Halloween

Halloween fell on a Wednesday this year, so the Monday before is when we carved our pumpkins.  For the first time, Claire and Jacob actually touched the gooey insides!  Claire's pumpkin was one of the biggest we've gotten - she was excited that it was so big.

Claire made (or requested that Dani make) a vampire with big fangs.  Mine started as a Jacob smile, and ended up looking more like a skeleton face.  Dani did the easiest possible pumpkin (polka dots).  And Jacob's was a ghost (carved by Jared).

Kate and Liam were lawn gnomes.

Dani has been eyeing these costumes for a couple years - the first time that Dani saw these costumes was right after Jacob and Claire outgrew them.

Liam didn't like his hat or beard.  Kate was willing to keep her hat on and was quite cute.

Here's the only picture we got with Liam smiling with his beard on.  Liam was smiling because Jared was throwing him around.  But doesn't he look cute?

Jacob and Claire were a knight and a fairy princess.  Apparently, the photographer was trying to keep kiddos' heads vertical!

We went trick or treating with our friends, the Tibbits, and their kids.  Ceili in her C3PO costume was funny to watch because she couldn't really bend her knees, so she walked quite similarly to the way the robot walked in the movie.  R2D2 was funny and was made out of a bike helmet covered in a foil dome.

Kate was a very independent little trick or treater.  I would help guide her, but she didn't want to be carried or hold a hand.  She pretty quickly figured out that if she went up to the door, the person would put something in her bucket, and sometimes she could get something for her bucket.  Once, she tripped right in front of a storm drain and spilled about half of her candy down the drain.  Sad!

Liam also quite enjoyed walking between houses.  He was a little better at following the group, whereas his sister was going on her own route.  Liam preferred to just hold 2-3 pieces of candy in his hands rather than put in into his bucket.  Of course, those pieces weren't edible by the time they got back to the house!

Moy?

It's fall, so it's time for yummy pumpkin desserts - tonight's was a delicious pumpkin roll.  Yum!  We shared our pumpkin roll with the babies, and they loved it.  After they finished, both asked for more (Kate says, "Moy?")

I brought them a little more, and Liam ate his (of course).  Kate, on the other hand, looking straight at me, promptly threw it onto the floor.  Ha!

Family Pictures

Family pictures were delayed a week due to a last minute trip to San Francisco Jared had to take.  With 2 14-month-olds and 2 6-year-olds, we realized it would take a miracle to get everyone looking at the camera and smiling at the same time.

It turned out that we got a couple decent pictures of the entire family.  Kate West, our photographer, has some great landscape on and around her property.

Getting good pictures of kids individually and in small groups was lots easier!  Jacob was especially smiley, wanting to show off his Jack 'o Lantern smile.

Kate and Liam's pictures were much less posed.  Since they've been able to walk, that's really all they want to do, so to get a good picture of them, we need to just follow around and guide them into a good spot!

Kate loves her 'pretty-pretty-pretty" (a.k.a. her necklace), so we figured she should wear it for the family pictures.  She has lots of cute expressions... 

and defiant ones too!

We got some cute sibling pictures, too.  We took lots of other combinations, but it seemed that adding an extra child into the picture made it 50 times more difficult to get a good picture!

There were a few pumpkins that the babies found and carried around the yard.  This is where Kate learned to say "mah-kee" (pumpkin).

At the end, we realized we hadn't taken any pictures of us together.  We love this picture!  Not seen in the picture are the two crying babies trying desperately for attention, grabbing at our knees!

Last day of Soccer

It has been a fun soccer season for both the Ninja Doggies and the Blue Glittery Rock Stars.  We had our last games this last weekend.  For the first time all season, it was super rainy for a game.  Dani watched the game from the car, since she had Claire and the babies.

The Ninja Doggies had another fun game.  

They have been a very good team all year long.  There was really only 1 game that was very close all season.  Although this game started close, the Ninja Doggies pulled away in the 2nd half, finishing their season winning every game.

