Happy Halloween!

Grace was going to be Little Red Riding Hood...and then Cinderella...and then Snow White. But as soon as we got down the costume box to pluck out the Darth Vadar duds...she wanted to be a leopard -- with pink shoes. Since all three of my kids wore it, I think it has to be the best costume purchase ever :) And yes...she dressed up Jeff too. He's a 'funny monster'.

Harvest Party

Grace's preschool had a harvest party this year and asked that the kiddos dress up like farmers. Well, Grace wasn't interested in being a farmer, but she did want to be a cowgirl! She did point out that she didn't want to ride a cow, she wanted to ride a horse. Funny, since every time Daddy & Grandpa put her on a horse, she wants off!

Tillamook Forest Field Trip

The 3rd grade headed west for a great field trip about the Tillamook forest. We really like the Forest Center, but the kiddos didn't have time to explore that. Instead, they had a wonderfully interactive lesson in the classroom where they got to act out 200+ years of Tillamook foreat history, and then take a short hike.

They are such a creative bunch of kiddos, they put humor in every skit. Even with the weather fading into drizzle, they were excited to go outside and explore.

The highlight of the hike was seeing a dead salmon in the river, though I was more interested in all the different kinds of mushrooms. Weird!

Fall Firsts

Grace had two firsts in one day -- a schoolbus ride and a field trip! Her preschool made the jaunt to a pumpkin patch.

She loved the bus. Kids this age are usually tethered to their car seats, so they all seemed to really enjoy being able to wiggle about. Once we arrived...so did the diva attitude.

Our princess wanted to set her own pace. Why stand around waiting when you can look at farm animals? Why wait for the train when you could run to the pumpkins? Why wait for your class to ride the boat together when you could go NOW NOW NOW.

Tons of fun.

There were also yellowjackets everywhere. And when the kids were given fruit snacks? The flying menaces thought that was a good time to crawl INSIDE the little packages.

After the big adventure, we took the girls out to lunch at Pizza Schmizza, a favorite of theirs, and ours because they'll cut the slices into bite sized pieces for you!

We parentals like that the girls got to sit by themselves, which meant...we got to sit by ourselves!

Soccer with old school friends

Hayden's team played the team of the school he used to go to, which meant kiddos from kinder were there. It's amazing to see them so grown up! One of the boys he has known since preschool. Plus, one of his cub scout den mates played.

The boys had a good game, a little struggle to play as a team at first, but it came together. Hayden had a great game, and so did his friend Sebastian who scored 3 times!

Grace loved getting to run about and pick flowers and play on the playground...but it made for one distracted mommy! Luckily Grandpa was there to keep an eye on the wandering one.

Because I paid attention to the game and Gracie the Explorer, my camera settings were off. Things are over exposed and blurry. Ah, well. There's another game next week.

Soccer Crazed

The whole family is really enjoying soccer this year. Uncle Matt came last week and got to see how much fun the boys have. Fun is the goal for their coaches, who encourage the boys to play new positions and try their best. For Hayden this usually means pay attention!

At the last game they played a team that is made up of mostly kids from their school. It was such fun for the parents to get to cheer for the kids on both sides. We were the most civilzed soccer parents ever. And getting pictures was twice the fun since I culd name all the kiddos in the shot.

Hayden seems to prefer to play in the backfield, probably because he can watch what is going on.

Fingers crossed this week's game will be a little drier. Those muddy cleats are hard to clean!