Catching Up

I've been a bit behind in my blogging... greatest apologies... unfortunately illness has decided to take up residence in our house. So, a quick catch up on what we've been doing lately.

Pumpkin Patch Trip:

On my birthday (before I had to leave for my business trip to Las Vegas), we bundled ourselves up and made our annual trek to the Fairbank Animal Farm pumpkin patch. After a few "I have to go potty" stops on the way there (including a stop at a closed used car lot's parking lot), we made it to our destination. We fed the birds (ducks, chickens, peacocks), played with goats, saw newborn piglets, and meandered through the pumpkin patches until we found THE pumpkins for us. It was a foggy fall day, but luckily, we didn't get rained on. The only downfall of the outing was someone hijacked our wheelbarrow while we were in the pumpkin patch (we'd parked it by the fence), so we had to muscle our pumpkins back to the main farm (aka the cash register). Oh well... it turned out pumpkin patch trip into a wee bit of a workout, too. Bonus!

Halloween recap:
We were invited to Annika's classmate's house for a Halloween party. Their house was brimming with kids and parents... unfortunately, I was brimming with cold germs and didn't have much staying power (or much of a voice by half an hour into the party). So, we bailed early and instead of doing the group trick-or-treating, we meandered home on our own and let the kids trick or treat as we worked our way back to the house. The kiddos had a great time and were much saddened the next morning when we broke the news that they didn't get to go trick-or-treating that day, too. (We are such mean parents!)

November has zipped by us at lightning speed! On Friday, Eric's mom and my mom joined the kids at school for Grandparents Day. Looking back, I wish I'd asked someone to snap a pic of Annika and the grandmothers together... dang, hindsight really is 20/20. The reports I heard were that the day was a great success! After the various events at school (mass, refreshments, sung entertainment, book fair), the grandmothers and Annika had lunch together at the 125th Street Grill. What a great way to top off a fun morning!!

Last night, we gathered to at my brother and sister-in-law's house to celebrate our niece Kat's 16th birthday. We had a low-key evening (mostly ... really, what is a family gathering without at least a little drama here and there?) that included college football, a yummy dinner of homemade fries and burgers, and red velvet cake for dessert. After getting home, we watched the UW Dawgs tromp on the Oregon State Beavers (GO DAWGS!!!). (OK, full disclosure: We didn't stay up to watch the whole game... we're old and go to bed early, but we did watch 1/2 of the game and then watched the rest when we got up this morning... God bless the inventors of DVR technology!)

Next stop.... Thanksgiving! All aboard!