Happy Halloween!

I'm really missing Alex and Ari right now - we always had so much fun at Halloween!

Last Saturday Adam was at Deer Camp, so the Littles, Mom, and I went to Boo at the Zoo.

It was FREEZING! We wanted to go in the evening to avoid most of the rain and to be able to see the lights, so we arrived around 5:00. It was so cold that Quin decided not to dress in her costume all evening. And the other kids started out bundled up also. But it did get warmer as the night went on.

The aquarium is always a favorite. The Littles love the touch pool. It seems like yesterday that the Bigs used to do the same thing - they also used to sit in the aquarium with their drawing pads, sketching for hours. Carrie was allergic to something in the touch pool this year - her hand broke out afterwards and stayed that way for days.

Dive! Dive! Dive!

They love these sculptures - they wanted to take pictures at almost every climbing sculpture in the park!

The carousel was a big hit also - we went on it a number of times. They were playing spooky music, and the lights were pretty.

Touching the snake in the reptile house. The kids enjoyed the animals and the rides more than anything - they weren't too concerned with stopping at the treat stations, though they did enjoy a few treats.

I got to go on the preschool pumpkin field trip with Carrie and Quin. Miss Kim very nicely offered to let Carrie go with the morning Bumblebee classroom so I could go with both girls (since the groups were being separated). I'm posting only the pictures that don't have any of the other kids in them in case their parents don't want them to be posted - but the girls had a good time hanging out with their friends on the trip. In fact, both of them sat with friends on the wagon ride - I was far enough away that I wasn't able to get any pictures of that!

They started off in an outdoor "classroom" to learn about pumpkins, gourds, squash, and Indian corn. They also got to sample some apple cider. Then they got a long wagon ride to the pumpkin patch, where they were able to pick gourds, a pumpkin, and corn.

Thursday night was also Beggar's Night in our neighborhood. I think the girls were Halloweened out! They were probably already tired from the field trip. Carrie walked with us, but stayed on the sidewalk instead of going up for candy. And everyone was ready to go home after 45 minutes - we had a pleasant evening by the fire! The pictures below were taken before we left.

Bountiful Harvest

When I was little, my family went to Lynd's fruit farm to pick apples in the fall. It was a different experience then in many ways. It certainly wasn't as crowded, but there also weren't as many varieties of apples. They hadn't cultivated the dwarf trees back then, so we got to climb ladders to get the apples from the higher branches. And we picked into bushel baskets instead of bags.

But I like to think that for Alex and Ari, and now for Heath, Carrie, and Quin, the memories will be as warm. So we make it a point to go to Lynd's at least once each fall to pick apples and enjoy the other activities.

Yesterday, it was so cold that when you ate the apples fresh off the tree they tasted like they'd been in the crisper. At times we walked with one hand on our apples and the other hand in our pockets. I can't remember picking apples with winter coats and hats before, but at least we weren't troubled by any bees!

I do not know why Carrie's hat looks so funky. She is an odd little duck when it comes to fashion.
Carrie has on her "I dropped my apple" face, and Heath is doing more eating than picking at this point. Quin is the only one hard at work.

I love this shot, though you can't see her eyes. Her little hands were so cold, but she loves fresh apples!

One satisfied customer.

Two-fisting it. Quin is eating with one hand and picking with the other. Look how red her nose is!

Heath is proud of his apples.

After a stop at the tent to get lots of fall goodies - Yum! Turnips! - we headed back to the Olde Homestead. Yes, they are eating beef jerky and caramel apple lollipops at the same time.

Adam loves raw fresh chestnuts, so he taught the kids how to peel them. Heath loves them, and not just because we let him poke them with the sharp knife. The girls were practicing writing letters while they ate the chestnuts. Here Quin cons Grandma into peeling hers for her.

Ever since we let the kids use the camera on our vacation to keep them quiet at the restaurants, they ask to use the camera all the time. Quin took the next two pictures. Not bad for a three year old!

She really captured Heath's eyes!

Carrie took these next two pictures.

It looks like Pepper's thinking "Get that thing away from me!"

After eating our fill of the raw chestnuts in the afternoon, we roasted a few in the evening. We didn't have an open fire or a chestnut pan to use in the fireplace, so we just cut the Xs in them and roasted them in the oven. Here are the warm chestnuts after we rolled them in the towel to crack them.

Heath likes them roasted as well as raw, just like me. The rest of the family is divided. Mom likes them better roasted, and Adam and the girls like them better raw. We stopped eating them when Adam pointed out that deer eat them in the fall to build up yellow fat for the winter. Good thing we only added a little salt and didn't dip them in melted butter!

They are much easier to peel when they are roasted. And they smell awesome!

I think today we'll go for the straw bales and pumpkins to decorate the front of the house. Then the plan is to use more of our fall fruits and vegetables for an old-fashioned Sunday dinner of stuffed and roasted chicken, sweet potatoes, and homemade apple dumplings for dessert. That is, if I get my rear into gear!

Twin Tinks

Aunt Lynn had a surprise in store when we got back from Florida.

The girls have been wearing their Tinkerbell dress-up clothes every day for the past two weeks.

Popping in to the Pop Century for One Night

The bang-up double-birthday Disney trip didn't start out quite the way we planned. I had my post-surgery check-up on Friday, and instead of giving me the go-ahead for travel, the doc did another procedure. In the office. Without anesthesia.

So, we thought it might be wise to start out early for Florida, anticipating that we would have to stop more often and the drive would take us longer than expected. So we didn't finish the laundry for the week and instead loaded the car Saturday morning and started out around 3:30 in the afternoon.

We neglected to take the 5 extra minutes it would have taken to mount the DVD players - a rookie mistake that will never happen again. The first few hours were something like the seventh ring of hell until we made a McDonald's run to make the little buggers clam up. Evidently they had been too excited to eat earlier in the day, because this tactic worked well and eventually we had peace.

And totally unexpectedly, we made the best time we've ever made. We were on Disney property by 9:30 on Sunday morning. We didn't really expect our room to be ready, but it was! It was like gaining an entire extra day. And since we wouldn't have our park tickets or dining plan until the next day when we checked in to the Polynesian, we had a day that was completely free of expectations.

The girls are completely goofing in this picture, because the only people who were tired were the drivers!

We were in one of the 50s buildings, which we'd never been in before. Here we are in the room with our "I can't believe we're finally here!" faces. The bowling pin pool was the closest to our room.
Our stairwells also looked like bowling pins. We spent most of the day in the pools. It was really humid - you can see how it blurred the picture of Heath by steaming up the camera lens. It rained a number of times on Sunday, but the only time we were caught in it we were already in the pool. Since the rain was a lot colder than the pool water, we just stayed in the pool and played.This was the giant jukebox near at the head of our pool. Our building is to the right of it, but our room was on the other side.The kids liked wearing the life vests because they could basically tread water and stay in the deep parts even if we weren't right beside them. Quin wouldn't go far from Adam on Sunday, so he spent a lot of time near the pool steps.
Even though the kids liked the big pool, we still had to spend a few minutes in the kiddie pool because they love playing in the fountains. Lady
and the Tramp Adam didn't want to unhitch the trailer, so we took the Disney buses into Downtown Disney instead of the van. We wanted to scout out the location of the T-Rex restaurant and also to let the girls pick out the princess dresses they wanted for their birthdays. We took a little time out for some photo ops with the plastic princesses. Heath picked out a Spy Fly communicator watch based on the G-Force movie. He could hear himself through the headphones on the watch, so he spent a lot of time walking around talking "mission talk" to himself in the evening. Roger that. Overall, an incredibly relaxing, fun day. A great way to start the vacation.