Random Stuff...

For art the other day I had the kids make trees! I had them collect leaves outside and they made the tree from brown paper bags. They turned out super cute! We have them on display on the kitchen table. An interesting thing I learned about Belle... she loves to clean bathrooms! This photo I got after I opened the bathroom door the other day to find her in there cleaning away with rubber gloves and everything! Hmmm, now to use this super power to my advantage! The girls slept over at my mom Friday night (aw... date night!!) and in the morning we all went hiking in the woods behind our house. The lake looked bigger with the leaves mostly gone from the trees, you could see more of it in a sweeping glance then usual. I like having bare trees because from the windows in our home you can plainly see the lake. Whereas all summer, you can't see it at all!

We've started doing fires already this year. We have an entire cord of wood to last the winter. That's enough for a fire every night! Which is what we usually do anyway during the winter months. Who doesns't love the smell of a burning fireplace! I can't wait for snow! And with snow comes CHRISTMAS!!!!

Field Trip Friday

This weeks field trip was to the Museum of Natural History. It worked out well because on Monday we watched 'Night at the Museum' with the kids and Elle LOVED it and wanted to go visit that museum! Even though that particular one was the one in New York, that we could go to the one here in D.C at some point. She was dying to go! Well, on Tuesday I happened to get an email letting everyone know where the field trip was this week and it was to the Natural History Museum! It was serendipitous!

We took the metro there... I will never do that again! I usually drive anyway, but we went with some friends so we decided to take the train from Hell. I'll spare the details but just know that metro trains aren't as great as everyone thinks they are.



The Museum itself was actually recently redone and looked great! I love Museums and I actually learned alot of facts that I had never heard before. For instance I learned what a 'Morgie' is and how it shaped animal evolution. I discovered the Hope Diamond is 42.52 carats. Belle was NOT impressed! I think she was expecting a giant monster diamond, but instead it's on a necklace.


Part of the movie we watched on Monday had Easter Island heads that came to life at night and talked. So, the kids really wanted to see the heads! Pinky kept telling me that these one also came to life and really talked at night! These ones were a little smaller then the ones in the movie, but it was still very neat to see one in person.


So all in all a good day... until the train ride BACK home...

Fall Weather In D.C

This week the fall colors are in peak season. They only lasted about a week. We went to Sugarloaf mountain yesterday and the leaves were barely already starting to turn brown. When I woke up this morning, I can tell that they are changing from that brightness to deeper colors. Only another day or so until they are all just brown. Then we can rake them and jump in the piles!


Sugarloaf has all these incredible mountains of rock to Climb, which the kids could have done all day! We went with some friends and they literally used their imagination and played and climbed those rocks for hours! In the picture below, you can't really tell but it's super steep! The photo doesn't do it justice.

Here's brave Pinky!

Voting

Tomorrow is voting day, I hope you all know where your place of voting is. I read a very important notice today and would hate for anyone to miss it, so I'll let my dear friends and family know about it NOW. It was of some concern the amount of voters expected to show up on Tuesday to vote. Lines that were hours long! So, there is now a clever solution in place. All the Republicans will go and vote at the scheduled time on Tuesday and the Democrats will cast their vote the following day, Wednesday. Thus dramatically cutting down the lines you will encounter. Hopefully this finds you in time.

Dinner in a Pumpkin

When asked by my hubby what we were having for dinner on Halloween, I proudly announced "Dinner in a Pumpkin". Seeing as how he had never heard of such a thing, the whole idea of cooking dinner IN a pumpkin sounded preposterous and he didn't seem confident in my ability to make such a strange sounding concept taste good. We instead had pizza that night.

Tonight though, he couldn't escape! He worked all day, I was home and thus in charge of dinner! I was determined to make him like it, if only because I'd talked it up so much. The truth is I had never had it either but it LOOKED like something that should be incorporated into every homes Autumn dinner menu. I found the best looking recipe online, prayed I would completely ruin my chances of ever trying this again by having it suck this one time... then I went for it. When asked again tonight what we were having for dinner, I said as cheerfully as I could on instant message (by adding a smiley face!) that were having Dinner in a Pumpkin tonight honey! Hubby asked if it would be good, I assured it it would be great (saying another prayer!), then hopped off instant message before he could object.

I layed out our festive fall runner and displayed my wondrous pumpkin dinner among lit candles. It LOOKED good at least! We sat down to eat. I nonchalantly asked if it was good. Yes, he liked it! He even had seconds! He admitted he'd never thought of pumpkin as food in that way (besides buying the purred stuff in cans), but that he liked it. YAY! Mission accomplished. Now for my next experiment...

Exciting Saturday

My grandparents flew out from Utah and another aunt flew out from Colorado this week to be with my mom because she got her endowments out this weekend! It was really exciting and has long been anticipated! I was her escort through it which was fun for me! The proccess started early morning and went into early afternoon, then we went to lunch with all the family after. It was nice to visit with everyone. I hadn't seen my grandparents in three years. We only saw them the one day, they had obligations at home and had to fly back early the next day. But even one day, I'll take it! I wish we lived closer to family! I guess it will be a good excuse to fly out that way soon.
So, now that my mom is endowed she can be MY escort when hubby and I get sealed. Whenever that will be! It's one glitch after another!

The Obligitory Halloween Post!

Why is a blog worth having, if not for it's holiday picturs! We had a super busy week chalk full of parties, pumpkin carving, a giant baby shower at my house, family visiting from utah and Colorado, trick or treating, buisiness trips, soccer and swimming. Hmmm... there might be more but I can't remember!

Halloween is my most favorite holiday (well, it's tied with Christmas). Last year I threw away ALL our autumn/Halloween decor to make space in the storge room... what a dumb thing to do! My wonderful hubby noticed how lame our house was this year and sent me out one evening to buy up a ton of decorations. His only stipulation was that it had to be stuff we could store and use ever year, rather then buy cheap things that would break and need to be re-purchased next year. This was my mission. I feel like i did pretty good! One of the better items I bought was a fog machine! It was a good investment! Any house's cool factor triples with a fog machine!

Here are the pumpkins the we did this year. The polka dot one is Martha Stewart inspired and suprisingly easy to make.


Here were the kids in our co-op for the Halloween party. We tried lining them up tallest to shortest.

Belle dressed as Snow White this year and Pinky was a Snow Princess. Notice the foggy yard!!


I used a spray on hair color with them. Bells had black hair and Pinkys was pink, it was a MESS to get out! It took several washes, lots of conditioner and elbow grease on the tub and tile when they were done. I don't think I'll ever use that again on them. Next year WIGS for all!!

My dad moved over the weekend as well, so here is a picture of him with the kids