::pumpkins::

When we lived in Raytown, MO we used to go to a real pumpkin patch not too far from our house--in fact it was between our house and Super-Target, so naturally I drove past it all the time.

Anyway, it was a real true pumpkin patch. No frippery, no bells and whistles. No corn kernel ball pits or hay rides or corn mazes. You went out there with a wheelbarrow and picked out pumpkins--snapping them off the vine--while avoiding snakes of course.

It was really fun. We really enjoyed it. When we moved to RI we tried to find a similar experience, but the best we found was a place that consisted of a hay ride that took us to a spot where somebody had placed bunches of pumpkins in a row for people to choose from. It was fun, but just not as "organic" an experience.

Anyway, of course this all leads to what we do for pumpkins now, right? Well, this is New Mexico where things don't just grow, so it's not like there are pumpkin patches right and left. Max's first grade teacher's husband is the Pastor of a church on the way to downtown. His teacher loved him and as a result of that we loved her of course. Anyway, every Halloween they have a big pumpkin sale there to benefit their youth program.

So after all that story what is comes down to is that here, we go to a church, walk around rows of pumpkins somebody laid out for us to shop in, and just buy some.
And that's gotta just be ok. The kids love it anyway. Especially Sandy was excited because he never remembered doing it before.






Love the juxtaposition between Max's MEGA pumpkin and the teeny ones behind him. He always has to pick a huge one.

Sometimes it's just a blessing to be able to find a time to do something like pumpkin buying and jack-o-lantern making--even if the time has to be planned and scraped out. It's stuff like this that kids remember. (old links to pumpkin posts, just for fun: http://lifekunst.blogspot.com/2008/10/pumpity-pumpkin-patch.html http://lifekunst.blogspot.com/2007/10/punkin-patch.html)

::trunk or treat 2013::

Last weekend was the ward trunk or treat--always a fun chance for the kids to dress up and have people ooh and aah over their costumes.

Sandy had the idea months ago that he wanted to be Mike Wazowski, and he wanted Max to be Sulley. Well, to tell the truth, for a long time he couldn't decide which monster he really wanted to be. I finally got him to commit to Mike, and when the costume arrived in his size he was sold.

Max's costume was really hard to find. Lots of Sully costumes exist for kids under 7 and big men that are very large, but not much in between. Nancy helped me find these funny japanese PJs that are also a costume--they didn't look to promising in the online photo, but in person the costume was great, fit well, and
Max loved it because it was soooooo fuzzy on the inside.


They're a pretty cute pair. I will have a full photo of them later. I forgot my real camera of course, and so somebody else did me a favor and took a few.

Max enjoyed the little costume parade, but Sandy did not. He was crabby because he wanted to explore the gym, and after he closed himself in a classroom and had us all frantic that he was lost, was not allowed exploring freedom anymore.



(It even has a hood that looks like Sulley's face!!)

And a cute tail.

Sandy decided he wanted to be Peter Pan instead of Mike for a while and stripped off the Mike tummy.

The trunk or treating was fun and fast as always and then we got to go home, which is one of my favorite parts. I never used to like trunk or treats--not even the idea of them. But now that we live far away from all the other ward members and there's very little trick or treating that goes on, I appreciate the event much more.

::messy::

This funny little guy used to be so fastidious about staying clean. When we gave him a big slice of cake for his first birthday, he insisted on using a fork to eat it, although he couldn't even really get any cake on the fork.
He was the neatest eater I had ever seen back then.
But then, everything changed. He's now almost three and everything's a little bit different.

You really can't get the full effect here because it was a little bit dark, but he's got cookie frosting and paint all over his shirt.
His face--up to and including his nose is all crusty with old yogurt because he tried to drink his little yogurt tub instead of taking spoonfuls.

Nowadays I have to threaten to take away drinks because he's too busy splashing in them to drink, and anything that can be spread on the table can turn into an off-road track for toy cars.

He's just messy now, that's all there is to it. Maybe someday he'll come back into his original tidiness, but maybe not. We'll see. In the meantime he's cute.

::old photo shoot::

This summer Kris and I were out in San Diego for our anniversary. A surf store there was having a wetsuit giveaway which involving posting a picture on facebook of somebody cute wearing on of their shirts. So of course we bought a kid sized shirt and went home to try our best. And since we don't have a beach or much water or anyplace where a surfboard could be stood upon without it being ruined, we did our best.

We tried to get some iconic Santa Fe scenes in the background.








The one we finally ended up submitting:

Of course we didn't win because they changed the contest from the best photo to the one with the most likes at the last minutes. We couldn't compete with the cute little teenage girl that won, but we put up a good fight, thanks to nice friends on Facebook and parents who asked for extra likes. But anyway, it really doesn't matter. We just had fun taking the photos. They're cute boys.

::vacation shenanigans::

When we were in San Diego last week for our big family vacation we stayed at this really cute little house. One of the biggest perks of the house as far as the boys were concerned was the fenced backyard--with GRASS!

They were rolling in it and playing in it and just generally glorying in it.







They were inspired to many goofy activities and spent lots of time out there, which was great. All the screaming and the running stayed outside, which was also great.

Time for massages. Max says, in all seriousness, "Sandy gives the best massages!!"


He certainly gives FUNNY massages.




Hilarious massages actually.




Fun stuff.

::flood part 2::

Seriously? I'm finally writing part 2? I'm finally writing something--anything at all? Mind blowing I know. Anyway, let's just pretend this post was prompt and move on. The view of the flood from my bedroom window--or shall we just call it our river?

Note the other river in the background. The other side of the arroyo's river just wasn't nearly as robust and interesting as ours. Sandy was disturbed by the whole thing. Things like this just aren't supposed to happen in his book.



Max, on the other hand, was psyched out of his mind. He couldn't believe we suddenly had our own river in our backyard. He was really truly hoping it was here to stay. He kept making Sandy so nervous by roaming too far. "MAX!!! COME BAAAAAACK!!!"

This is just right behind the house--down at the bottom of the driveway.


The little waterfall under that tree was especially cool. It was fun to hear the roaring of the river from inside the house.

Sandy's concerned hollering finally convinces Max to return to the fold.

The backside of our front yard. After checking out the driveway river we headed around back to the road to see how that was going.

View of the street from the living room window. Can you even tell that was ever a road?!

This was after it had dried out a bit. This was mid afternoon when this all went down, and by about 6PM the road was dry of all but just a small snake of water. The lakes on either side stayed for a few days.

Sandy came to terms with it all and cheered up a bit.
And last picture--poor dumb Sultan is not smart enough to stay under the myriad awnings, patio covers and porches that we have, and was soaked through. I mean, SOAKED. So he had to stay out until the road was about dry. He hates it when that happens.

I wish I had an audio picture of that night. Kris and I were in bed when suddenly we started hearing these strange noises that we totally couldn't place. Turned out they were toads! There is this special kind of desert toad that lives in the mud, hibernating forever or until it gets wet enough for them to spawn. They quickly spawn and the tadpoles turn into frogs quick quick I guess and they are suddenly there! They were only out there for about 3 nights and then were all buried back in the mud again until next time. It was all kind of miraculous. Like being a personal witness to a nature show phenomenon. Our own little desert miracle! And since our house stayed dry we could really appreciate it. There you go. Finally.