Pumpkin Carving and Avery's Preschool Costume Party

Sunday night we finally got around to carving our pumpkins. Last week just ended up being very busy, and the pumpkins got put on the back burner.  Usually I like to search online for carving templates, but this year we just winged it.  Our friends Christie and Ben were over, and they graciously helped scoop pumpkin guts.  We also used a jigsaw to open up the pumpkins, and that helped speed up the carving process immensely.  Unfortunately we didn't realized that sd card wasn't in the camera when we took pictures of the actual carving process.  

Then today Avery's preschool class had a little costume party that their families were invited to of course.  It was very sweet.  Most of the kids dressed up, and we sang songs about Halloween.  Avery wasn't exactly thrilled to see us at first, so we had to hang back for a while before she figured it was alright that Mom, Dad, and Harper could be at school too. Her preschool teachers are just the best though, and we are so happy she's in that class.

Christie carved the perfect example of a classic pumpkin on the end.  That was Harper's pumpkin pick.  Avery's is the mutant pumpkin next to it.   I chose the giant pumpkin in the back, and Daryl's is on the end.  The white pumpkin we got for fun.

Here they are in the light.  You can see the Avery and Daryl's pumpkin's are bumpy.  Those bumpy pumpkins had a really tough rind.  They were hard to carve.

Avery was dressed up as Rapunzel.

Here's the whole class.  

Both Daryl and I really liked that one of the teacher's played guitar for them at circle time.

Avery Takes it Easy

Lately I've noticed that Avery has really been taking advantage of the cup holder built into her little princess camping chair.  Instead of putting her beverage of choice in it though, she has been putting chips and other little snacks in it, so she can sit back with a book and do some light eating.

Happy Fifth Birthday Tyler

Today our nephew Tyler turned five.  He had his birthday party last Saturday at the bouncy place at the Supermall.  The kids loved it of course.  Harper went down the big slide three times in a row with me.  When we went up the smaller slide I made her go by herself though.  We got Tyler a lego space shuttle, but apparently the random bow I found in the closet and decided to stick on his wrapped present quite thoughtlessly was his favorite part of the present.  He toted the bow around the rest of the night.

Avery did enjoy herself. This was one of the few times she didn't slide down on her tummy.

Aimee's niece, Peyton, was really taken with Harper. 

The Cars themed cake.

Tyler in the birthday throne.

This is the bow that Tyler fell in love with. Christmas I'll make sure to just give him a bag of bows.

Harper Potty Trains Her Dolly

   The other day I heard a ruckus coming from the bathroom, and saw Harper helping her doll use the toilet.  We've set Harper on the toilet a few times, and we certainly have been working with Avery to sit on the toilet.  So it comes to no little surprise that Harper would like to potty train her doll.  Since this time I've caught her also trying to potty train our plush Flynn Rider doll from Tangled, and that didn't go so well.  Harper must have thought Flynn didn't need the training seat.  Instead she put him feet first into the toilet.  Now we get to see if he will survive a thorough trip the washing machine.

Do you like how she's trying to undress her doll?

Fortunately the doll didn't fall into the toilet.  

Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday we headed out to the pumpkin patch.  It was unexpectedly cold. At our house it is always windy since we live right by the ocean, so most of the time when we go out we don't expect there to be wind like there is at our house. The wind must have followed us to Redmond though.  It was really chilly, and we were very happy to get in the car when we were done.  Despite the wind we still had a great time, and the girls enjoyed picking out their pumpkins.  Hopefully pumpkin carving pictures will be up soon!

It was hard to get them both looking at me at the same time, and  Avery wanted to stick her entire head through the hole as you can see.

Gotta have  more cowbell!

Avery and Harper playing some "found" musical instruments.

Look I'm a scarecrow.  With a slightly scary toothy grin there.

Our hayride around the farm.

Avery eventually sat on Daryl's lap to leech his warmth, but Harper insisting on sitting by herself the entire hayride.

Sebastian's First Birthday

Today Sebastian is one years old. So far we've mostly been enjoying our grey ball of fluff.  He is very energetic and playful still, and we will be fine when he grows out of that. When we saw the vet recently he weighed in at 12.3 pounds. Lately the girls have both been trying to ride him like he's their little horse.  Sebastian doesn't like that.  Avery thought he wouldn't mind giving her Rapunzel doll a ride instead, but he doesn't like that either.

Avery was pretending to be a kitty like Sebastian when she was sitting in the basket.

 

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

    Today was Thanksgiving in Canada, so I decided to celebrate it in our house.  We just called it Practice Thanksgiving.  I tried out different Thanksgiving recipes to ready myself for the real thing next month.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of anything I made, which is just like me.  Two things I learned is that Challah bread is awesome in stuffing, and turkey tastes better when you stuff it with fresh herbs.  

    Since there were no pictures of the Practice Thanksgiving feast enjoy these pictures of Harper eagerly drinking from a root beer bottle.  She really liked the stuff.

This is her that's refreshing face.

Don't worry Internet this is just Sioux City Root Beer.

A Plethora of Preschool Art

    With preschool comes lots of art, so before things get recycled I generally take pictures of them to remember them by.  Here's some of the memorable pieces of art that Avery has been quite happy to show us when she gets home.

High concept 3D art.

I really love the people Avery draws.

Avery feels particularly proud of this bear. 

Some very insightful watercolor painting.