Happy Birthday Stephen!

Stephen had a very low key birthday. I had intended to do more, but sadly it was just one of those days. In spite of that, I hope that he enjoyed it. We went out for Japanese food at a new restaurant that we found. We each ordered a bento box dinner of different items and shared. It was delicious and now the restaurant has taken over our family's top spot for Japanese.We came home to open presents (which Benjamin wrapped completely by himself) and eat some of the castle cake that Benjamin made (which was again frosted all by himself I might add) for Dad. Happy Birthday to the man we all love!At the restaurant
Stephen's dinner
Emma eating puffs
Benjamin took this picture of Dad and the presents.
Emma eating her dinner of peas and enjoying watching the present opening.

Happy Halloween 2009!

We had quite the eventful day. We did yard work all morning long which included pulling out the flowers, planting new tulips bulbs, and mulching the flower beds all in the rain. I hit the store for the mulch and found an amazing deal on rainboots so everyone got a pair (50% off then an addittional 25% off until noon~ score!) Benjamin made a lake with rocks from the dripping water from the hose. Then we cleaned up, and Benjamin had a few tricks to play on us like hiding in the toy box. For dinner, we had delicious Halloween feast of butternut squash soup and rolls. After that was time for trick-or-treating! We had a fun-filled day!

Benjamin's river and lake

Tricking mom by hiding in the toy chest with the lid closed.
The best costume of the night~ Hagrid.

Trunk-or-Treat

We headed to the ward trunk-or-treat tonight. We didn't end up taking very many pictures. I did get the kids in their costumes earlier in the day and got some good shots. So with no with no further adieu . . .
A long, long time ago in a galaxy far far away . . .
there was Luke
and Leia
and Leia smiled
and Luke smiled, but never at the same time

and then Han Solo and an Ewok joined in for the party.

And Luke and Leia loved trunk or treating with Han Solo while the Ewok passed out candy.

And Marilyn ventured to the galaxy also with the Minnie Mouse ears that we brought her from Disneyland.

And fun was had by all. The End.

Preschool Pumpkin Carving Night

Benjamin and Stephen went to the Special Person's Night at Preschool to carve a pumpkin. Benjamin had a blast and just loves his pumpkin!
The scary face the pumpkin was modeled after!

Camryn and Benjamin

Pretty scary!

Pumpkin Patch

For the past two years, we have gone to a very small pumpkin patch right across the river from our house. I absolutely love it. We headed there yesterday afternoon. The amazing thing is that we also always get such great pictures. (These are just straight from the camera, no saturation at all.) It is just a patch, with a giant cornmaze, a slingshot, and hay bales. We spent a whopping $5.00 including buying a pumpkin and doing the slingshot. We had the best time. As for the slingshot, the large one was a bit tricky, but Benjamin hit both of his pumpkins in the kid bucket which meant that he won two free little pumpkins. He was so proud of himself and talked about how great he was at the slingshot for the next several hours.
Can you see the small dot in the air? That is Stephen and Benjamin's launch!

Here are the two free pumpkins. He was so proud!

Playdough Monster Movie

A few nights ago, I made a crazy Jib Jab card where I put our families faces onto different characters dancing to the song "Monster Mash." Benjamin thought it was hilarious, and so I was looking at other cards to see if I could put our faces into something else. We all started to watch one about a monster, but then it started eating people. Yikes! I didn't see that one coming. I covered Benjamin's eyes, but it was too late. That night at bed he kept saying that he just saw the scary monster. I told him how someone had just made the monster out of playdough and made a movie of it. He finally agreed to go to sleep with this in mind and his lantern on with Arf Arf in front of the lantern to create a giant "shadow Arf Arf" on the wall to scare away any monsters (Stephen's brilliant idea). He didn't forget about the playdough monster and has bugged Stephen ever since then to make one. They made a movie of the playdough monster with the digital camera. So with no further adieu here is Benjamin's movie of the playdough monster.

Trike-A-Thon

Benjamin's preschool did their annual FUNdraiser again with a trike-a-thon. It was raining for a good portion of the time, but Benjamin did make a few laps around in the rain. He also frosted a cookie, decorated his bike and ate Krispy Kreme donuts. We had a great time in the rain. Here are a few pictures of the events.