Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin Carving!!  It's always seems much more fun to start in on the pumpkin carving than it actually ends up being!  All of my kids bravely attempted to clean out their pumpkins and then Grandma and Mom had to take over. (Dad was nowhere to be found.  He was salmon fishing in California! And Pa conveniently left just as the knives were being pulled out.)

Abby did all of the carving on her pumpkin by herself and was very proud about being the only child who had no help.  In fact, she mentioned it several times:)

Brooklyn chose to do a cat pumpkin.  We had one last year and really loved it.  Abby's was also a cat.  I'm hoping for something a little more spooky next year!! Brooklyn did a little bit of carving on hers and grandma helped with most of it.  I think Brooklyn's pumpkin was the thickest pumpkin we have ever carved in to!  I now know how some of those elaborate pumpkin designs are made.  Talk about having a lot of pumpkin to work with. 

Jace carried over  his pirate costume theme to his pumpkin. He did no carving.  He didn't even supervise.  He took off as soon as he got messy. 

But he was quick to get those pumpkins lit up after we had the mess all cleaned up.  Sorry Colby.   Next year after my tendinitis heals up and your dad is around to help clean out those pumpkins I'll carve you one.  I guess I could have at least put him in the picture, but I was worried about those flames! Anyway, don't they look great?  Happy Pumpkin Carving!

Pumpkin Picking

It's pumpkin time!!!  We love, love, love our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch and were a little worried it wasn't going to happen this year.  My Grampa Sim takes us to the pumpkin patch every year (he works for the farm) but this year he has been very sick and I had just planned on not making it.  Fortunately for us, Grandma Lu stepped in and said we were going!  Grampa even felt good enough to call us from the hospital in Denver while we were at the pumpkin patch.  It was almost as if he had a 6th sense and knew we were there....ok, I think he did know we were headed there and had to get in on the action.  We were just happy he called!

It's a race to find the best pumpkin!

It didn't take long for the girls to pick out their pumpkins.

Jace looked for ones that were just the right size for him and Colby.  He didn't want anything to do with the great big ones! 

Colby's perfect pumpkin.

Did I mention that Brooklyn found her perfect pumpkin right at the start?  And this was her 5th or 6th pumpkin.  Or maybe 10th.  I don't know.  All I know is that we had a van full of pumpkins.  Some for everyone - grandma's, grandpa's, uncles, great-aunts, neighbors.  You name it, we picked it. 

 I think Abby even found a giant squash-pumpkin.  It was a mutant of some kind anyway.  Oh, and  a white pumpkin.  It's very rare and very special.  And I didn't get a picture of it....

Here we all are.

With just a fraction of the pumpkins we actually picked!

Just Peachy

 Jace loves peaches.  He would eat them for every meal if he could.  And never tire of them.  It's unfortunate for him  that peach season is so short.  Although he doesn't mind if his peaches come in a can.  It all started as a sweet one year old.  Grandpa Sim still talks about the day that he and Grandma Lu came over for a visit and Jace was sitting in his high chair enjoying some sort of pureed meal.  That's when his eyes locked in on the bottle of home grown peaches that Grandma was carrying in.  His eyes never left  those peaches. At some point his legs started kicking and he began squealing in delight letting us know exactly what he wanted.
Well, that love for peaches still exists and Grandpa does his best to make sure that his peach tree gives his "little sweetie" the best peaches.

This year we were able to run over and help Grandpa pick peaches and the kids loved it.

Look at all of those peaches!  Grandma Lu just came today with another bottle of peaches for Jace. He makes sure to give her a phone call when he runs out!  Too bad peach season can't last all year round.  Jace would be in heaven:)  And I have to say, I don't think I'd mind it either.  I've got plenty of peach recipes that are to die for!

I miss peach season already......

1st Day of School





I just realized that I never posted our "first day of school" pictures!  Eeeek!  Well, better late than never!

