Happiness Is....

Running through the crisp autumn leaves in grandma's backyard....

Leaves

My parents sent a box this week with gifts for Owen's birthday. But inside...was a little gift for me.

Fresh leaves from Michigan.....







1. Clip leaves on clothes line with clothes pin
2. Point camera toward leaves/sky
3. Become blinded by sun. See spots. Move Camera.
4. Move back to get leaves in focus.
5. Inadvertently step in dog poop.
6. Curse loudly





So.....tell me: which one do you like best??

A New Tradition

Last night when Steve got home from basketball practice,we carved pumpkins. Well....Steve and i had actually already carved pumpkins at a Halloween party on Saturday night, but the boys carved their pumpkins.
Here's our little pumpkin family:

This is Steve's self-titled "Bells Palsy Pumpkin". He said this is for all of you who are asking to see a picture of him with Bells Palsy. You get the idea.....

Here's mine. Nothing spectacular.

This is Owen's. Yes, it has TWO faces. I suggested to Owen that we turn it on it's side and use the stem as a nose and carve the face that way. He thought it was a great idea. After we gutted it, he drew me a picture of how he wanted me to carve the eyes, nose and mouth. I told him - "it already has a nose, remember? The stem."
I thought he'd get it when we carved it. He helped me carve the eyes ("scary eyes please!") and the mouth ("A SCARY mouth!!") but then when I popped the top back on and turned it toward him to admire, he jutted out his bottom lip and dropped his head with a sigh.
"What?" What is it?
*sigh*
"MAMA. THIS (grabbing the stem) is the HANDLE. Not the nose"
"I'm sorry" I implored. I thought you wanted it that way"
He crosses his arms and sits down with a humph.
"I so angry"
So we whipped that bugger around and carved another face.
Voila! Owen is a happy camper.

AJ's pumpkin was the easiest to carve because it was the smallest(thinnest skin), so he got to do a lot of the carving.

And then we stoked up a blazing fire in the fireplace turned on the stove and roasted some "smarshmellows" to make S'Mores.

We let the boys stay up past their bedtime and we all snuggled in on the couch with a bunch of blankets and watched It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

I think we've got a new tradition in the works....