Celebrating Fall

We've done a lot of things over the last couple months to celebrate the season.

In September we went out to Johnson Brothers Greenhouses nearby for a harvest event. They had cider and cookies and a free flower potting station for kids. 

When we arrived we realized we didn't have Desmond's shoes. We both assumed that they were in the car because he typically takes them off as we are going somewhere we've given up on putting them on until we arrive to our destination. So we just doubled up on the socks and carried him half the time, he didn't seem to even notice.

The boys loved digging in the dirt, picking out flowers and planting them. They especially loved watering them with the piggie watering can. The gal that helped them through it was great with kids. We browsed a bit and headed on our way to warm up. The boys were very proud to display their creations out front.

We get a LOT of leaves at our house, from the very beginning of fall and into the winter. The orange and yellow leaves are thanks to our giant maple tree out front. It dumped two times what you see covering our yard and driveway in the pics below. The boys really enjoyed playing in them, and thankfully Ben was able to get the majority off the yard before the rain made them soggy.

We have a lot of leaves in our backyard too from several small trees. Kai loves to help rake them up with Ben. There is another gigantic tree just waiting until we get all these leaves up to make it's contribution. 

There have been a handful of sunny afternoons, warm enough to head to the park. I love watching these two play together, such little buds. 

More recently we made a visit to one of the farms down the street from us to pick up pumpkins. Unfortunately the whole experience of riding the wagon out to the pumpkin patch and picking a pumpkin is too expensive for us. Thankfully our kids don't yet know what they are missing. They are totally thrilled walking up to the pumpkins on display at the store front and we are just as pleased to use free pumpkin vouchers we received from our mortgage advisor's office.

After getting pumpkins we stopped at a park on the way home and enjoyed a few more moments of sun. Then the boys colored them (we don't carve yet!) and set them out front for display. 

Last Wednesday we stopped at the other farm down the street for their last day before closing until spring. They have a play ground and goats, so the boys thoroughly enjoyed playing there. Thankfully it was nice and sunny, and not too cold.

For Halloween we didn't really have much planned for costumes, I couldn't get the boys to commit to anything so I didn't make or buy costumes. At the last minute I convinced Desmond to wear Kai's old Batman PJ's with the cape for his costume, and Malakai wore this awesome spider shirt that Grandma Debbie had made him. It was NOT a costume though, he was NOT spider man. Just Kai, in a spider shirt. He was very serious about that.

Ben and I didn't do costumes, but he did wear a Batman T-shirt to match Des, which rendered him the nickname, "Batdad" at the Harvest party that night. Our church puts together a HUGE harvest festival for the community out at Camp Harlow (which is a ministry that they run). There were tons of games to earn candy in several different buildings, plus a petting zoo with a lemur, bunnies, a wallaby, tortoise and snakes. Des feels the same as mama when it came to the snakes.

We are planning as long as we can to take our kids to the Harvest party and avoid the door-to-door trick or treating trend.

I'm so thankful we made the extra effort to get out and enjoy the fall weather before it turned into the rainy cold mess that it is here in the winter, which is surely just around the corner!

Harvest Party 2012

Last year Des was only a few weeks old on Halloween and Malakai was sick, then they both got sick. Poor littles. So we stayed in. Thankfully this year they were well over their first colds of the season and ready to play!

That morning I tried Desmond's robot costume on him for the 2nd time. This was Kai's costume when he was 15 months old.

      Malakai enjoyed pushing the "buttons" and Desmond surprisingly tolerated it for quite some time.

On Halloween night we prefer to go to a local Harvest Party (we took Kai 2 years ago) and play the games to earn some candy. Then we don't feel like we have to check the candy afterwards, and we end up seeing a lot of people that we don't see often enough.

It was a miracle that Kai was wearing a costume. His Grandma Debbie made a "Jake and the Pirates" costume, just for play, but he refused to wear it that night- no surprise.

{trying it out a few days before Halloween}

When I brought out the fireman's hat he got at a safety event a while back he was suddenly interested in wearing a costume! I think it helped that the rest of us were dressed up at that point. I grabbed a rain coat and his fireman boots and we had a last minute costume! I showed him pictures on instagram all the way there of other kids dressed up and he got even more excited about the concept.

Mima and Aunt Nans met us at Camp Harlow, where the party was happening. We ran into friends and family while navigating our way through the activities. My cousin Angela got this cute picture of Desmond in his robot costume with her daughter Delia in her monkey outfit (upper left of collage); they don't look too sure of each other, but are so precious!

It was a bit overwhelming in the gym where they had games for older kids so we moved through that area quickly. After playing some games and visiting a bit, we headed over to the petting zoo. Both boys were really excited about the animals. Des loved watching the little pig and Kai was really interested in a bird and a hedgehog. He kept asking to hold them.

On our way to the parking lot Kai spotted a train ride about to take off  so we all piled in for a bumpy ride around the camp and then we headed home. It was such a fun little evening for our boys and we enjoyed ourselves as well!

Halloween at home

Sunday night we finally got around to bringing in our 3 teeny pumpkins from my garden. We decided to forgo the time and mess that carving would take since we'd end up doing all the work anyway. Instead we got out some crayons and let Kai color on his pumpkin. Daddy made one as well and I drew on one for Desmond. Malakai loved it and there was no mess to clean up!

