Halloween

Carving the pumpkin

Now that we are cozily drinking hot chocolate and watching It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, as per our post-trick-or-treating tradition, I can share pictures of our Halloween.

Ninja,  James Bond,  Cow

Our bat pumpkin 

The gang--Dougans, Gentrys, Allisons

Two trick-or-treaters=lots of candy

Seven.

Knight's shield cupcakes

Take one at a castle cake. Uh, no.

A girl enjoying cake.

His own binoculars--a big hit!

Molly's a bit worn out from the festivities. 

Pleased with the final result--a castle, dragon, flags.

More coming soon.

Family-full weekend

This is the first full weekend I've been home in a month. Hence there was a lot to do! Yesterday was swim lessons, some alteration projects, yardwork, grocery shopping, and no nap for Molly. Yesterday and today was lots of Legoing for Leo--he decided he wanted to sort his Legos by color, which took us a very long time to do, and then Molly dumped out several of the containers as we were working. Might be a good idea in theory only.

Today was homemade gingerbread scones for breakfast and the pumpkin patch (which was a zoo!)--including apple cider donuts, the corn maze for L and J, a bouncy slide trip for L (M tried but she couldn't quite do the climbing necessary), and of course picking pumpkins. Molly really wanted to ride a pony, but she'll have to wait until next time. I wish I had gotten some mums like I usually do, since I love them so much, but we had let the kids each buy a small stuffed animal and I thought I should probably save the money. I much prefer the farm we went to for pumpkins last year--it just has pumpkins and is much calmer and more enjoyable, but we heard they had already sold out for the year. The afternoon was some beading time for me, lawn mowing for J, fence-climbing for L, and no napping for M.

Sliding at the pumpkin patch

I have no idea why she made this face

Driving the tractor

Our pumpkins

Someone else's pumpkins, but the stems were impressive

Random doings

Readers three

Watching the rain

Kirstin's birthday cake (peanut butter chocolate torte)

Can't go home again

Went to WI for my 21 year high school reunion. Yes, 21. We couldn't get the 20th together in good time so decided to delay a year. We then also combined the party with the class of '92. It was a fun time. It would have been better if Leo hadn't been under the weather and running a fever most of the weekend. But Jeff and I went to the first half of the homecoming game (it was cold! but we won). Then on Saturday there were tours of the new HS and the old HS, which has been converted to apartments, but because it's on the landmark registry they kept a lot of the historic details, since part of it was built during the WPA and has some artwork still from that time like murals and tiles. Saturday night there was a party for the grownups at a local hotel.

Introducing GramGram to Scaredy Squirrel

GramGram love

Auditorium of the new HS

Library of the new HS

One of the murals in the old HS

Old HS apartments

One of the many animal tiles at the old HS

Grin and bear it

We have been busy lately, it seems by the number of posts, or I should say, lack thereof. But honestly, I can't think what is taking up more time than usual. Last year at this time we had plenty of posts. Now, we're just trying to make it through each day, one at a time.

Here's a happy grin (somebody loves monkeys and someone's mama got her several pairs of pj's with them at the latest consignment sale).

Here's someone in his new pajamas--he loves the ice skating snowmen.