Pumpkin Carving.

Today is nuts. I should be doing about 8,000 other things as Colin and I get ready to spend the day tomorrow flying across the Pacific. But you know what? I've been organizing photos the last couple of days into groups of events (first lost tooth, trip to Doernbecher, Easter 2011, etc.) and I realize that I really have been terrible about documenting things. Somewhere around Abe's birth and cancer, I kind of fell off the documenting wagon and it makes me sad. I don't even have any notes down about Juliet's last birthday. What?? So today, when I should be packing, I am taking a few moments to document last night's pumpkin carving. My kids had a blast. These pumpkins are out of our own garden, which the hippie in me loves. The kids picked out stencils and Colin and I helped (actually, we did it all) the carving.

Here is Boss telling me something - this kid has lots of words to use. All the time.

Jude loved handling the guts of the pumpkin. My job during this gutting process was picking out pumpkin seeds, which I roasted. Have you tried that? They are off the hook good for a snack.

Jude had the scary pumpkin, Sissy had the witch and Samuel did Frankenstein.

Sissy had fun gutting her pumpkin - although she said it felt pretty gross. Isn't her hair cute? Colin cut it. She wants no hair up front because it gets in her eyes. I told her that's called a mullet and I won't be having it. At least not for my girl.

Yay! The kids packed up their pumpkins to leave for the grandparents house. I can't believe we won't be with them for Halloween - actually, they were going to attend the church harvest festival (which is way more fun than trick or treating), but we'll do that next year.

Halloween 2010

I can't believe I haven't posted pictures of Halloween yet! I feel like I've had long droughts of internet time lately, choosing instead to read stories to the kiddos, help Samuel with reading lessons, carting Jude to and from school, or watching the kids during swim lessons. In other words, it's been crazy around here. And currently almost everyone in the house is sick, so I've been cooking, steeping tea and wiping noses all day. So while I listen to my Wednesday night Bible study on Ustream, I will cheat a bit and blog about the kiddos =). Jude was a knight and Samuel was Batman.
Jude in the middle of trick or treating.
Samuel showing me his loot. We have three huge glass containers of candy that should last us for the next three years.
Sissy was super feverish so she was not having any sort of costume. Look how sick her eyes are!

And here are the cousins together - this picture says it all - constant movement.

Halloween

2/3 of my kids love going and dressing up on Halloween. Guess who doesn't? Oooh. Angry lion, that one! I'm with her. I don't love Halloween, but I've been overruled, so the kiddos dressed up and headed over to the rich folk neighborhoods of Happy Valley. You know the funny thing? We had to dump candy out of our jar leftover from last year!! The boys came home with two bags full of candy and we will give them a piece here and there over the next year.

Like Jude's makeshift dinosaur costume? That's creativity at its finest. Colin fashioned the tale out of tent material covering a wire hanger. Samuel practically sleeps in his Spidey suit.

Please excuse the flash photography. There really is no excuse.

This picture actually frightens me a bit. I think it's the big beady eyes.