Carving!

After we picked our pumpkins (which is in the following post) we came inside and carved a few. Here's our carving experience this year, which went better than last. Samantha actually carved the mouth of her pumpkin all by herself. This is why we are calling it our zombie pumpkin because it's extremely crooked and is just hanging. Parker actually got his hands dirty and cleaned his pumpkin out. These are milestones for my kiddos. Hopefully next year they can do more, which means less work for Mom and Dad! In the picture of our Jack-O-lanterns, it goes: Jeremy's, Parker's, Samantha's, and mine. Collin's isn't shown...his is colored on in pen.

After carving and lighting them up to see how they looked, we decided to roast some marshmallows! Jeremy started the fire and I got out the BBQ tools and Jeremy roasted some for the kids in our living room fireplace. Hey, it works!

Finding The Perfect Pumpkin...

As you all know, we've worked hard on finally producing that pumpkin patch that we've had envisioned for quite some time....It's not the best, but it was good and it was ours and that's what made us happy! It was finally time to harvest those pumpkins for FHE the other night. We all got on our rain gear and headed to the yard to cut our pumpkins and pick out the best ones for us to carve. And Grandma Klein showed up just in time to help us! The kids had fun picking out their own pumpkins and putting them all in a nice little pile. We were worried none of them would be orange enough, but we ended up having plenty orange ones and a few green ones that we left and can enjoy for November. Our patch has been quite the talk of the neighborhood and we look forward to next year!

Corn Maze

We've had a fun couple weeks! One of our festivities this Fall have been the Corn Maze. We had gone to this corn maze a couple years ago and thought we'd try it out again. It's a big one, but with the kids with us we went through it quick and only got to one side. Still very fun! We invited Jake and Emily and their kids. The kids had a blast with their cousins, like always. While at the corn maze we also were able to see some farm animals, play in a huge "corn" box, play in some hay in the hay maze, introduce Collin and Tristan to the biggest slides they've seen yet, and be there for the duck race. It was a great outing for everyone. I love all the Fall activities that are around! Have I mentioned that I love Fall?!

Here Fishy, Fishy!

We are lucky enough to live only about 10 minutes away from Issaquah Creek, which is the home to many, many salmon. Every year they swim upstream to come home to the Salmon Hatchery where they came from. There's a big celebration every October called "Salmon Days" to recognize these fish. It's quite a big deal! We weren't able to attend the big Salmon Days party, but we did go a few days earlier to check out the salmon. Sadly enough, not all of them make it, so you see quite a few on the creekside, but the ones that do are really interesting to watch. They look exhausted! Poor fish. It's a great lifecycle to talk to the kids about and a tradition to go experience every year. Here's our trip to the Salmon Hatchery!

Date Night

I had a FABULOUS night out with my amazing, wonderful husband last weekend! Seriously, it was the best night out that we've had in a really long time. We sooo needed it! We went to a Mariners game, getting there early so we could enjoy some dinner and the view from Safeco Stadium before the game. The level our seats were on gives you a perfect view of the sunset and the waters of Puget Sounds. Beautiful. After a extremely sad, sad game that we totally lost we went home and watched a movie. Just a perfect night. Thanks for a fun night, Jer! We should do it more often!

Fall Time!

This is what my poor husband battles every Fall!!! He's really good about getting out there and blowing those leaves down in our ravine, but it sure piles up quick! They not only are all over our backyard, but all over our deck and roof as well thanks to the huge maple tree that hangs over them. The only benefit to all of this is the fun the kids have :)

And, the fun critters we find in the midst of the pile!

And I had to include our AWESOME pumpkin patch!!! What's Fall without pumpkins? OH, and our spooky black cat!

HAPPY FALL!!!