Fall Festival

We went to a couple fall festivals this year.  I miss going to a real pumpkin patch or corn maze, but this is a close second.  The kids wore costumes they could find around the house.

The kids participated in a potato sack race, and also a couple friendly rounds of dodgeball.  We stayed longer so they could do the limbo competition.  Penelope is a pro and can get down to two feet.  But when it came time for the limbo the workers were letting people bend forward and letting their knees touch the ground.  Everyone was able to get very low.  My kids were upset about that.  

The craft area was fun.

They had a few photo spots, of course all the big kids wanted a picture in front of the scary one.

Tucker wanted to dye his hair brown so he would look more like Anakin and less like someone from Harry Potter, so we had to hurry and do that the morning of the festival.  I didn't get any pictures but the same night we had our ward Halloween activity.  The youth were in charge and they set up some cute carnival games and we did a trunk-or-treat, Tucker and a couple of the young men made a pretty fun and scary haunted walk through area.  It had scary music, a strobe light and even a fog machine.  It was pretty cool.

I love Halloween, but it is a lot sometimes.  I'm ready to take down our decorations for a couple weeks before we get out our Christmas things.

Fall Routine

We are starting to get into a pretty solid routine around here.  Tucker gets himself up and bikes to seminary and then school before I ever see him in the mornings.  Bob also wakes up and bikes to work.  The rest of us get up at 6:15 and busily get ready for school.  We drive to the bus stop at 6:45.

Beatrix and I then head home and get her ready for school.  Her bus picks her up at our house at 8.  Once she leaves I go on a jog and then head into work.  After work I pick up Beatrix from school and some days the rest of the kids.  Then we head home for homework and dinner.  Bob comes home when he can, usually around 5:30.  By the time we are done cleaning up dinner and homework it is bedtime and we start again the next day.  

One day we got to go to the school open house.  It was almost three hours long and we had all the kids so it was difficult.  Bob and I split up and were able to go to 2/3rds of the three odler kids classes.  It is a beautiful, but very small middle/high school.  I didn't love that several of the teachers are just subs including the learning specialist Scarlett has that is supposed to be fulfilling her IEP and getting her the extra reading help.  It was really nice to meet the teachers.  I haven't gotten to go into the kids classrooms like this since before we moved to Japan.

In preparation to come back Bob and I are working on house plans again.  So I'm always looking at houses online, and thinking about floor plans.

We had two typhoons where base shut down and school and work were cancelled.  Everything was fine for us and most people though.  Just two very loud very windy days/nights.

Of course they wanted to experience it first hand.

We are getting excited for Halloween!  

Just a couple more before school selfies.

I think it is time for me to start buying pumkin puree at the commissary so I can make yummy fall food.

Pumpkin Patch

Going to a pumpkin patch in fall has become a family tradition.  I still haven't found the perfect farm so we have gone to several different ones over the years.  The one we went to this year was not my favorite but we still had fun.

This little picture set up was cute.

The face painting was outstanding.  The people painting faces were part of some kind of art class so they did a really good job.

Penelope's cupcake was really good, and she loved it.  But by the time I took the second picture she was mad because I told her we weren't going to wait in the long line to go on the swing.

They had a band playing blue grass type music and a couple of food vendors.  We tried the brick oven pizza.  It was good but the only toppings were kale and squash, and once it cooled off in about 3 minutes it wasn't very good at all.  It was fun to try though.  I'm not sure what face Scarlett and Bob are making in this next picture. :)

After lunch we went to pick out pumpkins.  There was a very long line to pay for them and not very many pumpkins left.  Maybe you have to come very early to get a good pumpkin.  We ended up leaving and driving to walmart where everyone picked out their own $5 pumpkin.  Next year I want to do another corn maze, and maybe try a pumpkin patch with more things for the kids to do.

Spiderwebs

We have a small row of trees lining one side of our driveway and the spiders love them!  Even the kids have learned not to walk between the trees because you are sure to walk through a web if you do.  Sometimes in the morning they look really pretty covered in dew.

As much as I don't like spiders it really is amazing what they can do.

Missing Tooth

I made caramel apples the other night and this little girl took a big bite and lost her first tooth.  Her tooth had been wiggly for weeks but wasn't coming out.  I was hoping it would come out soon and kept encouraging her to wiggle it.  She seemed like she wanted it to fall out but was scared at the same time that it would hurt.  While we were sitting at the table eating caramel apples it flew out of her mouth onto the table.  She said she noticed she bit something hard and thinking it was an extra hard piece of apple she spit it out!  She was so excited she has been showing everyone.

After all the excitement we let them watch a show while eating the apples.  If you look close you can see that Penelope's is about to drip all over the carpet and she is just watching tv.

Preschool Pumpkin Patch

Leon and I joined Scarlett and her preschool to the pumpkin patch for a field trip.  We went to the same one two years ago with Penelope's preschool but Scareltt said she didn't remember.  I thought it looked exactly the same.

We got there early and took some pictures while we were waiting.  Tucker was going to come but Bob ended up having the day off so they went dirt bike riding instead.  It was nice having just the two little ones.  

The only downside wast that it rained on us.  Not a pouring rain, but enough that I felt bad for Scarlett because she didn't have a hood.  She said she loved "the wet" and was ok about it.

The kids were cute taking their turns on the tractor.

Every time we see chickens I think about how Bob wants some and we might one day be chicken owners ourselves.  I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that.

All the kids had to pick up the eggs and feel them.  I learned that each chicken makes their own distinctive egg shells.  The chicken makes the same dot pattern on her eggs every time. The tour guid compared it to our fingerprints.

The highlight of the trip was picking out a pumpkin.  Both kids said it was the best part.

After much thought and pumpkin switching they both ended up with bumpy pumpkins (not the above pictured ones).

I love fall and going to the pumpkin patch has been a great tradition for our family.

Soccer Rain

We got drenched at our last soccer games!  Every year we have at least one really wet and rainy game and last week was it!  We first got to Penelope's 11am game and it was raining so hard!  One of the girls left before it even started and one didn't show up.  So they only had 4 out of 6 players, making it hard on the girls.  Penelope played the entire game without any subs.  Some of the girls were just crying.  

Although we thought we were prepared with umbrellas and coats we were still drenched all the way through.  The chairs were soaked and it felt like we were sitting in puddles.  It was pretty bad so they ended the game at third quarter.  The girls were just not willing to play anymore.  Except for Penelope, she actually kept a good attitude the whole time.

 We all went home and changed into dry clothes.  Scarlett had an hour and a half break before her game so we got ready for that.  Because of the weather we decided that I would take Scarlett alone and let the other kids keep dry.  Scarlett's game started out dry but the rain came back and it even thundered so they ended the game early as well.  We have never had a game cancelled before because of weather so that tells you how bad it was.

A couple hours later I went back with Tucker for his game.  Luckily the rain basically stopped and the game was really good.  It was very close and intense, not at all like the girls games.  The boys won with a last minute goal and couldn't have been more excited.

Hopefully that will be our one rainy soccer day of the season!