Pumpkins

We had to do our annual pumpkin carving a few days early due to Ben leaving for NC to golf at Pinehurst this week for work. I'm not sure if they'll still look good on Halloween, time shall tell. Ben usually like to get very creative with his pumpkins but since we only bought 2 and we have 2 kids with opinions, Ben didn't have much choice but to carve what they wanted. Audrey wanted rocket ships, stars, moons and Saturn on hers (don't ask me why) and Sawyer wanted Mickey. I was surprised he didn't ask for a digger, tractor or a school bus, his three main obsessions. Neither one of the kids wanted to touch the guts much so Ben did the dirty work. Maybe if Ben gets really motivated on Halloween he'll do one of his creations. I'll be sure to post it if he does!

Toe Jam

Now that it is cold again we are always wearing socks which leads us to Sawyer's new favorite activity - picking fuzz from between his toes. I don't understand why he finds this so fascinating but it is something he does everyday and concentrates deeply for about 10 minutes to make sure every piece of fuzz is out from between his toes. The worst part is he then feels it is necessary to give me his fuzz. Every time he gets some out he says, "Here Mama" and hands it over. He acts like he's proud of his big find! If I try to ignore him he will follow me around until I take it from him. I'm sure this won't go on until next spring...if so we've got many months of toe jam picking ahead of us!

Zoo Boo

Cute ideas for the Halloween creative people...

Strawberry Shortcake on CANDY!

We had the cutest trick or treaters!

Sawyer is about to eat the meal worm that daddy gave him...yes, it was an actual worm and it was BBQ flavored. He ate it no problem.

On Saturday we attended Zoo Boo at the Detroit Zoo. Once again, it was pretty cold, but at least it wasn't rainy. They do a great job decorating the zoo by making it cute and not too scary. The kids got a small amount of candy, which I was thankful for. Audrey said it was practice for the real Halloween!

Freezing Fall

Rainy and freezing Pumpkinfest Parade

Apple Orchard and cider mill trip. Looks can be deceiving, freezing again.

Sawyer eating apples he found on the ground, ewwww.

Tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch.

After 20 straight days of below normal temperatures you'd think we'd get a break. That doesn't look like it's happening any time soon. We've been trying to enjoy our usual fall things that we do for fun but it has just been so cold that I've found it difficult. The kids don't seem to be taking it as hard as I am. Audrey's preschool class had a field trip to the apple orchard/pumpkin patch las Friday. None of these pictures are from the field trip because it was raining so hard the whole time that I couldn't even break out the camera. For us adults it was 2 hours of rainy, cold misery but the kids loved it - mud puddles and all. After the trip Audrey said, "That was a very fun adventure!" I think she's nuts.

The top two pictures are from our South Lyon Pumpkinfest Parade. It rained that whole day too. Sawyer and Brynn look a little miserable but they were actually happy. They just sat in the chairs the whole time and had candy delivered to them. Audrey and Abby sat under the blanket and umbrella, only running out to grab the candy that was being thrown at us.

The other pictures are from our family trip back to the orchard/pumpkin patch a couple days after the torrential rain field trip. Although there was a crystal clear blue sky it was still only about 40 degrees! It's gonna be a long winter.

Skip

Audrey taking Skip to dance class. Note: Skip is a boy bear who really loves to wear red dresses.

Skip eating lunch with us.

Skip having a tea party.

Skip getting read to and playing soccer.

I'm sure you all remember having class pets in school and the excitement of getting to take one home. Well, in these days of paranoid parents and students who are allergic to everything they now have a class stuffed animal that goes home with a different child every week. You would think that because Audrey already has 100 stuffed animals that this wouldn't be such a wondrous event, boy was I wrong. The class bear is named Skip. Skip has gone everywhere and done everything we have done for the past few days, including sleep with Audrey. I think this is a little gross considering the kid who took Skip home last week had a picture in the "Skip Journal" of his nasty dog taking a nap with Skip. I had to get past my germ issues and let her sleep with the thing. I tried to encourage her to let Skip sleep in the cradle but Audrey felt he required prime real estate, right next to her head on her pillow. Oh well.

Tomorrow Skip has to go back to preschool. Audrey truly loves this bear so we'll see how that goes. It is an interesting concept to give a 4 year old a stuffed animal and say, " You can keep it for a few days and then you have to give it back." It's a good learning experience, I guess. Hopefully there won't be any tears over Skip tomorrow.