Halloween!

We had a different Halloween this year as we didn't do the traditional  trick or treating, but instead the kids did a treasure hunt with their cousins.  The kids loved it, and I was happy they enjoyed it but missed the energy of walking around our neighborhood and seeing everyone in the community out!

Will was an ape, Grace, a wolf, Leo and Leopard, Annie a witch, and Kate a tennis player. I'm grateful for our bin of dress up clothes which is where they mostly found their costumes! 

We dump our our costumes around October 1st, and they have fun dressing up in all the costumes, and know they can find something to wear in there! 

We stopped by a few neighbors' houses to say hi and pick up treats they had for the kids! It was fun to be back in our old neighborhood! 

They had fun doing the treasure hunt with their cousins!! 

The loot was a little smaller, but I was surprised how much they still got!! 

They had so much fun organizing all of it! 

Showing their pumpkins after the pumpkin carving party! 

I made everyone go for a walk because it was so beautiful out!! 

They had a cupcake decorating competition.  Pat was the judge, and Grace won! 

 

Pumpkin Patches and Corn Maize!

I love pumpkin patches! This year we went to the The Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island to do the Corn Maze and hayride, and we recently went to our local pumpkin patch, Bernet Farms, which was so pretty! 

And we're fortunate to get our pumpkins from Bill, who has a great pumpkin patch every year! 

Bernet Farms

Bill's pumpkin patch. . 

The Pumpkin Patch

 

Visitors!

My parents drove up with Levi and Owen for the weekend and it was so fun to hang out with them! It was a beautiful weekend, which coming off weeks of smoke and rain, was pretty awesome! 

The kids swam a lot! It was the first time they swam in the morning, and my mom was a trooper and swam with them a few times, and even went down the waterslide! 

They had fun playing dodge ball downstairs, and mostly just loved being around each other! One of my favorite things of the weekend was that the kids were always playing with a different kid.  For example, Levi loved playing with Will and the older kids, but then had fun playing cars with Leo and Annie! It was super cute! And it was an awesome weekend of no technology! 

And it was awesome to take advantage of having people in our house to watch the kids and leave with Pat to Portland for the night! It felt so great and refreshing to get away!! 

Also fun, was that Grace and Will had a double header baseball game on Saturday.  I had missed the energy of the kids going to play sports, so it was fun to go to their games, especially on such a nice day! 

Back to school. . at home

We are a month into school and there have been some ups and downs for sure, but I'm grateful for great teachers that are trying to make this atypical year as smooth as possible, and grateful that the kids are for the most part tuning in and getting their work done!

 These last couple years, I have not been great at taking their back to school pictures the first day, or even the first week:), but I did get them! 

Leo actually gets to go to school.  The only one of the whole crew.  We call it opposite year because I didn't have plans to send him to preschool, but now he goes and everyone else stays! For the management of our household, I'm super grateful we found a great preschool for him! 

Annie in Kindergarten with Mrs. Nudo! Annie doesn't use her backpack, but she just received a super cute one from her friends, so she wanted to pose with it:). 

Kate in 3rd grade with Mrs. Neilson! She does so awesome going to her spot each day to do her work! 

Will in 6th grade with Mr. Bruno! 

Grace in 5th grade with Mrs. Gonrowski! She does so great logging on each morning for her 8:30 Zoom and getting her work done! She's almost so efficient that I need to think of other things for her to do! 

 

New House-Before and Afters:)

We just moved three weeks ago, which seems so crazy  because within those three weeks we also had smoke for ten days due to fires, and the kids started distance learning.  It's felt like longer than three weeks:).  

The house was already really nice when we bought it, but there were color choices we didn't care for, so we painted most of the house and put carpet downstairs.  It's so amazing to me what paint and carpet can do to transform a house! 

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Pics of us actually living in the house. . .