paintin' pumpkins

This year, I somehow (conveniently) forgot to carve pumpkins.  The troops remembered.  And I saved the day by pulling out the paint instead. 

win-win.

"How you eat this??"

For the record,

November 7th.

Still playing in the sunshine.

Fall, we love you.

Sweet Jemma Jane Turns Six.

Six year old headed to school.

Let's take a look at that toothless grin:

She picked strawberry floats for her school treat and she got her silver dollar from the principal. 

And then she picked lunch at Qdoba with her monkey.

And then dinner was Jack's end of season football party.

Not my first choice for a birthday dinner but she loved spending the evening with all sorts of her favorite people.

 

Six!

Joy!

This girl is such sunshine.

She is smart and funny and thoughtful.  

But most of all she is an insanely good big sister.  To see her and Henry together is the highlight of my day, over and over.  They love so big, it blows me away.

Happy Birthday beautiful Jemma Jane.

Fall Carnival!

We had a Coug football game and tailgate party on the day of the Fall Carnival this year so we let the kids pick, the littles went with games and candy and the bigs picked football.  And then one quarter in to the game, Jack says, "I think I really want to go to the carnival."  Lucky kid because I wanted to go too so we left Ava with her daddy and headed for the fun.

Henry on stage for the costume contest.

I think Jack mostly couldn't wait to wear his costume!  He said, dead serious, "it is a privilege to wear this."

Jemma Jane was an elephant but I see I have no pictures of her.  So you'll have to believe me when I say she was the cutest elephant ever.

Vacation!

Ed was headed to Florida and I decided to tag along.

He was working everyday but I talked him into hitting the ocean for a bit:

Other than that I sat here:

and sometimes here (because you gotta eat): 

and at one point I moved over here to watch a fantastic storm roll in: 

Seriously.  I read 6 books in four days.  And watched two funny movies.  I made a good faith effort to at least go shopping twice but one time was during a torrential downpour (and flash flood warnings) and the other I stopped mid-trying on clothes because I just wanted to be back at my pool.  Where I belonged.  I also took myself (and my book) out to dinner.  And I pulled myself together for drinks with the important people every night.

It's hard work vacationing.

A few weeks ago we hit the Homecoming parade on our way to Jack's game which was in a really beautiful spot, where these two played: 

and Ava helped her dad run the chains: 

Fall Saturdays are the best.

These two.

Still make my heart happy.

Busted.

A boy and his dog...

and his sweet sister

and his goofball brother.

My fall days have been full of all kinds of big kid awesomeness but I count on these two to keep it real.

my favorite football player

That's what it looks like when you dive for a fumble on defense, recover it, and then turn around on offense and qb it down the field for a touchdown.

How awesome is this?!

Once cross-country was over, Ava and I did our first Saturday long run together.

That was a lovely surprise, especially since sometimes I still think of her like this: 

and then we went out for coffee:

When I swear she was just right here:

Every once in awhile, Ed is in town and working from his home office.  

And as often as I can, I talk him into playing hooky (for just a wee bit).  This day I got him all the way to the top of Kamiak Butte.

Ed says,

"I bet you can't pull me around the house by my feet."

(they can)