Halloween Evening

Halloween was on Sunday this year so we kept our evening low key. We trick-or-treated at a few neighbors' homes.

We decorated our yard as a grave yard this year. It was so much fun. It is too bad that we lost half of our decor. The wind blew it down the street. It has been a very windy October.

Here is Jacob helping us hand out our Halloween candy. The weather was so nice this year we just sat on the porch for a little while and enjoyed the activity on the streets. I love our neighborhood. --emily

Pumpkin Carving

The rain returned today so we spent the majority of the day inside. We played games and carved our pumpkins. The boys had a great time carving pumpkins.

The boys enjoyed getting their hands dirty and slimy. They both did a great job cleaning out all the guts. It was fun to me to see their different style of digging. Jacob looked like he was scooping cereal from a breakfast bowl and Andrew was scoopin' like it was hard ice cream.

Before we started carving Jacob went up stairs to his room and changed into the same shirt that Dad had been wearing all morning--a small red polo shirt Kelly picked up for him when he was Indiana this summer. He wanted to match Dad. Makes for a cute picture here.

This is Jacob's pumpkin he designed himself. Jacob drew little round eyes, a smiley face, and little arms on his pumpkin with a sharpie. Then Dad helped him cut out the skinny parts. I love how it has little arms. Very nice work Jake!

This is Andrew's Pumpkin. I helped him carve it out. He wanted teeth and eyes and this is what we came up with. A classic Jack-O-Lantern.

Here are all three pumpkins. Kelly helped Jake I helped Drew and Kelly made a Daddy pumpkin too. --emily

Ward Halloween Party

Friday evening our ward had a Halloween party / trunk-or-treat. The activity began with us trick-or-treating at each of the cars. I was impressed with how people decorated their cars. My car was so lame. But a mom can only do so many things and an elaborately decorated Halloween car didn't make the cut this year. After going from car to car we were all gathered inside for a well-planned kid Halloween party. They had a cake walk, a coloring station, bobbing for apples, ring toss and bingo. I feel like there was so much more but I can't put my finger on it.

Here the boys and I are playing bingo. They both really enjoyed this game. Note to self: when playing a game like this in public, don't use candy as the marking pieces. Hands get sticky! And the germ-a-phobe in me is thinking about all the little fingers that have touched the pieces before me. As I am writing this, I am remembering my friend, who will go unnamed, grabbed a piece from the table and popped it in her mouth. That is why I am gagging on the inside. Love you friend!

The boys are picking their prizes from winning at bingo. The guy running the game said they could each pick 2 things. Jacob picked 2 little sticky rats, and Andrew picked a pack of candy Dots. We have already lost the little sticky rats. Jacob has had me looking for them all day.

The boys are Transformers for Halloween this year. They look awesome! I had a couple of different people ask me if I made them. Boy do I have some people fooled with how crafty I am. Costco and Target made their costumes this year.

For the cake walk activity, they had asked for volunteers to make cupcakes for the kids to win. Here are the cup cakes I made for the party. It was a chocolate pudding base cupcake with coconut frosting. I have to admit I did sneak one and I sent my friends over to sneak one for themselves also. The kids don't know how to appreciate a good cupcake like that.

It was a fantastic party! --emily

Happy Birthday Hubby

We celebrated Kelly's birthday this last week. We partied with chocolate-on-chocolate cupcakes, a new golf club driver and many wishes. We have had a birthday tradition of having a birthday lunch with dad, but poor dad, he was supper busy with work and we were unable to party at lunch time. So we had to wait till later in the evening to celebrate. We are so grateful for a dad and husband that works so hard to provide so well for us.

Happy birthday Kelly! --Love, emily

White board fun

This summer we bought an easel with a chalkboard on one side and a white board on the other. We have used it as a chalk board in the garage for most of the summer and now that it is cold outside we have brought it inside and are using the white board side.

This pink picture Jacob drew for mom. "Mom this is you" pointing to the person in the middle. "And here are some flowers because you like flowers." I love that Jacob drew me with a skirt on and in a pink pen.

