A Couple More...

Silly faces.

 Posing by the pumpkins.

 Best part of the night; counting candy, eating candy and watching Charlie Brown.

Our trick-or-treater tally was about 70 this year.

Caramel apple

Just taking a little caramel apple break before heading back out.

Boo!!!

Halloween

I love that the kids aren't into scary or sexy costumes yet. Let's hope that day never comes. Here they are before the first of two parties today. Today Clara's costume was an excuse to wear fairy/butterfly wings. Tomorrow she'll be a lion, which will make everyone think Henry is a safari guy rather than a paleontologist.

After

During

Before

Ouch

My poor baby girl with her rainbow colored eye. She bonked herself on the coffee table on Monday. Henry's been telling her she'll scare everyone on Halloween.

Clara's First Field Trip

On Tuesday I had the honor of going along with Clara on her first field trip. At first she wasn't sure she wanted to allow me to sit with her on the bus, but there were so many chaperones along that most of the kids sat with their own parents. However, the bus was so packed that even though this other sweet little girl's mom was along, she sat in a different seat.

 It was a 45 minute bus ride to the pumpkin patch. Along the way I was texting Pete "surely they could have found a closer pumpkin patch?" But once we were there I could see that it was worth the wait. We started out with lunch, then a nice movie about farming and growing pumpkins. Then we jumped on this hay rack ride.

 From the ride we could see "Happy Jack" up on the big silo. He's been there for about 30 years, if I heard the movie right.

 This pumpkin patch was way more than a pumpkin patch. They had several tents of interesting animals as well.

 And there was this bizarre robotic pumpkin-eating 'dinosaur'. I thought I had a good video of this thing grabbing a pumpkin and crunching it, but I messed up. When Henry looked at the pictures he said "that doesn't look like a dinosaur!"

 There were also giraffes. ?

 Clara and I spent quite a lot of time giving the giraffes carrots.

 At the end we went through a corn maze and then each kid got to choose their own pumpkin, gourd and piece of Indian corn to take home.

 And we spotted the Great Pumpkin on the way out!

I was worn out, and wanted to take Clara home with me so we could both nap. Unfortunately I had a class to get to and had to leave her at school for her dad to pick her up later. She was happy as could be to give me a kiss and send me on my way! Such a big girl.

Cincinnati

We had a very nice weekend in Cincinnati to visit Liz and Van in their new home. The house is lovely, but I seem to not have any photos of it. I have lots of pictures of cute kids, though! Here are Henry and Clara having their first Cracker Barrel experience on the way to Ohio.

 We got to spend a little time with Vivian Friday night when we first got in, and then she was ready to play the next morning when we all got up.

 Vivian was very interested in what these big kids were doing in her house.

 On Saturday, after breakfast, we went to a fun little pumpkin patch/amusement place. There was a corny (excuse the pun) puppet show. (Carrie- you can kind of see the ex-Showbiz puppets in the corner here!)

There were also some rides, the kids and Liz and I tried out this monkey one. Clara thought it was creepy and hilarious that we were inside the monkey. 

 We tried to get some pictures of the cousins together. It was a challenge to get them all looking in the same direction at the same time, but this one is pretty cute.

And here's a nice picture of our charming hosts.

After some disappointing football we went out for a fun dinner at Joe's Crab Shack.

 

It was a late night and we all tried to sleep in a little the next morning. Liz made sure I saw this sweet little sleeper before she awoke, though. It was a struggle not to pick her up and just snuggle her.

Sunday morning we had another first for Henry and Clara- their first breakfast at Big Boy!! I don't know if I've been to a Big Boy since I was a kid in California.

  
After breakfast we went to the Cincinnati zoo, which was really nice. 

 I'm not actually reaching out to rub this man's belly. I was petting the snake.

 We didn't get a picture of the naked mole rats, which were our favorite moment at the zoo, but these manatees were a close second. They were monching on some lettuce. It was mesmerizing.

 After a long afternoon at the zoo (and a long weekend of hosting her cousins!) Vivian was getting pretty worn out, so we said goodbye to them and then we made a couple more stops that Liz guided us to. We loved this guy in the night hunters house. The insect building was very cool too.

 

It just didn't feel right to leave Cincinnati without going to Graeter's, so we went a bit out of our way and stopped for some ice cream before we finally got on the road to head home. It was a long, late drive, but the ice cream helped.

Thanks to Liz, Van and Vivian for a fun weekend!

Leaf Monsters

Morning play at Vivian's house

Post-Nap Wordplay

Studious

My little guy is doing homework.

After

Fun Run

Henry's been asking if he could participate in this year's HOH run. Our district sponsors a 5k run/walk to raise money for a scholarship fund and it's named after a former superintendent (Homer O. Harvey). Henry wanted to do the kid's fun run because he knew he'd get a medal for it. I signed Clara up too, because I knew if Henry was doing it she would want to also. Here they are before the race. Everyone was #1.

 

There was a pre-race warm-up with Ronald McDonald. Clara wasn't too sure how she felt about that whole situation. Frankly, neither was I.

  
The beginning of the race was disorganized and chaotic. You can see Clara and Henry in their gray and pink. I think Clara was just trying to keep an eye on her brother. 

 Henry was actually very sweet. He wanted to run, and he did, but he kept checking back to see that Clara was okay...even though she was at the very end. Once he saw that some bigger girls- race volunteers- had taken Clara under their wing Henry took off.

 Here he comes! You can see Clara off in the distance.

 The boy does not know how to be cool for the camera.

 Here comes Clara, bringing up the rear with the race volunteers who somehow also got roped into pushing a double stroller?

 Here comes Henry across the line!

And here I am bringing Clara across the line. In my defense, I was wearing a big bulky sweatshirt under that fleece. (I know, I know...I need to be doing some running myself. (And now I sound like my dad. Hi Dad!))

 

Here are two proud kids with their medals!

 I was so proud of them for wanting to do this, and especially proud of Henry for the way he looked out for his sister instead of just worrying about how he did in the race. It was nice that they didn't do times for the fun run and that all of the kids got medals. He knew that going into it, so he was less competitive than he might have been.