More Pumpkin Pictures

Here are a couple more photos of the kids showing off their jack-o-lanterns.

Pumpkin Carving

We carved pumpkins last night. What fun! And yes, Kellen even wanted his pumpkin carved for the first time! I found a puppy stencil that was cute... not scary, so I think that made him want to carve the pumpkin. Kristin did pretty much all of the carving for her cat design, with a little help from dad.

The kids are excited for tomorrow with parties, dressing up and of course trick-or-treating!

The Photos

One Week Until Halloween

Kellen is keeping a Halloween countdown calendar. He puts a Halloween related sticker on a lunch menu / calendar (from either Kristin's school or daycare, I can't remember) every evening before bedtime. Tonight we noted that we are only a week away. He is SUPER excited.

We had another busy soccer weekend. Kristin's rec team lost 1-0. It was 0-0 for most of the game and the other team got a lucky bounce near the end. Kristin played very well though, and played all but about 2 minutes of the game. On Sunday her competitive team won a nail-biter, 2-1. Kristin played defense for all of her shifts and was AWESOME. Nobody could get by her and when she pinched up on offense she was able to get back on defense with her speed. It was just a lot of fun to watch. She has been playing a lot of defense the last couple of weeks, ever since her team lost one of their better defenders to the the U10 team (Kristin's team is U9). Kristin has stepped right up to the challenge.

During the Sunday game, Kellen collected rocks from a drainage ditch along the edge of the soccer fields where the park transitions from soccer fields to grassland / trails. He was keeping them in his shirt and wanted to take them all home. I told him he could take 2 but he talked me up to 3 by the time we put the rest back. :-) He now often refers to his 'rock collection'.

Tonight during Kristin's practice Kellen and I played on a nearby playground and also ran around the track. He doesn't like to lose so he always tells me to run slow. Of course he has to stop running to tell me to run slow. If he just kept going I doubt I could keep up.

TGIF

Wow! What a busy week! Kristin had a scrimmage tonight for her PDA team and one last night too. This gave the girls some extra game experience and some experience playing with different girls within the overall PDA group, since they are split into 2 teams. The coaches mixed them up for the scrimmages. Kristin played some great defense in the games and had an awesome goal kick that had many parents along the sideline impressed, us too of course! She is super tired and probably fell asleep quick tonight. The field has had sand dumped on it to try to help dry it out. Kellen had fun playing in the sand tonight. :) I hear the bathtub was pretty sandy tonight.

Thank you Oma and Poppa for the Halloween package for the kids. We opened it tonight and the kids love their gifts! The funny glasses are hilarious... we will try to get pictures of those soon.

This and That

Last weekend we took a trip to a nearby apple orchard. They have a wagon ride, a pumpkin slingshot, two hay mazes, and a giant inflatable bounce house in the shape of an apple.

One of the hay mazes was covered with plywood and tarps to make it dark. They handed out flashlights for the that one. The first time through, Danelle took the kids. Then they wanted to go again so I went with them. Kristin took off ahead of Kellen and I. I had a hard time even keeping up with Kellen. He didn't make one wrong turn when I went with. They pretty much had it memorized after one time through. After I went with them, they wanted to go again. So they went together and got through it quickly once again.

We enjoyed the wagon ride through the orchards and then played the apple slingshot game. The idea was to hit targets with apples. I think we had five apples total to share and I got lucky with the last apple and hit the target. The prize was a small stuffed bear.

Kristin's fall soccer season is ending with a flurry over the next week and a half. In addition to her Saturday and Sunday games, this week she has scrimmages on Thursday and Friday this week.

Danelle took Kristin to practice this evening and Kellen and I stayed home. We played 'grocery store'. He has some play groceries and a cash register. We took turns, but he definitely liked being the clerk better.

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Happy birthday wishes to Ellie today! Enjoy your day with family and hiking! Wish we could be there. Hugs all around.

Yank the Tooth Remix!

Check out the 'remix' Danelle put together last night. Soundbite to the right. Enjoy!

Kellen's Tooth

Listen to the new soundbite to the right to hear Kellen's explanation of loosing his first tooth!

Pumpkin Patch and Kellen Loses His First Tooth

What a day! We decided to make the best of a weekend day without soccer and nice weather. Kristin's rec team had a bye this week. We got a dry day in the 60s and got the car and truck outfitted with new wipper blades (thanks Aaron!), mowed (thanks again Aaron), and went to the pumpkin patch. The kids had fun picking pumpkins and going on the hay ride to and from the pumpkins. There are also some things for them to play on... hay, play structure, etc.

Tonight while I was still eatting dinner and the kids were out in the living room playing, Kellen says "I pulled out my tooth!" He has had the bottom two front teeth loose for awhile and the one had gotten really wiggly as of yesterday. He said he wiggled it and then pulled it out. He is super excited for the Tooth Fairy to come.

Jog-A-Thon

Today was Kristin's school Jog-A-Thon, which is their biggest PTC run fundraiser. All 5 classes of 3rd grade ran together this morning. They had 30 minutes (in years past they have only had 20 minutes) to run. Kristin ran 9 laps, which equates to 2.25 miles. Go Kristin! She was all smiles and the weather was actually perfect for a run... not too hot, not too cold and no rain. :)
At lunch today Kellen says to me "echolocation." What?! He repeated it and then told me he heard it on Cat in the Hat this morning. Wow! What things this kid picks up on. He didn't know what it meant but wants to tell his friends at preschool tomorrow that he knows the word echolocation. What a funny boy! ... for those of you that don't know echolocation is how bats navigate in the dark while hunting prey. They must have been talking about bats on the Cat in the Hat. Echolocation was also a challenge spelling word for Kristin last year when her class was learning about bats.

Weekend Wrap-Up and Monday

Sunday included another soccer game for Kristin. Her team won and she scored another goal! It took both teams a little bit to get used to playing the faster speed on turf. One of our venues has gotten too wet/muddy for game play, so some games have been moved to the high school football field, which is turf.

It was a rainy weekend, but we were able to stay dry at both soccer games. Kellen was not himself this weekend as he has been working on his 6 year old molars. He even had a fever on Sunday. :( He has perked up and is pretty much back to himself today.

Yesterday, Kellen had his second field trip for preschool. The class visited the supermarket... I get corrected if I call it the grocery store! The field trip was to New Seasons (a natural/organic type store). The kids had fun seeing all the back areas for employees and sampling bread, raspberries, apple/pear juice, and pepperoni. They even each got a little bag with goodies inside. The most popular item seemed to be the Pirate Booty. The bag also included an apple, apple juice, stickers, and a fruit stick. Kellen and I stayed for a little bit afterwards and had a snack with his friend Cate and her mom and brother.

Weekend

Halfway through the weekend already. Kellen has been having a great time with his preschool class. He really likes it. He'll even give me a few of the highlights from the day when I ask him in the evenings. His imagination also seems to have taken another leap forward lately. He is always asking Danelle and I to play with him. This afternoon, he was pretending that the couch was a train. He was the coal man and I had to drive the train. We stopped a few times to fix the wheels on the train and before long we we're using little plastic min golf clubs to paddle the 'boat-train'. What an adventure.

Kristin continues to excel with her soccer. She had the only goal for her rec league team today and had a good all around game. Her rec team and competitive team are within the same overall club, so we've had to get her an extra jersey. There just isnt enough time to keep one clean. :-)

Today seemed like the first game day that we didn't get wet this fall, but I think there was one other day that was really hot.