Harvest Party

The kids had a blast at the Sunday school Harvest party. They look forward to it every year and always have so much fun.

Kit Kittredge, Little Lion, Spiderman, Big Lion
















Kari was a good big sister and held the string for her.































Couldn't quite reach!















They had pity on him and just gave him a donut.


















The whole "costumed" group. Every year Greg and I talk about finding costumes to wear, but we never do. Not sure we could pull off "Samson and Delilah" like the Pates (pretty sure we can't, actually), but we should come up with something one of these years! :)
















Big "thank you" to the Strandbergs for hosting, Christine for planning, and all those who volunteered to help!

Carving

Eating apples and caramel and carving pumpkins made for a fun Thursday evening. Grant was one tired little boy and went to bed a little after 6pm. It worked out pretty well since he would have wanted in on the action and wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway.

We tried making mini-caramel apples like some I saw on Pinterest, and while tasty, they didn't really work. I've actually sucessfully used several ideas found on pinterest lately, but this one was a fail. I felt better, though, when Kari's class did real caramel apples at school yesterday, and the caramel fell off theirs, too. I think we'll stick with caramel apple dip--not as cute, but a lot less work and a lot less mess!

Finished jack-o-lanterns and happy carvers/scrapers.

Kindergarten Pumpkin Patch field trip

Great Grandma and Grandpa came and watched Aubrey and Grant so that I could go with Joel on his field trip. Clear, cold, and dry weather made for a great morning.

The whole kindergarten class--28 kids with Mrs. Walsh.
On the tractor ride to pick out pumpkins. The girl in the middle is our next door neighbor and Joel's good friend.
His pumpkin's in the bag. I had a good time spending the morning with Joel and his class. It was a treat! :) Thanks so much G&G for helping out so I could go!

Found these on the camera, might as well post 'em

I let the kids paint a while ago (it's not a frequent activity around here, at least not as frequent as they would like). Aubrey's paintings all looked the same--brownish gray and all over the place. Joel's were colorful and carefully planned out. Kinda wonder how much of that is the two year age difference and how much is just personality. Time will tell.


We found a good use for my old laptop, the one my parents gave me the summer before I left for college. Fourteen years old is absolutely ancient for a computer, isn't it? It has now become the baby's play computer! :)

Liepolds, the way we like it

We've had a nice, long, fun, productive weekend. The kids didn't have school Friday, and Greg took the day off, so it felt like we got two Saturdays this weekend.  He took the older three kids to see Cars 2 this afternoon (love the Mt Hood movie passes). They were very excited to go, especially when they heard they would get to pick a movie treat beforehand. Grant and I are hanging out here at home. He's not at a good movie-watching age. :)

We had a couple soccer games on Saturday, and we did a bunch of yard work--moving dirt and rocks, laying bark dust, and just trying to get our backyard presentable and a little more usable. It looks a lot better, and if we can get some grass to grow, I think we'll be good to go for next spring/summer.
We went to the pumpkin patch Friday morning (the main reason Greg took the day off) to assure we would not have a repeat of last year's miserable experience. There were just a couple cars there when we arrived, and the crowds came as we were leaving--perfect timing. We had such a good time together as a family. I loved it! Good memories. We had one little mishap with Aubrey falling forward in the mud, but she somehow managed to keep her face out of it, and she recovered very quickly. Some friends (Paul and Karyn & kids) witnessed the whole thing without realizing at first that it was us--kinda funny. :)

We let the kids take turns choosing which direction we all should go in the corn maze, and they chose the right way almost every time, so it didn't take quite as long as in year's past. The creative juices (or perhaps funds) must have been running low this year because usually they have some cool theme like Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Bob the Builder, or Star Wars. This year the theme was farming, specifically Liepold's farming--about the varieties of berries they grow, pests that threaten the crops, how the farm works. Hmmm...not quite as entertaining, more self-promoting really, but at least it was educational!





















Some favorites from our time there. The pumpkin photos are always some of my favorites. Love all that orange!

















Crazy to think that last year Grant was just a tiny newborn, hanging out in the baby carrier the whole time. This year he's running with the "big" kids, picking out his own pumpkin.

We love the zoo

It was a Wednesday of no school for Joel and a day with no rain, so we headed to the zoo. Grant loved the sea lions, as in squealing-with-delight-stomping-the-feet-in-excitement loved. They were doing their usual show-off routine, swimming straight up along the glass, which is pretty cool. They are one of my favorite animals at the zoo, too, so we spent quite a while there watching them. Grant entertained the other zoo goers with his antics. He just couldn't get enough of those massive creatures. He's been to the zoo with us many times, but this was the first time I remember him actually paying attention to the animals and getting excited. He was so cute.

