Happy Halloween!!

From a Green Army Man, a Fireman, a Skeleton, and a Puppy Dog!

carving pumpkins 2012

We carved our pumpkins Saturday afternoon and used a few new techniques. The first big time saver was this pumpkin gutter drill attachment that I bought last year after we spent what seemed like forever cleaning out our pumpkins. Nick was a bit skeptical at first, but in the end he loved it! It basically looks like an egg beater that you stick on the end of a drill and it loosens all the string and seeds from the inside of the pumpkin walls. After a few minutes, you simply turn the pumpkin upside down and everything falls out. Genius! The second tool we used was a drywall knife which has many little teeth on it. Nick carved the pumpkins so fast with the knife that I could barely keep up with the patterns!
Elliott had a great time playing with all the pumpkin scraps. Oliver preferred to watch and direct the carving. After Nick had carved a train into his (at his request), he decided that he wanted a dog face as well. The night before we found a stray dog named Smiles and two of our pumpkins ended up with Smiles' face on it :) Here are a few pictures of our pumpkins!

Two cute boys!

pumpkin drilling

Oliver watches as Nick carves out a train on Oliver's pumpkin

enjoying the pumpkin scraps

he really got the hang of it

I'm not sure this kind of pumpkin is for eating!

Oliver took a few pictures as well, it's so nice to have a backup photographer now :)

The finished pumpkins! Two dog faces and a cat and moon.

out and about in October

Here are a few more things we've been up to:

Oliver was invited to a birthday party for one of his friends, who's grandma lives on a farm!

saying hi to the nice horsey

picking his own grapes, and shoving them in his mouth

picking apples, with the help of Daddy

and tractor rides

Carousel at the zoo!

Elliott's first ride

Oliver, aka Caspar Babypants. . .

Oh, and he sews too! We never knew this lamp in his bedroom would serve so many purposes (it's also frequently a microphone). And he has my broken sewing machine foot as well so he can mend Daddy's shirt.

Having fun in the race car shopping cart at Fred Meyer

And look what Oliver and Nick built with the Duplo!

One of Elliott's new favorite toys

Oliver's preschool took a field trip to the fire station last week. Oliver knew just what to wear :)

early October pics

I've fallen a bit behind on my blog posts lately, so here are some pictures from the first half of October. We've been quite busy lately, starting with Oliver's birthday, my mom's visit, several other birthday parties, refinancing our house, and Halloween coming up! I have also been doing a trial month of crossfit (thanks to Groupon) which I absolutely love and it's the first time that I have been working out three times a week (besides walking)since before I had Oliver. I feel great and hope that I can keep the classes up after my pass ends.

Elliott meets a pumpkin!

Oliver eats an apple while sitting on one of his many pumpkins

A quick photo shoot with Gramma before she left for the airport. The boys are wearing their matching Halloween bat shirts that she made for them.

Oliver's pumpkin

I love this pumpkin that Oliver made at preschool last week!

Elliott video: months 9 and 10

Here are some clips of Elliott from the past two months. A lot has changed since then! He now crawls all over the house, climbs stairs and walks with his walker or other moving objects :)

pumpkin patch 2012

One of our October traditions has been going to a pumpkin farm with the kids and Gramma. Oliver has been talking about Bob's Corn since we were there last year and couldn't wait to go this past Sunday. He remembered all the rides, the cow train, ride on toys and bikes, the pony rides and the hay wagon ride, and couldn't wait to do them all again.The weather wasn't the best but Oliver still got to do all the activities he wanted to and we're lucky it didn't start raining until we had already picked out our pumpkins. He loved picking out the pumpkins and putting them in the wheelbarrow, and we had to stop him after he got to six. He and Elliott also loved riding in the wheelbarrow with the pumpkins!

cow train

Elliott spent most of the day here

so excited to ride the horses!

this is by far the biggest horse he's ever ridden

petting it afterwards

very proud of his ride!

on the hay wagon on our way to the pumpkin patch

and the search is on for the perfect pumpkin!