It's pumpkin time!

I LOVE the Fall! I love the sunny cool days (very few around here, but enough to make me happy!), the leaves changing color and I especially love Halloween!! Katie and Aidan are both at the age now where planning for holidays is FUN! They both chose their own Halloween costumes this year and have been asking the age old "are we there yet" question (ie: is it Halloween yet?) since September. A few weeks ago (yes, I am very slow at posting on my blog) we all headed over to Remlinger Farm for their harvest festival. Much to Eric's great pleasure, I decided that the tradition of picking our own pumpkins out of a muddy field this year was not very practical with a 5 year old, 3 year old and 6 month old. We decided instead to go to Remlinger and enjoy all of their activities and then pick up some of the pumpkins that they had already set out for easy choosing. For the kids, some of the highlights of the day included being able to ride their own pony, riding the train around the farm and jumping into the hay pile. This is definitely a new tradition that we will be doing from now on out. At least while the kids are young, a day at the park is much more fun the picking through rotting pumpkins and trying to carry them all back to the tractor. Why do we find that so fun anyway??? :)

Daddy and the kids on the train

Miss Katie - having fun on the fire engine

Aidan - his first time on a horse!!

Look at me ~ I'm 3!!!

Our little rocket man

Our little boy is 3! Happy Happy Birthday Aidan!! He is such an amazing dude (as he is affectionately know by mom) and brings so many smiles to our family! To celebrate our big boy this year, Aidan had a rocket party ~ all daddy's idea and it was a father-son party at that! Wahoo - less work for mom. :) So with his friends - three of his best buds from our neighborhood (Jack, Brendan and Max), his cousin Adrian and Uncle Sam's son Zach (and daughter Abby), the boys had a true little boy party! After starting off the party playing with a room sized train track, they headed out to the park to shoot off their rockets and run off some energy. Aidan thought it was the best thing!! It was awesome for Aidan, as he definitely figured out that this was his special day!! From the moment he woke up that morning he was talking about it being his birthday party. He is also very into his "boy" friends these days. As Katie was getting ready for a birthday party she was attending for one of her friends at the same time as his party, Aidan told her that she had to leave because his party was only for boys. :)

It is so much fun to have a boy in the family! Baseball, soccer, race cars (Katie gave him a remote control car this year that drives on the walls and ceiling - Yikes!), trains, airplanes and tool benches fill up an equal portion of our house now as do the princess dresses and baby dolls. We love you Aidan ~ we know 3 is going to be a great year for you!!

blowing out the candles on his rocket shaped cupcake cake

batter up....

On his "real" birthday ~ with his GeoTrax airplane from Nana

Safety first! Aidan tries on the goggles for his new tool bench!

I am blog illiterate!!

OK - I have decided that I am blog illiterate. I look at other blogs and I am so impressed by the cute and creative nature of their posts and their site design. I am proud of myself for actually starting the blog, and adding things to it (and it is VERY addictive!!!), but I really want it to look cute and creative. So - with that said - I need your help! If anyone out there has any cute places to go to get blog backgrounds or design help, PLEASE help!! :) I do know about "the cutest blog on the block" but any others would be helpful! :) My promise in all this?? To get a much cuter blog in the very new future!

School Pictures

Kindergarten - age 5

Today we got Katie's first official school pictures back. By official - I mean her first public school pictures - the ones that never turn out as hoped but you have to order a slew of them anyway just in case you want to give them to every friend and family member imaginable. :) I guess those are images from my own childhood, because this year we had the option of just buying the CD with a few test prints instead of the whole package of 8x10's, etc. I think that is pretty cool. Now, with all that said, this year I am quite impressed!! For school pictures I think they are really cute. In other words, I think Katie is cute, the background still leaves a lot to be desired, but for what they are, I am happy! I am also attaching her preschool pictures - just for nostalgia sake.

Preschool - age 4

Preschool - age 3

Cousin Briana is 5!!

This past weekend we traveled down to Salem to celebrate Bre's 5th birthday (my sister Patty's youngest daughter). The kids LOVE their cousins - and they always have a great time - especially when a party is involved. The very quick trip - just overnight - was filled with a pizza party, Chuck E Cheese and playing at the mall. To top it off, we stayed in a hotel and daddy, Katie and Aidan had a great time swimming. Mylie and I sat it out this time, opting to take the pictures instead. Next time they better watch out - Mylie and I play a fierce game of Marco Polo!

A fish story....

It always amazes me how the little trips around town can turn into the best days! The kids and I joined our good friends - Becki, Emma and Andrew yesterday for a trip to the Issaquah fish hatchery and it was AWESOME! It is the perfect size for kids - and mommy. If it weren't for the fish holding tanks, you could see from your car to the other side of the hatchery. That's a perfect size for me when taking my three little kids - who usually get tired when we are at the furthest possible location from our car. :) The kids LOVED watching the fish trying to jump up the stream blocker (who really knows what to call it?!). By the stream blocker I am talking about the place that keeps the fish from swimming further up stream and instead forces the fish (at least the ones who don't literally kill themselves first) over to the fish ladder and in to the holding tanks. Speaking of dead fish - the fish resting at the bottom of the stream - yeah - resting. Hmmm - life and death discussions always seem to pop up at the most interesting times. :) Anyway - I got side tracked. :) My point is that the kids loved it. Just as we were standing there watching the fish try to jump up the fish ladder, one HUGE fish jumped out of the holding tank and on to the concrete right by us. (Somehow he must have gotten word of his impending fate!! I would have jumped for it too!) The kids were all amazed watching the hatchery worker trying to get a hold of this huge fish to throw it back in the tank.

The best part of the day for the kids?? Probably the snow/ice that was behind the hatchery building - probably from a shipment or something - that quickly became a winter wonderland for the kids. They had more fun climbing on the snow pile, transporting it from one location to another and jumping on the smaller broken off pieces. Except for poor Mylie screaming through most of the visit due to her new tooth coming in (that's another entry), we all had a great time!