Pumpkins pumpkins everywhere!

We visited the Pumpkin Farm with some local families that look somewhat like ours. :) It was fun, interesting, and tiring.


the boys jumped out of a barn window into hay bales.


the kids drug me through the hay bale maze, where Katie ended up with a yellowjacket on her head...crawling around...like ON HER FOREHEAD!


we now own 4 pumpkins - 3 bigger ones, one small one. The small one is mine.



never do anything humiliating when DiverG has a video camera. He'll totally get it on video to embarrass you with.

3 hours at the pumpkin farm wears us out...completely!



some of our friends (these were the only kids I got permission from Moms to post to my blog...there were others there...like DiverG with his video camera)





and lastly, How Tall This Year!

Sometimes I wonder...

My sister called to day and told me she needed to lodge a complaint. She claims Katie gave her youngest boy a black eye. He's 4 months older than Katie, and taller. ;) We laughed because none of us knew how he got the black eye, but I have photos of him during our photoshoot with the eye swollen (and sis, that eye is swollen in the very first one).

So, being the incredibly perfect Mom who is teaching her kids right from wrong. *cough* I asked my boys if they had hit him (unlikely, but who knows with the way the kids all played together), or if they knew if he'd run into something. Both boys said they didn't hit him, and they couldn't remember him crying anytime on Sunday. Nor did they remember him running into anything. I believe them, mainly because it's been over 2 days and I can hardly remember what we did that morning myself. We will be having a talk about being gentle around the little kids with them though.

Katie, however, jumped up and down and exclaimed joyously, "I hit! Eye!!! I did it! YAY!"

Uh...Sis, can I claim that as it happened BEFORE the pictures that I'm not sure if she did or not. She totally could have...perhaps on the walk up the hill from the cars? Honestly though, I don't think she did. I'm sorry though, and please do send us the photo of his black and blue eye.

Regardless, we will be having a talk with Princess Peanut that hitting other people is bad. I think if she knows her buddy was hurt she'd cry. Yeah...time for that talk.

Samuel's Day

It's 12:31am, and I'm sitting here thinking. Today is Samuel's birthday. He turns 6 years old. I remember this time 6 years ago, starving because my c-section required that I not eat 12 hours prior to it. I remember thinking of how in less than a day my life was going to change. It did. For the better. I was scared of that c-section because for JM's I had not been awake. This was my first birth to actually experience. I did not know what to think or expect, yet I had a child already. How strange was that?

Samuel came into this world charming everyone. He melted hearts immediately, and I remember breaking the rules that first night and climbing out of my hospital bed so I could pick him up...or just to stare at him.




He grew so fast, and I had my first digital camera (luckily) to more than capture all those wonderful memories.











I can tell from looking at these photos when I upgraded cameras and when I started learning more and more about photography.



Hard to believe he was just about 4 here. He's not changed too much has he.


these are all from 2007....



This was just a short 1 year ago...





Then we have 2008...











So, Happy 6th Birthday my special little man! I love you more to the MOON and BACK a gazillion million times.

Katie ASKED me to take her photo

TOTAL PKS, but you know, I love them anyway.

*not processed, not intended to be Hi-key, just put out there for your enjoyment.

Okay, I need to take the kids on a field trip.

I'm looking to take the kids on a fieldtrip and I'm trying to figure out WHERE. See, we have 3 larger cities we can get to. One we live in, the other 2 are both roughly 1.5 hours away...oh wait...4 larger cities if we stretch the distance to roughly 1.5-2 hours away.

2 have a zoo
3 have a botanical garden (maybe all 4 do)
3 have science museums
4 have childrens museums
1 has an aquarium

all 4 have bloggy friends in them - homeschooling ones, adoption ones, photography ones, and Mommy group ones.

Field trip MUST be on a weekday, most likely a Monday.
Gas is still somewhat limited in nature.
House is on the market, and keeping it clean has been a joy. Not.
House is on the market, thus finances are a little tight as moving expenses are being saved for...

Ideas? Post a comment and I'll moderate if you put exactly WHICH city I should go to. :) If you think you are near me, and most of you know if you are, if you are FREE on Mondays let me know as well. I'll moderate comments for this one.

Looking at Monday October 20th I think.

OH yeah, we have a membership that is reciprocal for the 3 science museums. We've had zoo memberships, and could be persuaded again to get them.

Random photos

Katie finally got someone to rock with her. Can you tell she was excited?



LOL...makes me smile


For once, a game a checkers...but they've been playing chess against each other all the time. Begging to go to Chess club. I punish them for not doing school work with not going to Chess club. How sad is that?!


JUMP!

Oh we are so in trouble...

Do you realize what she's working on figuring out?! *faint*

for those who traveled with us, this outfit was one I carried with us and when it was too big I was so incredibly SAD that she'd probably never get to wear it. It's 12-18 month Gymobree. Do you NOTICE how big it still is on her? Does anyone want to GUESS what her closet looks like...with all the shopping I did last fall from clearance racks? umm..yeah.

Is anyone else just slightly worried?

You know...about the economy?

Is anyone else sick and tired of election stuff already?

Is anyone else just ill over what those on Capital Hill are doing?

Who is ready to hibernate until January 2009? LOL

My Week

*found this in archive from middle of September...and no, life has NOT slowed down*


Monday - Cleaning, straightening up, packing to move things to storage...pick up clothes from consignment sale, clean some more - that evening, working on editing photos and orders

Tuesday - class photos (group shots) at kids school for yearbook (I'm both the photographer AND the yearbook editor), run home to have them do schoolwork, back to school for more class photos, run them to karate, during Karate run back to school for more photos, home to drop kids off with Dh, run to doctor for annual exam, drop off prescription meds (we finally talked about that asthma problem in China), run home to eat, take JM to Karate for his gold belt test (he got it), to grocery store with JM and Katie (Samuel went with Dh to a softball game) for food...then home....oh yeah, more photos to edit and order.

Wednesday - at home through morning which means CLEANING and school work, church activities did some work on the yearbook stuff while the kids were busy with their activities, LOTS of business related things and catching up on schoolwork, oh yeah, edit photos and order late last night

thursday - class photos at school, home, deposit money, lunch, class photos at school, karate, class photos, back to karate, back to school for more class photos, home, edits on photos yet again, mow the yard, talk to a friend about Disney trip, more edits on photos...probably orders as well....oh JOY.

Friday - CLASS PHOTOS all day long at the school, leave to get lunch, back for the afternoon (remember katie's pack and play for a nap), get home around 3:30-4pm. Clean house...get ready for soccer photos and session in the AM (call them to verify), oh...and EDITS on photos.

Saturday - 8:15 - soccer photos, 9:30 session, Matilda Jane trunk show at Noon, home to clean & pack up house...and edit photos.

Sunday - church. clean. cook. edit photos. order photos. design wedding album.

This is a typical week except for the class photos, but it seems like I have something going on each week like that.