Happy Halloween!

Ready for the neighborhood pizza party in our garage before the trick-or-treating! A is a baby, E is a Storm Trooper. Click on the picture to make it bigger and you'll see what A's bib says :)



















Our cute almost-one-year-old neighbor, Michael, (wondering why on earth he's dressed like a pumpkin) and his Pink Mom, Nisreen.



















Sol and E--the Storm Troopers.














Most of the gang--it was impossible to actually get them all in a picture at once. There were like 25 kids and almost as many adults. First we had pizza (and carrot sticks!) in our garage...



















...then off they went trick-or-treating. Imagine opening your door to that huge gang of kids!!














...and they're off.



















That's called a Candy Coma. After we got home she sorted out all her candy into piles of matching kinds. Tomorrow we'll have to figure out how to get rid of most of it! Our dentist bills are high enough already, thank you very much ;)

A fun night. Happy Halloween!!

Another event

The kids came along to supposedly work with me at an event at a cool kids museum near us, but they actually spent most of the time having fun at the museum and watching the magician.














Look! Dads read ParentMap too! :) I love this shot of the dads reading the magazine while their kids do a craft at my table.

Event at the zoo

ParentMap had a booth at a very fun Halloween event at the zoo in Seattle. There were like a trillion pumpkins carved with every design you can imagine. A and I decided this was our fave.














Nothing wrong with a little child labor, right? Here's A being super helpful handing out my magazines at the event. My friend was there working with us and her daughter was along also. The girls had a great time helping us. We gave out candy to literally thousands of kids. Happy Halloween! A wore her costume--she's a baby and her bib says "Does this diaper make my butt look big?"














The boys came to visit us at the event. Here they are at the (totally little kid friendly) haunted house. For those of you who know E at all, you know he's, well, a scaredy-cat. I LOVE this "um, daddy, I'm not so sure about this place!" expression on his face. But he said he really wanted to go to the haunted house...














...and look at this--he's all proud of himself b/c he wasn't too scared afterall! I mean really, what Storm Trooper is scared of a silly haunted house?! ;)

The Big Dogs' last day of soccer

Entertainment on the side lines.































It was so much fun watching her improve! This was her fourth season and she really enjoyed it.














She got more and more aggressive and really went after the ball. Good stuff.














One second later and that ball she kicked was in the goal, baby. Oh yeah!



















The kids' favorite part of every game--the parents' cheering tunnel.














Bobble head trophies are cool.














Thanks, Coach Stephanie!














The Big Dogs' trophy/pizza party. Yes, we had two trophy/pizza parties in one day. And three soccer games (E's team had two games, A's had one). We had a great season but we're ready to be done!

The Stars' last day of soccer

I think someone must've just scored a goal here. E spent half the time on the field with his hands in his pockets. He likes to be relaxed about his soccer playing!














Woo hoo, he made contact with the ball!!














At the trophy/pizza party. Thanks, Coach Dalton!














The Stars

Yet another birthday party...

...but this one was for the ladies only. We surprised our dear friend, Michele, with an evening out at The Melting Pot for her 40th birthday.

More birthday party fun

We got invited to a bday party for one of E's classmates at a new bouncy house place near us. What a blast!!














Fun fun!














One of his best buds from kindergarten.

Another pumpkin patch

We went to the pumpkin patch for a friend's birthday party. Raining one second, super sunny the next!

Crazy Hat Day

Here's some of the neighborhood gang at the bus stop, all ready for Crazy Hat Day at school.

Grampa's Visit

A few days after Opa and Oma's visit we got a visit from another Special Somebody--Grampa! Gramma couldn't come along because she was still recovering from having a detached retina re-attached...














One of the evenings our power went out for six hours because of a big wind storm. We went out for dinner at a nice restaurant that gives kids an etch-a-sketch instead of boring old paper and crayons. Check out this dog A sketched! (click on the pic to make it larger) I don't know about you, but I was darn impressed. I can barely draw a square with these things...




















Grampa got to go along to soccer practice. Uh oh, look who forgot his jacket! Here's daddy wearing A's hat and borrowing a friend's lovely quilt. Cute.















Grampa also got to work hard as usual! He always offers to do a home improvement project for us and why would we deprive him of that pleasure?! He installed track lighting in our family room, it is just awesome.














See?! Isn't it awesome?! We love it. Thanks Grampa and Home Depot!!

Opa and Oma's visit

We did a corn maze with Opa and Oma--they hadn't ever done one before. We got lost a few times but in the end we found the exit.














Posing in the pumpkin field next to the corn maze really near our neighborhood. Ahh, fall!














During their visit my mom knitted me a hat. Here's me looking like I'm straight out of a knitting pattern catalog! Although the shawl wasn't made by my mom, I got it for $1.50 at Liquidation World a few years ago...

Sleepover

This was Taylor's first sleepover ever! The girls had plenty-o-fun and got just a little bit-o-sleep.

Open House

Tonight was open house at school. E's "I just want to be me" picture was on the wall in the hallway.



















A and her classroom butler, Stanley. Her teacher has a sense of humour :)

Happy 5th birthday, Landon

A's buddy, Riley's, little brother, Landon, turned five (did you follow that?!). According to his mom Landon has a huge crush on A which I think is adorable. Funny that he doesn't care about the 5 year old boy in the family. No, his one request for his birthday party was for A to be there. Aww!














A and her little buddy on the frog hopper.

Ferry ride

Taking Eva (and Winkie) home on the ferry.

Cousin weekend

Eva spent the weekend with us. One night the kids did a riveting performance of Sleeping Beauty...














Clap clap clap.

Um, yeah.

We love you, David A!!

My friend owns his own carpet cleaning business and we love him for it! He made our carpets look as good as new. I know, dorky home-owner thing to be excited about but really, it was VERY exciting.

Kindergarten

Life is getting into a bit of a groove... Now I'm spending one morning a week helping in A's class and one morning in E's class. Here he is during free play time. Notice the other boys in the background playing with blocks and cars. Not my boy--he's crafting with the girls! Makes me proud :) Everyday he comes home with a drawing/card/note for us. Love it.