Category Archives: Family

Sean has been trying to hitch free piggyback rides on Sean every time she catches him on the ground. She just leaps onto his back with no warning, and he tries to walk her around, like a horse. We had to ask them to stop, after Carter took a couple of spills that landed her right on her head, though. Ouch!

After we were done jumping in the leaves, we raked them all back up and made a scarecrow out of some old clothes of mine. Later that day when I was mowing the lawn, I kept catching sight of him out of the corner of my eye, and almost every time jumped a little because I thought there was a real person sitting there. Not that he looks very realistic - but it's weird how the brain works, isn't it?

After carving pumpkins, we raked together a pile of leaves for jumping in. I was pretty disappointed in the size of the pile, but the kids didn't seem to mind. Maybe once more leaves fall in a couple of weeks I can make a much bigger one. They definitely needed a bath that night, though - Sean kept talking how he had pieces of leaves - and I quote - "stuck in his butt".

We carved pumpkins last weekend. This time we played it smart, and did it outside so that we didn't get pumpkin innards all over everything. As we were scraping out all of the guts, Sean kept whispering in my ear that we should make his pumpkin so scary that Carter would scream and run away. So cute.

Just a cute picture of Carter cuddling up with Great Grandma Kmiec during a recent visit.

Carter's birthday party isn't for a couple of weeks yet, but on her actual birthday we took her to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate. Lori's mom and Ryan also joined us for the fun. This is the first we've all been to this particular Chuck E Cheese, and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. Plus, it's about half an hour closer to us than the one we used to go to.

Just a goofy face that Carter made when Lori asked if she could take Carter's picture. Look at those eyes!

Carter is getting more and more affectionate towards the dogs every day. Sometimes she'll spend 15 minutes just laying there, patting them. And they are tolerant of her now. The other night, while watching the 'good night show', Carter spent 10 minutes putting Sadie's ear between each pair of her toes in turn, over and over. And Sadie didn't bat an eye. This is the same dog that we used to worry about having to give away because she seemed so touchy around the kids. What a difference!

Last weekend we took a walk in the woods in back of the house. I've been out there plenty of times to explore out lot, and see what there is to see. But last Sunday I suddenly realized that I have actually never taken the kids out there just to explore. So Lori, the kids and I all headed out for an 'adventure'. Sean kept hiding in the ferns and asking if we could still see him - he's been very interested in the concept of 'camouflage' lately. Carter was interested in all of the different trees, but needed to be carried every time we came to any dense brush. For here, all those pointy plants and thorns were eye-high!

Last weekend we went to Cider Hill Farm, more or less on a whim. The kids alternated between extreme bouts of whininess, and actual happiness. Sean loved the hayride, and Carter always enjoys the horse swings. They hadn't put the hay maze up yet this year, though. We'll have to try again in a month or so.