Happy Halloween!

 

Happy Halloween from our Renaissance Princess, her Knight in Shining Armor, and their Court Jester!

  

  

 

Jack-O'-Lanterns

 

We carved our Halloween jack-o'-lanterns last night, and all 3 kids had definite opinions about their own pumpkin creations.  First came our Jack-O'-Winnie:

 

 

Or is it our Winnie-O'-Lantern?

 

 

We can't decide, but either way, there has never been a more tolerant, sweet, pet!  It's my opinion that our furry girl secretly loves her holiday attire as much as I love dressing her in it:

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After Winnie's costume donning and photo shoot, it was time for Luke and Leah's jack-o'-lanterns.

Step 1:  Expert Carver Daddy cut the tops off the pumpkins:

Step 2:  The kids scooped out their own seeds and pulp (note italics for a NEW step this year) while Daddy and Mommy were able to sit and talk and have a grown up beverage- Woo Hoo!:

 Step 3:  L&L's designs were transferred onto their pumpkins:  



L&L supervised Daddy closely to make sure that their artistic interpretations were closely replicated.

Luke drew a prototype of his "scary" jack-o'-lantern face for Daddy to carve, and insisted that it have vampire fangs and a frown:

 

Leah decided that she wanted her jack-o'-lantern to have one eye and one mouth.  She aptly named it "No Nose":

 

 

 Step 4:   We attempted a picture of all the kids on the front porch.  If you squint, you can see Winnie attempting to make her escape in the back right of the top photo:

 

 

Happy Halloween Week!

My Little Pumpkin

 

 It's October, which means it's time for pumpkin attire, Halloween costumes, and all things fall!  My little Lee-Lee pumpkin has been especially adorable lately, and we went to the Oak Ridge pumpkin patch today.  I may have squealed the first time that I drove by this seasonal attraction (which is within walking distance of our house), and noted it as Reason #287 as to why I love our new town.  Anyway, Leah was certainly the cutest pumpkin in the patch and we had a fun afternoon together: 

 

Leah keeps us entertained constantly and is such a doll. Below is a picture of "Super Yee-Yee", which is how Leah refers to her superhero self: tennis racket, boots, and cape are required of course.  This is how she greeted her brother as he got off the bus last week: 

 Peanut has also discovered the joy of a Junior Frosty recently, and there's nothing cuter than her expression of delight at that first, delicious, bite:  

Leah had a small hiccup a few weeks ago, where she decided that she didn't like preschool anymore and sobbed uncontrollably each morning, begging me to keep her home.  It was rough.  I wasn't sure what happened, and it was such a drastic shift from my little girl who was so enthusiastic and excited for the first couple of weeks of school.  Luckily, Leah's teachers assured me that she calmed down as soon as I left each day and was happy while she was there.  Things slowly improved as Leah made a connection with one of the little boys in the class, Elijah.  We talked about Elijah LOTS at home, building up how fun it would be to play with him on preschool days, and cheering for our little girl and her new buddy.  We began to hear small details about Elijah from Leah:

"Mommy, Elijah is my new best friend!"    (Yippee, hugs, high fives all around!)

"I held hands with Elijah on the playground today."  (Smiles, thoughts of sweet innocent preschool days...)

"Guys, today I told Elijah that I love him."  (Mark sputters, coughs, and almost chokes on his chicken at the dinner table.)

And the latest:

"Mommy, when I grow up, I am not going to live with you anymore.  I am going to go marry Elijah and live with him."   (Can you hear my heart shattering into a million pieces?)

And there you have it.  From clingy toddler who can't bear to be without Mommy to independent adult who abandons me forever... in 3.2 seconds.

The bright side is that preschool is appealing and fun again for our little girl, and we are happy to be hopefully past that bumpy patch of adjustment.  In fact, Leah and Elijah waited for each other to be dismissed at pick up time yesterday, grabbed hands, and left their Mommies behind them.  Introducing preschool's cutest couple:

 

Leah has also been helping me bake quite a bit on our "Stay at Home with Mommy" days.  Here was our first attempt at blueberry beignets.  When Mark asked me what in the world that was, I whispered, "It's a whole wheat, homemade, healthy donut, but don't tell Leah.  She thinks they are the real deal!"  

 

 

Leah's been a very good hostess recently, with our many visitors this month.  She helped Miss Nicole play "War", and gave lots of check-ups to any willing patients:

 

She still loves Doc McStuffins.

Checking Mommy's heart beat.

 

Mimi's check-up.

One final cute Leah story:

A few weeks ago, Luke asked me one of his many unanswerable questions, and I gave him my now-default response:

"I don't know.  Let me ask Siri."

So I picked up my IPhone and asked the wonderful, all-knowing, mysterious voice inside what year the typewriter was invented, or how many species of dinosaurs existed, or why our galaxy is called the Milky Way, and Siri (as always) came back with the perfect response.

A few moments later, Leah asked, "Mommy, is Siri a spider?"

I replied, "No, honey, why do you ask?"

And Leah responded, "Because she always says, 'Let me check the web.' "

Sweet girl, of course you'd think that Siri is a spider who lives in her web.  How we love that precious pumpkin! 

Gone Fishin'!

 

We've been having some fun fishing at the lake in our neighborhood lately.  This past weekend, Leah caught 3 bluegills, and the fish started biting as soon as we cast her line into the water!  I personally think her pink princess fishing rod was lucky, but it was probably the night crawlers that Gawa brought as bait.  The kids had absolutely no problem picking up those big juicy worms and touching the slimy fish that they caught, while Mommy stayed safely behind the camera:      

 

We took Miss Nicole fishing, too, when she visited last weekend, and she got right in on all the action.  What a good sport!

 

Gawa wins the prize for the most fish caught so far.  I think he had a grand total of 7 or so, including this bass:

 

Luke learning how to use a fishing rod with a lure.

 

Our kiddos are becoming more patient fishermen each time, and are able to refrain from wiggling for longer periods:

 

 

Even Mommy and Daddy are improving our fishing skills and would be all set if we just had someone with us who loved to take the fish off the hook each time we caught one:

So if you come to our house and can't find us, you may need to walk down to the lake, because most likely, we've gone fishin'!