Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween

Ellie all dressed in her Tinkerbell costume for her preschool Halloween party.

McKay ready for school. He was Optimus Prime from Transformers, and yes he has seen the movie.

"Stick um up!"

Every year since we have lived in Reno on Halloween night we get together with our friends for dinner and joint trick or treating. It's a fun tradition.

Clara the ladybug.

All the kids ready to go.

left to right: McKay, Ali, Lilly, Arie, Brooke, Jared, Alexis, Clara, Ellie

The kids love these big blow up lawn ornaments. Many times we had to walk around the neighborhood after dark to see all the decorations lit up.

Ready to go.

Clara had to finish early. She was at her limit of fun for the night.

The kids got so much candy that their buckets were actually overflowing. They got to eat their fare share and then Ryan took the rest to work.

Apple Hill

Although it was a month ago, I still wanted to post about our trip to Apple Hill.

Apple Hill is on the California side of the Sierra Mountains. It's a collection of 50 apple orchards that you can visit. They sell everything apple, they also have craft booths, pumpkin patches, horse rides, train rides, petting zoos and fishing ponds.

Ellie atop a HUGE pumpkin.

Our darling Clara!

She was such a trooper all day. She is not used to being on the go so much, but she stayed happy all day.

Ellie loving her pony ride.

McKay is quite a timid soul. I was surprised that he wanted to ride the ponies, and even more surprised by how much he loved it.

The train ride was the kids highlight of the day.

We rode it once and then had to stick around to watch it 4 times.

McKay even raced it, and won by a long shot. It was a slow train.

We tried a few family pictures throughout the day. None really turned out. This was the best we got.

McKay and Ellie loved the petting zoo.

Dad and Clara

Ellie's beautiful butterfly mask face paint.

McKay choose a Dinosaur.

After the kids were done the face painting lady asked me to sit down. I couldn't really say no but it came off as soon as we were in the car.
The perfect peaceful ending to a wonderful day.

Mmmmm, Fruit!

I love these little mesh food holders. Clara loves them too. They enable her to go to town on food that I would normally be scared to give her. I think she was working on a peach in this picture, and obviously enjoying it. Take a look at her shirt.

I can't believe she is almost 9 months! Before I know it she will be a year old. Wow, time flies.

McKay's Fall Program

McKay had his fall program a few weeks ago. I was impressed with his amount of participation. Although he got a little too excited and distracted by the fact that Mom & Dad were there. He did do a lot better than at his preschool program.

It was so fun to see him up there singing all the songs that I had been hearing bits and pieces of for weeks. He is growing up way too fast.

Clapping for himself with his excited face.

Pumpkin Carving

Ryan thought it would be a fun activity to carve pumpkins with the kids. I thought it would be fun but I knew what it would turn into, us doing the pumpkins. Ellie got into it for a little while until she had had enough. McKay was content just to watch.

Watching Dad clean out the pumpkin.

The finished product!

From left to right: Clara's pumpkin (by mom), McKay's pumpkin (by dad),

Ellie's pumpkin (by dad)

I picked the design for Clara's thinking it would be easy, but it took me the amount of time that it took Ryan to carve the other two. Ryan spent his time cursing Ellie and her choice of the scared cat.