 

I can't believe I now have half of my children in school all day!  Brooklyn was very excited to be a kindergartner and she was more than ready for it.   We have all day kindergarten so I was a little nervous about her being gone all day long.  And I have to say, I do miss her!  But she has done really well with it.  Our school district moved us to a 4 day school week with Friday's off this year so that has been an adjustment as well.  It just meanst that the school days are longer.  For the little ones it makes for a big day.  I didn't think that I would like a 4 day school week at all but it's actually been fine. It's kinda nice to have the kids home on Friday - when they're getting along that is:)

Abby started 2nd grade and she loves it.  She's an old pro at this school thing!  She was very excited to get back and see her "horse club" friends.  Yes, they've created their own club and they ride around on their make believe horses.  "Lily" gets fed often from the leaves of my trees.  And Abby is the club leader.  But she informed me the first week of school that occasionally she steps down so someone else can lead.  How nice. A democracy. 

Brooklyn also has a horse.  Her name is Jessica.  Not to be confused with Travis's new wife.  Our horse Jessica was actually invented before Aunt Jessica came to be:)

This picture was taken on the first morning of school.  The girls walk out at 7:10 am to get to the bus stop on time.  The other pictures were taken the day before when both of them had a required 30 min. test to take, which was officially the first day of school, but not really. ( I know, it gets complicated.)  Anyway, there you have it!  Jace is depressed that his playmates are gone and is constantly looking for the uncles that occasionally visit but are nowhere to be found at the moment. 

Which means that I have been doing a LOT of playing lately.....

Birthday Poem by Abby

It was  my Grandma Lu's 80th birthday yesterday and we have a whole lot of family coming out to celebrate!  I had Abby and Brooklyn make up birthday cards for her and we went over last night to give them to her.  Abby decided to write her a poem and it was so sweet that I wanted to make sure we had a copy of it here.  So here it is...

grandma Lu

eye of gold, Heart of gems, face and smile light up the room,

so kind and sweet

can anyone be just like you

of course not

you're what makes me smile and warms my Heart

Family Pictures

While we were in Utah, Darren's mom organized family pictures for all of Darren's immediate family.  Afterwards we took our family and Darren's brother took his family to a nearby park and did family pictures of our own!  Hey, if you're all dressed up you'd better make the most of it!

Brooklyn, Jace, Abby, Colby

 Colby was by far my most receptive candidate for pictures.  I have loads of pictures oozing cuteness from him.  Now, the others are a completely different story.



 
 Just ignore the lifeline on Colby.  It was necessary:)


Abby, Brooklyn, Jace, Colby



Our family pictures ended up being somewhat of a challenge.  You know, for whatever reason getting four kids to look at the camera and smile a normal smile just doesn't work out.  And if it does, your husband has his eyes closed;) 

If you can't tell, I am tickling Abby because she was having a "moment" that was actually lasting much longer than a moment.  And most of our pictures show it. Well, this is as good as it gets.  I'll take it:)



Cabin

 Our annual trip to the cabin happened a few weeks ago and like always the kids loved it!  This year we were lucky enough to stay in a cabin that had a hot tub, and I hate to say it, but I think it was the highlight of the year.  No joke.

Smore's night was also a big hit.  Although, I think Brooklyn would rather make the smore's than eat them.

Colby had a great time with all the cousins and I had a great time letting the cousins tote him around.  Darren has nicknamed Colby "Tank" and he has all of his family calling my little baby "Tank".  Not sure how I feel about that.  This particular cousin is Mackay and more than one person thinks that Colby looks like Mackay.  Makay's only response?  "Well, he has a lot to look forward to."  I think so too, Mackay:)

 Abby learned how to "paddle board" on a canoe.

 Brooklyn tried out kayaking with Ashley.

Lake day just happened to be Jace's "real" birthday.  So we added to the birthday confusion and let Jace know that we were taking him to the lake for his birthday.  Now we've celebrated at least 3 times!  He loved it.  I was obviously messing around with the settings on my camera......

 Darren always feels left out of my blog.  Like I don't do enough talking about him.  So here you go.  This is Darren being "manly";)

And I guess that's all of my pictures.  We also made it to West Yellowstone for pizza and a stop at the candy shop for treats (but especially for fudge).  We went on 4 wheelers, hikes, floated the river and had a great time!