I kept trying to get a photo of the three kids, but almost every time Grant would run away.



Snack time--one of the kids' favorite parts of a zoo trip. Seriously, they always seem to become ravenous the second we reach the first exhibit. I always make them wait until later, so I don't know why they bother asking so soon--one of the mysteries of the zoo for me. (Other mysteries: Where do they keep the animals when they're "off exhibit?" Why does one of the polar bears walk backwards? Why did they design both exits uphill? We're always so tired by the end, and then we have to make that long trek uphill the whole way back to our car.)

"There was a young boy who [might have] swallowed a..."

[Voice coming from the stairs behind us at 8:45pm]
"It feels like I might have swallowed a tack."
[Silence.]
"Sooo, did you swallow a tack?"
"Well...I don't know, but it feels like I did."
"Did you put a tack in your mouth?"
"I had part of it in my mouth."
"Which part?"
"The pokey part."
"And did it come out of your mouth, or did it go down your throat?"
"I'm not sure, but I'm afraid I swallowed it."

Oh boy. All kinds of thoughts running through our heads: What in the world do you do if your child does swallow a tack? How can he not know if he did or did not? Of all the stupid things to do...Are we going to be able to finish our show, or will we have to head to the ER?

No, they were not all loving thoughts, and no, he did not swallow it. Greg found the offending tack in Joel's bed, much to our (and Joel's) relief.

I went out the next day and bought flat thumb tacks to replace the easy-to-remove push pins in the posters beside the kids' beds. Sheesh!

Virtual Tour

It's been two months since we moved here, and most of our boxes have been unpacked and put away, so it's time for some photos. I have a long ways to go in making it feel "homey." I still have almost nothing on the walls, but that's ok. We'll get there, and we have years to work on it, at least that's what I keep telling myself. :)




Here's what you see when you walk in the front door. This room was totally empty before we got a new smaller table to go in the kitchen, and now it's just mostly empty!






Eventually I envision this being a little sitting area--a small sofa, a couple of chairs on either side of the window. I think it's where our Christmas tree will go in a few months. For now, though, it's a nice big area for the kids to run around.






















I am loving our kitchen. I have trouble keeping clutter off the island, though. I cleared it off for my photo, but it was back moments later. Stuff just WANTS to live there!
















 Family room/great room. To the right of the bathroom is our office/den, which has become the catch-all room, kind of a mess. Laundry room is to the left of the  bathroom and leads into the garage.

I need some color inspiration for our downstairs. I can't decide what I want or what will work, so neutrals it is, for now.


When you get to the top of the stairs you see color emanating from the kids' rooms. Kari's pink room seems to glow, and there's no missing the orange in Joel and Aubrey's room. Our room is to the right of the orange room.




Mom M. painted both Kari's and Joel and Aubs' rooms before we moved in. It was wonderful, and the kids were so pleased. The orange is only on the two walls, and I really like it! It's bright and fun, and it just works.




Our room is huge, and we have almost nothing in it! :) Greg says that someday we'll put some chairs up here and hang out in our "suite" when the kids are older and have taken over the rest of the house with their friends.




Grant's room is to the right of Kari's room across the hall from our room and Joel and Aubrey's. Here are his stripes again (had to include it for my "tour")




Here's Kari's very pink room. She loves her room, and we love having her in her own room once again. It's been a good thing for all of us.

Her room always looks like this, by the way. Everything has a place, and everything is in its place, always. She can tell if someone has been in her room while she's been gone at school, even if we try to put it back the way it was.



And this just might be my favorite room in the house. I LOVE that the toys are no longer crowded into bedrooms or my living room. I LOVE that when kids come to play, I can say, "Let's go up to the playroom!" It's so wonderful. The room gets lots of light from all the windows, and it's just a cheery place to play. I have all kinds of ideas for this space, but we'll do it little by little, as time and money allows, just like everything else.

We are so thankful for our home and still marvel at the way God orchestrated our move. The kids have many playmates on our street. We're surrounded by families with kids. Yesterday I made cookies for an after school treat, and I think I fed half the neighborhood! If we can get our back yard in order (and get along with the picky HOA), I think we'll be very happy here and stay a very long time, Lord-willing!