Last year we got Kai all dressed up and took him to a Harvest Party with some friends. It was a lot of fun and we planned on doing the same thing this year, but Malakai ended up being sick. He'd been chewing on his fingers and drooling a bit so we thought he was just working on his molars. We thought the congestion and snoring were part of teething until he developed a cough yesterday morning. So we decided to avoid spreading his cold and stay in. What a bummer.

However, Malakai refuses to wear anything but his jammies these days. Getting him to wear jeans and a T-shirt ends in a wrestling match and lots of tears. So we knew getting him to wear a costume would be next to impossible. We were going to just let him wear his jammies to the Harvest party. I'm so glad we didn't spend any money on a costume since we stayed in. Ben + I decided to join him and wear our jammies too...

I was starting to envy all my friends' photos on facebook of cute little puppies, monsters, and ladybugs so I had to at least dress Desmond up. I put him in Kai's first Halloween outfit...

Not only did Kai not want to get dressed, he wouldn't even wear his shirt yesterday, at least he was wearing pants, albeit jammies, but pants just the same. Oh toddlers.

Desmond was back + forth between tolerating my photo session and getting a little cranky about the oversized fluff I had him wearing.

Despite Kai being sick we had a nice quiet evening at home, just the 4 of us. Sadly, the evening ended with Desmond having his first crying fit ever. He's been pretty easy to console (food, swaddle, clean diaper, snuggle,  or sleep) but last night he kept screaming. We assumed he had a tummy ache and did what we could to console him. He'd fall asleep for a short period and then wake up super mad again. He was also having a hard time eating. Around 5am we woke to his joining Malakai in a chorus of snores. His first cold. I woke with a sore throat and wonder if that what had been bugging him the night before. Ironically Malakai was also 3 weeks old when he had his first cold...and it was August!

Kai magically slept (and snored) right through all of baby brother's crying and woke up in a good mood. So here we are, 3 out of the 4 of us sick. I'm thankful Ben is feeling well since he doesn't have any sick leave at work. I'm praying hard that he stays healthy and that the little boys and myself get over this quick!

my little robot

And just like that, it's November. As Ben said this morning, "It's kind of unbelievable". The months are just flying by and I feel like suddenly we're going to be parents of teenagers feeling like we just took Malakai to his first Harvest Party the night before.

Saturday we did some last minute pumpkin carving. Malakai wasn't really in to touching the slimy stuff. Once Ben started carving pieces out of his pumpkin, Kai started putting them back in. Just like his toys! We put him in his costume to give his grandparents a preview.

He wore it for longer than he had ever before without trying to pull it off. Then we had to get photos of everyone with the pumpkins. 

Well last night we did venture out to Camp Harlow, where Ben had worked for 8 summers as a young adult. It was our first time going to their Harvest Party and it was fairly hectic, but a lot of fun. We went with some friends of ours and it was so cute to see Malakai + his friend Titus dressed up together.

{robot + dragon with their daddies}

We maneuvered our way through the crowd while Ben stopped every few feet to catch up with old friends that he hadn't seen in years. We found a few of the kid friendly games + the boys earned their parents some yummy treats.

I was worried that Malakai would want to keep the bean bags instead of throwing them for the games, but he understood right away! Ben + I were amazed, what a smart little robot!

{he loved having everyone cheer for him}

I had a hard time getting really good photos of his face because he was constantly turning to take in all the sights + sounds. I also brought our out-dated point + shoot camera, so I didn't get the best quality photos either. I was glad to not be lugging around a giant camera the whole time though. 

It didn't take us long to get through all the games that our little ones could do. We did find some animals outside. Malakai got to pet a pony, a rabbit + goats. He was so excited!

The boys seemed to most enjoy running around outside. We couldn't really let them loose inside where the activities were because of how large the crowd was. I tried letting Kai walk + hold my hand but he just wanted to run off.

We were only out for about an hour and a half, which was perfect for getting home for dinner and playtime before putting Malakai to bed and eating all the candy.

{my fluffy little robot}

this past week

I just noticed that I haven't updated for a week. It's been a blur of activity around here over the past week.

We had friends over for dinner for the first time since Kai was born. I always feel held back by our tiny home, but am glad we decided to entertain at our place. I love feeding people, making them feel comfortable and welcome. I can't wait for the day when we have a bigger home with room for more people. Someday I want our house to be the one that my kids and their friends are always hanging out at.

Speaking of our small house, the doorways are ridiculously narrow. On Friday night we were so excited to put together Malakai's jumper/activity center and started in the living room but realized that it would be WAY too big to move from room to room. We decided it's permanent location should be the nursery, but the bebe bean was sleeping so we postponed that activity. We still haven't come back to it. Tell me- does anyone else have the Baby Einstein Musical Motion Activity Jumper?

What do you think of it?

Halloween was fairly low-key for Malakai and I. Daddy however was at the Oregon vs. USC football game with his parents and brother. It was an intense game and Oregon won! Beforehand we took Kai to the pumpkin patch down the street from my parents' place. It's a rural area so it was very quiet and we got to take a ton of pictures, here are a few.










okay, that was more than a few. I always have a hard time picking my favorites and only posting two or three.

The rest of the weekend flew by and here it is already Tuesday. Yesterday I did laundry all day and still have enough to do laundry all day today- but instead I'll just do towels.

Next on the to-do list...finding a time to go grocery shopping and DOING IT!