This blue picture Jacob drew for Dad. "This is dad" as Jacob points the the guy on the Right. "And here are the mountains" as Jacob points to the tall shape on the Left. "Dad is pointing to the mountains. He likes the mountains" Supper cute! --emily

Andrew's Birthday Week

We celebrated Andrew's birthday this week. It was a great week of celebrating!

Andrew's request for birthday breakfast was hot chocolate, toast and birthday oatmeal, which is regular oatmeal with sprinkles on it. Sprinkles turn everything into a party.

Andrew wanted to help me make his birthday cake. He was such a great little assistant. Upon his request we used the red baking dish. We made a funfetti cake with homemade chocolate frosting. It was Yummy!

Once Dad got home from work we ate dinner, made some wishes, blew out candles, and ate cake.

Andrew enjoyed his cake!

We concluded his actual birthday with opening a few gifts. It was a great evening party.

Then on Saturday we had a few friends over to play games and hang out. The kids played put the symbol on the transformer and we even had a transformer pinata.

Andrew's cousin Simon was so excited here. He is showing everyone the transformer head that flew off the pinata. It was a great week for a birthday.

We are so grateful to have Andrew as part of our family. It has been a great 3 years. It is so fun to see him " Transforming" into a big boy. We love you so much. --Mom

Let the party begin

Andrew's Birthday invite!

Yes, that is a Andrew-Bumble Bee. --emily

Vampire teeth

Jacob went to a friend's birthday party this morning and look what was in the goody bag. I think this is Jacob's first pair of vampire teeth. He was sporting them all day.

Jacob thought it was cool that he could stick his tongue out through the vampire teeth. What a cute kid! --emily

Mail box fun!

This week the boys received this fun Halloween treat in the mail from Bat-ma and Bat-pa Mark. It was full of stickers, gum, candy, Halloween band-aids and much more. Thanks for the Halloween surprise. The boys love to get mail. --emily

Pumpkin Patch

The pumpkin patch that has been our tradition for the past few years was closed this year due to elk eating the pumpkins. So we tried another local patch. The weather was warm and sunny so we only needed a sweatshirt to stay cozy. I wonder if the weather is always this nice at this patch. ;)

Andrew followed Jake around the whole time saying. " Where are we going next, Jake?" Andrew was Jacob's little shadow all afternoon. It was so cute. They walked the whole patch looking for the perfect pumpkins.

This Patch had great pumpkins. I even wondered for a moment if they had some pumpkins brought in from California. Isn't that where all the big fruit come from?

I love this picture of Andrew. He sat nicely, allowed me to take a picture and then nicely asked if he could see the picture. Both kids aren't this way!

We bought hot, yummy doughnuts and watched them making them from scratch. Yummy . . . It was the perfect day for the pumpkin patch. I love impromptu family outings. --emily

Weekend with Grandpa

Grandpa Siple was in town for the weekend.

It's always fun to have him visit.

We went to the Salmon Days festival in Issaquah on Saturday. We got to see the salmon swimming up stream, we ate yummy snacks, and we visited the booths of countless vendors. I think it was too much fun for Andrew, who fell asleep while being carried by Emily.

We decided to take a trip to Whidby Island the next day. Our journey began with a ride on the ferry. Ferry rides are always fun.

We found a cool beach that was covered with old logs and beach wood.

Someone had built a fort with some of the wood. Jacob and Andrew had a great time playing in the fort.

The boys had fun playing with the wood on the beach. They found pieces of wood that looked like shovels, hammers, guns, telescopes, etc.

Here Jacob is modeling some wooden horns he found.

The boys love to dig. They used wooden "shovels" they found to dig for treasure.

On Monday morning we went to the golf course to hit balls at the range. Jacob and Andrew continue to display a lot of natural ability.

Grandpa impressed us all with his ability to hit the ball straight. Although he denies it, we think he has been taking lessons so he could impress us.

After golf, we went home to enjoy some birthday cake. Since Grandpa, Kelly, Jacob, and Andrew all have a birthday within a month of each other, we celebrated all four birthdays at once.

It was a great weekend. We're glad grandpa was able to come visit. --Kelly