Pumpkins and Bats

Our kids woke up yesterday and looked out the windows to find three big orange pumpkins in the garden.

They were amazed!  We planted our pumpkin seeds a couple months too late and weren't expecting pumpkins for Halloween, but this is the second time this has happened.

The first time, Keith's mom snuck a pumpkin in, and this time Keith and I snuck in some more.

It's hard to tell if the kids really think they grew there, or if they realize that they aren't even attached to the vines.  When they went out yesterday Grant yelled, "Wow, that one grew with a sticker on it!"  Oops.

By yesterday afternoon he was asking questions and he knows something sneaky is going on.

But they love it.  And they've had fun discussing who's going to get which pumpkin.

 The boys also helped hang bats on our wall.  They are very excited for Halloween and even more excited to wear their bat costumes.

Bat Costumes

Fall break is over.  The boys have started back up at school.

I went on a fun little trip to Trader Joe's with Camille and my mom this morning, and now I'm working on bat costumes for Halloween.  So far so good!

Brett turns 4!

Brett turned four years old yesterday.

 He was excited to wake up to presents and a giant "4" balloon tied to his chair (which I still haven't gotten a picture of).

 All of the hoopla started last weekend with a friend birthday party.  It was a hit!  Or should I say a splash!  We had a giant sheet of plastic covering about half the yard.  The kids had a blast and a half!

 It was a pirate themed party.  Arrrr!

 If there was a prize, Camille would have won it for keeping the eye patch on the longest!  She had it on the whole time.  Sometimes it was on her eye, or her forehead or cheek, and for a while it was on her nose.  She didn't care, she was just happy to have the accessory!  :)

 There were a few games played.

 But mostly these kids were flying around on the plastic!

 Of course there had to be a treasure hunt.

 It was up in the grapefruit tree.

 This is the best shot I could get of the treasure, those pirates got in there so fast.

They each got a little treasure box filled with goodies.

 Cupcakes with gold doubloons.

 This past Sunday night we had my family over for a birthday dinner.  We had baked potato soup, dilly bread, rolls, salad, fruit, and more cupcakes.

 Brett smushed blue frosting all around his mouth, so my brother did the same and had Brett laughing hysterically.

Then Keith smushed a ton a frosting all over his mouth and chased me down before planting a huge kiss on me!  I totally got frosting up my nose.  It was so funny!

 Then last night we went with a bunch of cousins on Keith's side of the family to Organ Stop Pizza.

I hadn't been there forever.  It did not disappoint.  These kids loved it and were totally captivated the whole time.  They especially loved having a dance party at the front with Grandma.

While we were eating pizza and watching the show, Brett leaned over to me and said, "This is the best birthday ever!"  Hooray!

Clean windows, Gyoza, and Happy First Day of Fall

We spent this past Saturday doing some pre-fall cleaning.  At the top of the list was washing the outside of the windows.  Keith and his assistants did a great job!  I was busy inside washing walls, cabinet doors, and cleaning bathrooms.  While the screens were off we used this kitchen window as a take-out window for the kids snacks and water while they worked.  It was super cute.

 My grandparents came into town and we got together at our house on Monday night for a Japanese dinner of Gyoza (potstickers).  We had other family come over too, for a total of 20 people.

My mom and grandparents came over after lunch and we got started preparing the food.

Brett was happy to have someone to play games with.  :)

 I just love that my grandma is 91 years old now and she's still up and around helping with everything.  While she was standing here washing some dishes, Camille walked up behind her and gave my grandma's legs a big hug and then walked away.  It was darling!

 My mom, grandma, and I sat around my kitchen table putting together 200 of these things.

Later they were lightly fried, then steamed.  We had them along with rice, california rolls, and an asian salad, with chocolate cake and strawberries for dessert.  Yum!

We decided to count that dinner as our First Day of Fall dinner that I usually host, because I just haven't been feeling well enough to do that traditional dinner this year.

Today I'm feeling pretty good and Brett and I whipped up these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies in honor of the First Day of Fall.  They are super easy and delicious.  Very cake like, if you don't mind that sort of thing.  Now we just need the weather to cool off more and it'll really start feeling like fall around here!

Happy First Day of Fall! 

The other watermelon picture

Remember a similar picture with our watermelon?

Well, here's the other one.

 We didn't even plan that picture.  It just worked out really well.

I don't think we could have tried to get our kids to do that if we even wanted to.  Ha!

We used that picture above to share the news with our family.

And here's the little melon today.

We're super excited to welcome this little baby at the beginning of April.

And I'm excited to hopefully have only a few more weeks of "morning sickness!"

It's been rough, but some days are better than others and I use those good days to try to catch up on the stuff that doesn't happen on the bad days.

A morning in the shade

I gave Camille one of my old toys and she thought it was so interesting that she sat in her room this morning and played with it for a while before she came out for breakfast.

This is how Camille usually comes out of her room.  She gathers up her Lambsy and Pigems and her blanket and toddles down the hall.

 After dropping off Grant at school we had some outside play time in the nice shady backyard. 

The weather has been cooling down a little lately and it's actually pretty nice out in the mornings (in the shade).

 Brett stayed home from preschool today.  On Wednesday he said he wasn't feeling well, and then that night he woke up crying.  Yesterday he had a fever, cough, and runny nose.

It was nice to be able to get him outside for some fresh, cooler air.

He's trying to be a bunny here.

 Camille had a blast zooming around on the plasma cars.

She could live outside, she loves it so much.

 Our pumpkin plants keep on growing.

I think we probably planted them too late in the season, but we have high hopes that maybe they'll grow extra fast and we'll have pumpkins for Halloween.

 Brett said, "Mom, did I get one?!"

He was working on his skids.

What a boy!

We have a long weekend to look forward to.

Brett will be getting lots of rest, and I think we'll paint the tree trunks in the backyard.

It's also time to get down to business and plan my annual First Day of Fall Feast.  It's coming up!

Happy Weekend!