The Pumpkin Patch!

I've been meaning to take the kids to the pumpkin patch for a while now, but between Ellie being sick last week and unpredictable weather, we haven't done it. Today, I looked out the window and noticed that the sun had momentarily peeked out from behind the clouds, so I told the kids, "Get your shoes on, we're going to the pumpkin patch right now!"

I'm glad we did! It was sunny and warm(ish) the whole time and the kids each found their "perfect pumpkin". Plus, there was a cool fire truck to play on. What more could they ask for? :)





























Now it's time to get carving!

Spaghetti party!

About a month ago, Asher announced that on October 22nd, we had to have a "spaghetti party". I didn't think much of it. I didn't know what a spaghetti party was or why it needed to be on October 22nd. I assumed he'd forget about it.

Oh no.

Last week he was still talking about it and asking how much longer until the 22nd. I asked him, "What is a spaghetti party? We just eat spaghetti?" He said, "Yeah. With all our friends."

Ok then.

I sent out a message to a few church friends and a "spaghetti party" was scheduled. Asher's kindergarten teacher told me that he was talking about it in school all last week and even drew a picture about it during story writing time. He was SO excited!

It turned out to be really fun! We had spaghetti and meatballs along with some french bread and cookies for desert, thanks to our friends. I even had a chance to hang some streamers up while Evan was doing some school work this morning. When he walked in and saw them after school, he said "Woah!" in a voice of awe, so it was totally worth it. :)





(Confession: I completely forgot to take pictures, even though I got my camera out and ready before hand. I took this one of Spaghetti Boy eating leftover spaghetti again for dinner tonight. Silly boy.)

I'm so glad to have such a creative and fun little boy to liven things up. Maybe we'll make the Spaghetti Party an annual event! Even if my kitchen does end up looking like this afterwords:

Fall Cuties

Right next to the post office, there is a vacant lot of overgrown weeds. In the evenings, the light there is gorgeous and I've been wanting to stop there and snap some photos forever. The other day, the kids and I were on our way home from the library at the perfect time in the evening so I stopped and snapped a few shots. Evan wasn't interested. My little bookworm wanted to sit in the van and read his new book.

Asher wanted to take a few though. I love these pictures of him... his messy hair, the cheesy pose, the black eye. It's so "Asher".





He got bored really quickly, though, and I was left with miss Ellie. She was perfectly happy to wander around, stepping over the tall grass, listening to birds, and throwing rocks.













I rarely get pictures of Ellie smiling. She is much to busy these days to bother with smiling at the camera. I was really excited to get this one. :)

Salmon!

I am continually amazed by the cool things we can see here in this part of the country. I feel like this summer has been so full of wonderful, beautiful things. Beaches, rainforests, lakes.... We are met with spectacular views even when we are just driving down the freeway. I wonder if I'll ever stop feeling like I need to pull over and take a picture every time I see Lake Washington peeking through the trees and shimmering in the sun as I drive past.

I hope not.

The other day, the kids and I stopped and watched the salmon swim up the river. We didn't have to go anywhere special or make a long drive. We just stopped at our favorite walking trail on the way home from the grocery store and there they were.



They have a huge contraption set up in the river to catch the salmon and take some of them back downstream to a hatchery. The boys enjoyed watching the trap full of salmon flopping around. We also watched several flop up onto the grate and then flop themselves back off. I pulled out my trusty phone camera to snap a few pictures. I just love how straight and still the boys are standing in this one. :)



While we were there, a huge truck pulled up (so we moved to the other side of the river) and we watched as the workers walked out into the river with their waders and a net and bagged up fish after fish and loaded them into the truck. 





Miss Ellie didn't care too much about the fish, but she was pretty proud of herself for climbing up onto this wall over and over again.





After that, we enjoyed a nice little walk along the trail.

Hey guys! Wait for me!!

Leggings!

I posted this picture on Instagram/facebook a few days ago saying that I was in the middle of making baby girl some leggings out of women's socks.



I got a bunch of questions about how I did it and how they turned out, so I figured I'd post about it here and maybe it would be useful to someone. :) Disclaimer: I am not a professional seamstress, or even a very good one. lol Someone who sews well would probably look at my methods and just shake their head. BUT, the good news is that if I can do it, so can you! :)

I found packages of super cute knee-high socks at Goodwill and couldn't pass them up. I knew they would make super cute leggings for Ellie. Plus, at $5 for a pack of 3, you can't beat that price.

I tried this concept once before using THIS tutorial, but I didn't like the waist band, so I wanted to change it up a little. I also couldn't sew the "soles" of the socks together this time or the legs would be too long. I used THIS tutorial for some ideas on how to make a few changes, and we were in business!

 I started by cutting off the toes of the socks. Where you cut the socks will depend on the measurements of your little girl. I used a pair of leggings that I already have as my guide and ended up cutting them to be 15 inches long.



After that, I cut a slit down one side of each sock (again, measurements will vary, but I made my cut 7 inches). With one pair that I made, I tried to cut it so that the heel of the socks would end up on the bum of the leggings. It started getting too complicated though, and let's face it, I'm lazy. So I gave up, but it's something you might consider when cutting your socks.



Pin the socks together around the slits you made, right sides together.





Sew where you pinned using a straight stitch.



Zig-zag stitch along your seams and around the top edge of the leggings.



Cut a piece of elastic and sew the ends together. Again, I went back to an existing pair of leggings to determine the length of my elastic. Remember to add about an inch for overlapping the elastic to sew it together. I cut my elastic 15 inches.



(By the way, I got my 1 inch colored elastic at Joann Fabric. I was excited to see that they actually had some because they didn't when I looked a few months ago. They actually had a pretty good selection of colors, too.)

Attach the elastic to the top of the leggings using a zig-zag stitch (so that it can still stretch). There is a great tutorial for attaching an elastic waistband HERE.



That's it!

Here's a pair being worn by my little model, who climbed up to the counter to steal a muffin. Stinker.





Busted!



Here's another pair:



A view of the whole thing:



You can see from the wrinkles that she has plenty of room in them. She's pretty skinny, but I think there would still be enough room for babies with a little more chub. :)



So there you go... quick and easy leggings!

Pirate Doughnuts!

For those of you who don't know, September 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

I know.... I don't get it either.

BUT... I found out that Krispy Kreme would give us a free doughnut if we came into their store and talked like a pirate. And that's not all. If we dressed like pirates, we would get a whole dozen for free! As soon as I found out about this, I put it on my calendar. How could I pass up free Krispy Kreme doughnuts?

When I told the boys what we were going to do, they thought they'd died and gone to heaven. We get to dress up like pirates AND eat doughnuts?? Awesome.



So, we got all dressed up, and off we went with some friends. (Excuse the crappy phone pics.... I forgot my camera!)





We love how they let you watch the doughnuts being made.






They were warm and oh so delicious. Can't beat a fresh Krispy Kreme doughnut.






ARG!