Halloween 2008

'Twas the night before Halloween, and all through the house were sounds of pumpkins with their guts being carved out. OK so I can't rhyme, but the girls really enjoyed designing and helping to prepare their pumpkins for carving.
Claire decided to do something a little unique this year. She painted two small pumpkins to make a spider and a bat.

The girls' school has a costume parade every year on Halloween morning. Tons of parents, grandparents and siblings come to watch all the creativity.

In case it isn't obvious, Claire is a sting ray and Emily is a witch.

How Cool is this Kid?

One of the boys who goes to school with the girls has a dad in the California National Guard. For Red Ribbon Week, the dad asked for and received special permission to land his Black Hawk helicopter on the playground of the school. By all accounts is was an awesome site to see. Commander Carlson spoke to the kids about making good choices and believing in themselves.
It was better than having a rock star on campus!

Emily's class:

Claire's class:

YIKES!

We caused a car accident today. So it wasn't more than a fender bender and we weren't even in our car but 2 families sure were not starting their day as planned this morning. We were walking to school with some friends this morning. There were 3 adults, 4 kids and 1 baby in a stroller. We weren't an insignificant bunch crossing the road. But somehow the second person in a line of people waiting to turn right across the cross walk we were in missed seeing us and plowed into the first car in the line. We hadn't even gotten half way across the street when we heard the BANG so we were in no danger but it was still a little unsettling. Ironically we had just finished answering the question from the kids, "Why do we have to hold hands every time we cross the street?" This is why. One of the moms in our group was nice enough to leave her name and phone number with one of the crashers just in case. Other than a few rattled nerves and bent bumpers everthing will be alright. Thank you guardian angels for watching over us this morning.

Irvine Park

We met up with our pre-school friends at a local park to enjoy a fall day. Of course the weather thought it was still summer! We found a nice shady area to call our own. There wasn't much there to play with but you never would have known it by watching the kids. They made up their own games and stayed busy all afternoon.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Disneyland of Pumpkin Patches with Grandma Holly and Papa Rich. There were animals to feed, an animal show to watch, giant pumpkins to climb, a corn maze to get lost in, a hay bale tower to climb, a hay ride to ride, cows made out of barrels to ride in, a box with a ton (literally!) of beans to play in, wheelbarrows to ride in, oh and of course... pumpkins to choose!

Oak Glen

In order to experience "fall", we have to drive to the local mountains, gain some elevation, then see what the rest of the country raves about. We love to go to Oak Glen each year for this purpose. Once we were up the mountain, we found a lovely orchard that was having its opening weekend. That meant that the trees were covered in apples still and the girls had a very easy time filling 2 big bags in a short amount of time. They also liked exploring the grounds, feeding the resident horse and patting the resident pot bellied pig.
After working hard in the orchard, we had to reward ourselves with a treat - carmel covered apple slices! The bowl was scraped clean by the time we were done with it.

We finished up by pressing some cider. We picked out 20 pounds of apples. Claire threw them one by one into the press while Daddy, Emily and I took turns turning the wheel. When we were done we were sticky and tired but we had a gallon of yummy cider.