Carving the Pumpkin

Reed wanted Ms A to have the FULL pumpkin experience.
Enjoy!

It's Autumn Time

One of our favorite seasons is Autumn. We love the pretty colors, the yummy, home grown veges, stews, soups, sweaters and warm socks. Ms A and I have a little tradition we love, it's called raking and playing in the leaves. Today I let Ms A rake while I used the leaf blower. Halfway through our cleaning up, Ms A stopped me and said "Mommy, raking the leaves is SO FUN! This is the BEST DAY EVER!!" with a huge grin on her face. She loved it when I blew the leaves towards her and she could catch them.

In other news I think our street is being invaded!!!
I went outside and saw this:

When I show the picture to Reed, he made some comment about me wanting one too! NO WAY!! I replied. Is there a car out there that can hold a family of six without the minivan - soccer mom look to it?!?!?!?

Happy Halloween

Ms A was so excited for Halloween. A few weeks ago, I asked her what she wanted to be and she quickly replied: Princess Jasmine! We went to JoAnn's with a mission and found success! She was TOO excited when the costume was finished and she was able to try it. We added Grandpa Allen's jewelry from Afganistan and Princess Jasmine was complete. Everyone we saw after that she made sure they knew who she was going to be for Halloween.

Here are a couple of pictures of Princess Jasmine.

Ready to go

We also carved pumpkins. Apparently the pumpkin insides make Ms A sick, especially touching it (something daddy ensured she did!) Ms A drew her pumpkin face out for me to cut and then we all went to work.

Helping Daddy with his pumpkin

Cleaning out the pumpkin

All done!

A Trip to the Zoo

Ms A has a few days off for Parent Teacher Conferences, so we took advantage of the sun and extra time to go to one of our favorites places, the zoo. We have our favorites to see, Ms A the giraffe and me the Polar Bears, but today, Ms A wanted to add a few other animals. We ended up seeing most of the zoo. We were excited to see all three black bears. She exclaimed to some stranger, "that looks just like the bear my mommy saw on her hike!" We learned and saw something new about ducks, they like to dive in the water.
We stayed their and watched them dive and eat the algae on the walls.

We also stopped off and visited the Trillium Farm area. The Oregon Zoo uses the produce to feed the farm animals. We ended our time there with a visit to the Sea Lions, a new favorite of Ms A's. She loved watching them swim and declared "They are so beautiful." It was an enjoyable time.

Heritage Farms

Ms A had her first Kindergarten Field Trip to Heritage Farms. She has been asking when we were going to go for a week, she was excited that mommy was going to join her and ride the bus with her. Tuesday, finally, came, we loaded the children up and headed to the Apple Orchard.They had fun playing in the Bouncy Apple,

choosing their own pumpkins to take home,

going for a hayride,
and drinking Apple Cider from apple shaped juice bottles.

We had a great time. The bouncy apple and cider were Ms A's favorite.

Her First Lost Tooth

Ms A had a HUGE event occur this past week - A WIGGLY/LOST Tooth. Last Wednesday, I joined Ms A at school for lunch. She was eating her carrot, when she said her tooth scrapped her upper teeth. She was a little scared until I explained that her tooth was loose and she'd be fine. We have been anxiously awaiting for the tooth to come out, wiggling it and testing it to see if it was ready. Last night it was ready to come out! She happily exclaimed "It didn't even hurt!" when daddy pulled it. :) She put her tooth in the little pocket and went to sleep wondering how and when the Tooth Fairy would come and what she would bring. This morning, she hopped out of bed and ran to the pillow hanging on the door. She was happy with the money (she's been saving to buy a toy). Then she noticed the tooth was gone. When we told her the Tooth Fairy took it with her, she grinned.

Her Before Smile

Ms A and her Tooth

The Tooth Fairy Pillow

The hole in her smile