Carving Pumpkins

Alec was able to come home early this afternoon so that we could carve pumpkins. We told the kids that if they wouldn't help us clean the guts out that we wouldn't carve any faces for them. Here are the two reactions...



The finished products.

Happy Halloween

I'm sitting at home passing out candy while Alec is out with the kids. It's nearly 7:30, and I've only had 3 knocks so far. Sad. I swear we had way more than this last year! I guess I'll have to be pigging out on more Halloween candy than I thought.

This year we have a teddy bear, a frog, and a spider at our house. Nate is crying because he is addicted to candy and couldn't stand not to have a piece of it on his way out the door. Of the less than 10 words he says, candy or "cai" is one of them. And as of late, he says it more than all the other 9 words combined.
Oh, there's my 4th knock at the door! Gotta go.

Saturday is a special day...

....it's the day Alec doesn't have to go to work! (well, he doesn't work on Sunday either, but ya know). So we have filled our Saturdays with little family adventures like,

the park...

Antelope Island, to show Flavio (Alec's co-worker from Brazil), the Great Salt Lake...

action shot of Nate's determined fast-walk--always the arms up for balance (much more funny live)

we also went to the zoo...

trying to escape his stroller at every chance

giant thumb

the children's museum...

Owen's favorite--the helicopter

Nathan's favorite--the magnetic PVC ball track

Abigail's favorite--the construction site

We also did Dinosaur Park one day and Lagoon on another, sans camera. (Just wanted to make sure, that as long as I have a blog, I get credit for all the fun things I've done lately. he he)

First Day of Preschool

Owen had his first day of preschool last week, and he absolutely LOVES it! In order to get a reduced tuition, I volunteer in the classroom once a month. I chose the very first day of school to volunteer, imagining that that might be a good adjustment time for Owen. But, he really couldn't have cared less whether I was there or not, he was totally into checking out the toys and playing with his new "friends." He goes on Monday and Wednesday mornings for 2 1/2 hours. When we sent Abigail out the door for school on Thursday, he whined, "How come my school has to be a patterin {pattern}? Because I want to go everyday like Abby!" I have to admit, that sounded pretty good to me, too. When I went to the grocery store with just the baby the other day (who remains strapped into his seat, and doesn't beg to buy anything), there was one way to describe my feelings....pure bliss. But the little preschool break that we do get, will be nice for both of us I'm sure.

Owen's teacher had me fill out a little questionnaire about Owen's favorite things, and I thought I might share his answers....

What is your favorite food? spaghetti and broccoli
What is your favorite color? black, grey and green
What is your favorite animal? dog, wolf, tiger and dinosaurs
What is your favorite indoor activity? puzzles, blocks and trains
What is your favorite outdoor activity? slides, climbing and sand
What is your favorite book? Go Away, Big Green Monster
What is your favorite nursery rhyme? Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
What is your favorite song? Old MacDonald

First Day of 1st Grade

New Do

Yesterday Abigail and I had a mommy-daughter date. I'm hoping to make it a new Back-to-School tradition. First we went to the salon to have our hairs cut by our cute friend, Kristin, who used to be our neighbor and Abigail's Primary teacher, and whom Abigail adores. I think having Kristin do our hair aided in the confidence level remaining high for Abigail to cut her hair short. She had been saying for a week or so that she wanted to do something different and have it "short for once." I was pleased, since she doesn't like to have her hair brushed and it was getting rather nasty with the chlorine and summer sun build up. So she didn't chicken out! And look how cute she looks! (For Alec: you must act surprised when you get home, because she wants to see if you recognize her or if you think she is a neighbor or something.)For lunch after our haircuts Abigail picked "Subway: Eat Fresh" (this is what Abigail calls it, and she was so offended once when her cousin Matthew called it "Subway: Eat Gross"). As another side note, she always orders the Seafood Sensation (imitation crab meat) sandwich. They never know how to ring it up at the register because she gets it in a kids pack, and they don't have a button for that combination apparently. As we walked to the car after lunch, we decided that we had never actually been to lunch just the two of us.

To round out our little date, we went to the mall to find some new sneakers and an outfit for her first day of first grade. She picked out an adorable little knit dress with apples on it and a watch to match. I'm sure we'll have photos of it next week.

As we pulled into the garage after our date, I said the usual date things. "That was so much fun, we should definitely do it again." To which she replied, somewhat unenthusiastically, "Yeah, next year."

Poof!

I'm sick of the computer. It seems as though every time I sit down in front of it, time suddenly vanishes. The Internet has this mesmerizing mind control over me where I can't seem to remember why I sat down to look something up in the first place. How is it that I sat down at least 45 minutes ago to shop for socks for Abigail, and yet none of my open tabs would indicate this? I have my Gmail inbox up and Google Reader of course. But I also have tabs open for overstock.com (not to find socks, but a leather ottoman I've been desiring) and HGTV's website is open to an article on staging your home for sale (not that I'm moving, just for decorating info from a show I saw). Anyway, my question is this...does this happen to anyone else, or am I just simply absent-minded and hypnotized by the inviting glow of the computer screen?