Pumpkin Carving!

RUS and I carved our pumpkin while R was at gymnastics today. Here we are getting started. RUS put on his game face, aka "smile, RUS!" and we got started.

I drew a couple of different faces on paper and let RUS pick the one he liked best. We went with a simple triangle-inspired face: triangle eyes, triangle nose, triangle teeth. Here's how it looked after we got the eyes cut out.

And here's the pumpkin, completely carved. RUS helped by holding crayons and occasionally touching the pumpkin with the crayons. 

After lunch, R and J and I worked on her pumpkin while RUS napped. Here we are pulling out the seeds. J actually did the carving this time.

R was very particular about how she wanted her pumpkin to look. She drew a couple different versions on paper, and J and I worked to transform her inspiration into something carveable. She had full veto power over our drawings and in fact was quite picky. She wanted a biiiiiiiiiiiig mouth and big eyes and a triangle nose "pointing up!" So, that's what we did!

Clearly a princess pumpkin, isn't it??

Apple Cider Donuts at the Pumpkin Patch

Dress-Up Fun in the Target Aisles

In my continued efforts to have fun and get in the spirit of things without actually spending money (although going to Target usually = spending money, so I don't know that this is a perfect solution) here are the kids having fun trying on masks from the $1 bins at Target.

Pumpkin:

Kitty Cat:

Pumpkin + Magician's Hat:

Mouse:

Frankenstein (to be fair, this one is actually meant to be worn like a visor which, yes, is really quite silly but for picture-taking purposes it works quite as well to just hold it over your face as R is doing below):

Monkey:

Creepy Skull:

 Elephant:

(Some of) This Year's Halloween Cards

As we do each year, the kids made Halloween cards for their cousins, pen-pals, and grandparents. We did these in batches, so not everyone got the same kinds of cards. Here's the cousin cards and one of the pen pals. The kids decorated Jack-o-Lantern faces, some looked relatively Jack-o-Lanterny, and some looked, well, Picasso-esque.

J and I were very impressed with R's ghost decorating, too.

Here's Elvis Ghost:

And here's Wild West Ghost:

And here's Joe Cool Ghost:

And of course RUS got in on the action too, as he decorated the backs of the cards with his own set of pumpkin stickers and markers. I helped him write his name and pick out alphabet letters. 

Less than a Week until Halloween!!!

Here's a wonderfully fallish post to kick off our "leading up to Halloween" week of special blog posts! R is wearing the softest, most gorgeous sweater knitted by one of my favorite people in the whole world, Princess M.

The sweater is perfect for the crisp weather we're having now, and R loved it so much she was inspired to do a dance that she insisted I capture on video for you all.

It was meant to be, right?

Today J was going to be gone until well into the evening, so I was on my own for day care pickup, dinner, bath, and bedtime. I had no genius plan for dinner other than spaghetti (remember, I am not much of a cook, at all), but then on the way to day care I thought to myself, "Maybe I should take the kids to McDonald's." And then I was like, "No, it's so unhealthy. We don't need to go anywhere. We have food at home."

Anyway when I picked up RUS there were two coupons for a free McDonald's ice cream cone attached to his daily report sheet. One labeled "RUS" and one labeled "R."

It was fate, right? I was supposed to take the kids to McDonald's, right? I hope so, because that's what I did.

Introducing L!

Our newest nephew is the cutest thing I have ever seen. I am absolutely dying to meet him--I'm sure my mother is, too!! Fortunately my parents are headed out there in a couple weeks on a trip to Hawaii with a pit stop in San Diego, but I'm going to have to wait awhile to snuggle this little cutie.

Fall Foliage Walk

We took the kids on a hike yesterday to see more leaves changing color. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to get good pictures of foliage when it's far away (many of the trees were really high) and we spent more time looking at leaves on the ground or, when there were gusts of wind, watching them drift lazily down from the trees. But I did snag a few good pictures of J and the kids.

Cute things RUS does

Continuing in the birthday spirit and posting a lot about RUS, here are some cute things he has been doing lately.

1) He sings "Ring Around the Rosy" but he substitutes R's full name in the first line, so that instead of "Ring around the rosy" he sings "Ring around the R."

2) When he's upset with you (for example, you tell him he can't have more of something or that something is not part of dinner) he kicks off his shoes as if to say, "FINE, TAKE THAT!"

3) Actual dinner conversation tonight:
R to J: "RUS and I need to tell you a story. RUS, start!"
RUS: "Unce on uh time uh uh a in-cess"
R: Tells long convoluted story J and I can't readily reproduce here. "RUS, your turn!"
RUS: "And the in-cess went nigh-nigh."
R: "They woke up and went out in the field. RUS say something about them going in the field."
RUS: "nigh-nigh!"
R: "They're going to nap in the field!"
RUS: "NIGH NIGH!!!!!"

RUS's Botday Party

 The set up! We ordered subs from an amazing local sub place, baked cake, and had pretzels, candy corn, and (later) sliced apples. Apple cider to drink.

 Close up of the cake.

(in case you're wondering, "10" is 2 in binary. Thank J for that one.

We had some crafts for the kids. Here, we wrapped up various boxes and containers and attached velcro so kids could make their own robots . . . 

and then decorate them!

 We also cut arm holes in paper bags and let the kids color and stamp on them so they could dress up like robots.

 Here's the gang decorating. This was the activity R was most excited about!

 RUS went to town with the pretzels. He refused to take this one out of his mouth, so I have about 10 pictures of him with a pretzel sticking out just like that.

 Always important to get some book-reading done during parties.

 Now, it's time for CAKE!

And here's my birthday boy!! He LOVED his cake! R had to help me blow out the candles, though, since RUS really only wants to blow through his nose (this is how he cools down his oatmeal in the mornings, too) and it wasn't particularly effective at getting the candles blown out.

Happy 2nd Birthday, RUS!!!

RUS has been having a great run for his 2nd birthday! His daycare class had donuts at school on his birthday, and apparently, he was so excited about it that he woke up early from nap, started singing "Happy Birthday to ME!" really loudly, and woke up the rest of the kids. I bet the teachers loved that.

Then today Grammie and Grampie came over and RUS opened his family presents. It was like Christmas--seriously! Here are some photos and video of the extravaganza tonight.

Tomorrow's his party--we're having Grammie and Grampie as well as some family friends and daycare friends over, and we're all pretty excited although the prep has been quite a bit of work.

We have a new nephew!!!!!!!!!!

What a great day for a birthday: our new nephew, L, entered the world at 5:10 p.m. California time on 10/13/2011. 8 lbs 15 oz!

We cannot wait to see pictures and we're really hoping to meet him in person before too much longer. Once I get a photo, I'll share, of course.

Congratulations again, Surf and Cali!!

I am tickled pink that RUS and his new cousin share a birthday! I've secretly been hoping this would happen for months now, really, ever since I found out that Cali's due date was the same as my due date was for RUS two years ago. It's just such a lovely day to share!