It's flood season in Western Washington again. Luckily we live in pretty good spot--no huge rivers nearby to overflow like these poor people have to deal with. But it has been so wet! Most of the year the rain is just a mist or drizzle, but in November and December we get the deluge. It rains buckets for hours on end. I kinda like it. But I'm glad it's only a few weeks out of the year.

©seattletimes.nwsource.com

Before the storms came, we were able to go apple picking at a local orchard. We must have been a week or two late, because most of the really good varieties were completely picked over (pun intended), but we did get some delicious Jonagolds. And the boys couldn't believe I was letting them pick them themselves. I did have to slow them down a little--I was paying by the pound and they weren't very discriminating. But it was an experience!






Cool! There's a slug on my apple!


Goofball 1.

Goofball 2.


We caught a ride with the Myrups--thanks for including us in your family outing!

No posing for mom today (as per usual).

Me and my boys. No Daddy today (also as per usual)! :(

The gorgeous sunflower field at the orchard.

can halloween please be over now?

Halloween is the biggest day of the year at our house. The only thing that could make it better, according to James, is this:

"Mom, what if we could have Halloween, my birthday, Christmas, fly to Utah, and go to St. George, all on the same day?"

Talk about fun overload. I feel like we've been celebrating Halloween all month long with the Halloween birthday party and all the Halloween ideas I posted on my other blog. So when the actual day finally arrived, I was kind of done. We didn't even carve our pumpkins! We did enjoy a Halloween party with the ortho gals on Monday, the carnival at the church on Tuesday, plus trick-or-treating and a party at a friend's house on Halloween, so the kids got plenty of fun (and candy) in. I don't even think they noticed the lack of pumpkin carving.

We got to meet up with our friends the Pierces at the carnival while they were in town getting ready to move to Japan. We're going to miss you Jared and Ethan!

James was very specific about the costume he wanted: a black ghost with his skeleton showing and blood dripping down his face. I was actually ready to try and create this costume myself (sans blood) to save money. But when I saw this glow-in-the-dark skeleton on sale at JoAnn for $7, I convinced him it was exactly what he wanted. And boy does he love it! He's been wearing it for a week straight.

James has been telling me everyday I can have whatever candy of his I want. Luckily he doesn't like any of my faves, like Almond Joy and Baby Ruth.

Addy had been telling people the week before that he was going to be Iron Man for Halloween, but I reminded him how much he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear (a costume we already had). Wow, I sure wish this power of persuasion stuff was going to last with them!

Halloween was also James' first day of soccer! Grandma Holly gave us money for soccer lessons for James' birthday this year to go along with his new soccer ball and shin guards from Mom and Dad. We found a cool indoor soccer league for kids called Scott's Soccer Tots. Scott is amazing--he is so good with the kids. I think James was the only kid who hadn't played before, so he was a little shy about the whole thing. But Scott worked with him individually and he ended up doing great! He even blocked a couple of goals while playing goalie. He asks me everyday if it's soccer lessons today. He isn't the most athletic kid, so I think this is going to really help him learn some coordination and other skills he needs.


They were moving so quickly I could hardly get a shot!

Taking a water break.

I've got lots more pics and updates to post, so don't give up on me! I'm still here!