren't really sure what to expect, but found a totally cool experience.  We started by visiting some of the birds of prey found in the area - Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles, owls, vultures, etc.  These were all birds that had been injured in the wild and so were living their existence at the park.  Very cool to see these raptors up close and personal.

We had tickets for the 2:00 tram tour and so piled on board for a guided tour through 5,000+ acres of open territory which is home to more northwest creatures like moose, big horn sheep, elk, and bison.  The first few minutes of the tour netted no sightings of animals and Stevie and I were beginning to think the tour would be a dud, but then we started spotting animals all over the place.  Some were tucked away in the woods, but others were right next to the road - some even in the road!  It was totally cool.  Stevie was really excited to see a bison, but I liked it best when a moose walked right toward the tram and then around the back of it to stand and watch us.

Could have petted this one!

One large moose walking toward our tram.

Are we watching him or is he watching us?

After our hour tour in the wilderness, we finished the day by seeing more animals that were thankfully not included in the open tram tour: bears, bobcats, wolves, lynx.  And then another section had skunks, beavers, wolverines, otters, etc.  This was a really neat place, especially on this beautiful fall day.

London's celebration continued at home with his favorite dinner (salmon) and cake (in the shape of a watch which was one of his presents).

Of course we couldn't ignore London's actual birthday so the kid got two days of celebration with another special dinner and dessert on Monday and more presents (from family).

Happy birthday Jimmy!