It was a really fun group of kids, and I loved coaching them with Coach Victor.

We held the team party at 5 Guys and gave the kids soccer bobble-head trophies.

Claire's game was a little later that day and was in a little lighter rain.  Here's Claire, in the middle of the field with her hood up.

Dani convinced Claire to take her hood off a little bit into the game.

Kate and Liam were good about watching their older siblings' soccer games (and practices) all season.  Maybe it will help them when they are older and playing soccer.

Claire's party was at one of her teammate's houses.  Claire really enjoyed the girls who were on her team.  The medals they were given had blue glitter on them.  How appropriate!

Thanks for the yummy treat, Nana

Nana sent everyone a yummy Halloween treat.  Jacob and Claire loved their chocolate covered rice crispy treats.  Dani and my favorites are the chocolate dipped Oreos.  There were 2 wrapped and labeled Kate and Liam.  It was hard to not eat them ourselves,  

 but Kate and Liam sure look like they were happy we saved them for the babies to eat!

Kate's increasing vocabulary

While both Kate and Liam have started talking, Kate seems to learn new words daily.  She loves to mimic sounds and words.  One of her latest is "no no," which she says quite forcefully to Liam, Claire, Jacob, or anyone else (including herself) that is doing something that she doesn't approve of.

Here's a small sample of a few of the things Kate says (with pronunciation phonetically spelled out):
Mommy
Daddy
Baby (which is pretty much anyone under the age of 10)
Ball
Claire:  "Hi-eeee" (getting her face really close)
Jacob:  "Bah-bah"
Pumpkin:  "Mah-Kee"
Broccoli:  "Bah-Kee"
Food:  "nummy-nummy"
More:  "Moi"
Dog:  "Dah-geeee"
Milk: "Muck"
Diaper (Yucky): "Ah-keeahh keeahh keeahh kee"

We are enjoying hearing what is on Kate's mind.  She has a funny sense of humor and keeps us entertained.  It is fun to identify animals and animal sounds (dogs, cows, sheep, etc.) as well as body parts (hands, feet, head, ears, etc) and watch Kate and Liam learn.

Fall Fun at Bauman Farms

The weather this month has been so beautiful that we just realized that it is October.  As of last weekend, we hadn't even put up any Halloween decorations or considered taking a trip to a pumpkin patch, so we planned a mid-week trip to Bauman Farms.

They have these huge swings that kiddos love.

 Babies enjoyed an apple cider doughnut while kiddos took on the obstacle course.

We explored the Dark Maze - it was truly quite dark inside.  After getting lost, and with the help of a flashlight app, finding a couple emergency exits, we eventually found the entrance.  We didn't ever make it to the end of the Dark Maze.  Maybe next year.

One of kiddos favorite things to do is to go on the huge slides.  This particular slide starts about 30 feet up and is quite long.

We buried Claire in the nut house.  Jacob enjoyed jumping off the hay bales into the nuts.

 Liam got buried too.  Kate didn't like it at all!

Claire enjoyed finding pumpkins ("Mah-kee," as she calls them).

We sent Kate and Liam down slides by themselves.  I'm sure it was a pretty funny site - Jared up at the top of the slide, holding one of the babies by their waistline, lowering them down the slide, then letting them go to slide down to Dani, who was climbing into the tube to catch them.  They LOVED it, though, so it was worth the spectacle.

Bauman Farms has lots of decorations throughout.

Caramel Apples for FHE

We were given some caramel sheets to put on apples to make caramel apples, so after FHE one night, we made that the treat and the activity.

Jacob and Claire got their own, and Dani and I shared ours with the babies.  They were funny to watch because they both really wanted bites... quite often at the same time.

Caramel gets stuck really well in teeth!

I'm not quite sure why exactly Claire was dressed up for the occasion, but she was in her pink leotard and bright green skirt!