Scooping and Celebrating!

The kids had lots of fun scooping, drawing faces and watching Dada and I carve their pumpkins. Sadly, we didn't get a picture of the finished product. I meant to, but in only 3 days - they were filled with mold and soggy. So we had to throw them out. That's ok. They fulfilled their purpose and didn't stay around the house as unnecessary clutter like other crafts tend to do.

This year for my 35th birthday I was in Spokane! A group of some new girlfriends from Lake City (and some old friends too!) went to a Beth Moore conference. It was more like a Biblestudy, but it was fun. I love worshipping God with lots of other people who love Him and seek Him out too! He is so amazing! And Beth has some great little stories, has a cute accent and really digs into the Word! We stayed at my friend Beckie (who is now my mentor!)'s house in Spokane. And on Oct. 29th I woke up to balloons and a party hat she had gotten for me. That morning we went to Starbucks (for about 2 hours - so nice and relaxing!) and Shari treated me, at the conference Adeliz got me a shirt and there was cheese cake and more treats than we could eat back at home - I love my friends! And I love Peter for letting me go and spending time with all our babies!

Dada the Playground

The kids love climbing on Dada and using him as a jungle gym. He is brilliant and strong, and figured out how to let all of them have a "ride" at the same time! We call it, "The Ride"

Helpers and honey

Our kids are great helpers. We ask them to do a lot to help the family and most of the time they chip in with a great attitude. Not for money, prizes or rewards, but because it's all of our responsibility to help out - and there's always something to be done. This fall, Jasper was so excited to help Dada outside with wood projects. He'd sit outside and watch him chop the wood and then wait for his turn to put it in the wheelbarrow or stack it in the pile. The boys are also great at getting the wood from outside and bringing it in for the fire.

After stacking many wheelbarrows full of wood, Jasper took Opal outside to admire his work and in his best big brother voice told her, "Hey Opal, wanna know who moved all this wood? Bubba Did! You know how? Cause God made Bubba so strong!"

And finally, all of our honey, jarred and looking pretty. It looks like a lot, but sadly, we're already out. Time to go buy honey at the store. Well, we did get pretty excited about giving it away this year as our Christmas presents.

The boys stacking more wood.

This year we had to buy our pumpkins! Sadly the Lakewood fire dept. was not able to get any free pumpkins for their harvest day, so we went to Safeway instead. The kids were still excited about getting to pick out their own pumpkins.

Dada's new fall craze: Making pretzels. Last year he was really into making bread. This still involves the kids kneading and rolling the dough, but also adds lots of salt, or cinnamon and sugar or mustard or my favorite - nacho cheese!

Corn Maze!

Everyone knows Mama loves a good corn maze! Spooner Farms has the greatest corn maze. Every year they decorate the maze in a different theme, usually a movie. This year the theme was "Alice in Wonderland" - the new movie with Johnny Depp. So the kids didn't know what the huge jaberwocki made out tires was suppose to be, but they loved climbing all over it. We also love how everyone gets their own ticket that they get to punch it 6 times at the hidden mailboxes scattered throughout the maze. You have to find all six before you can find the exit, plus all the cool hidden scenes and I think getting really muddy is required too. After, the kids were rewarded with big light-up lollipops by the Spooner staff.

Boys racing the girls on the straw horses in the kid land before going through the maze.

One crowded cow.

One of the scenes in the maze. We stopped to have tea with the Mad Hatter.

The girls in their matching fall dresses leading Dada through the mud!

All of us on the couch in the middle of the maze. Next to it was the little table with the "Eat Me" treats and all around were doors you had to choose to go through to get the the rest of the maze. Yeah Corn Maze! I love October. I love Fall. I love that I finally get to post about it now that Peter put all the photos on the laptop!