Pre-Christmas December

Katie loves Ralph.

Ralph loves Katie.

Exploring Science Night at school was a hit with the kids.

Mikey's favorite part was the Burke Museum's table of fossil-y stuff.

Katie's was the Blood and Guts display from the Pac Sci Center.

After much pleading, we allowed a "sleep over".

Katie read Mikey books and they eventually fell asleep.

Then at about 1 or 2 am, there was complaining about lack of space in the bed and coughing keeping Mikey awake.  He had the super grumpy look on his face.  So, Katie moved back to her room and all was quiet.

We went Christmas tree hunting with the added Northwest fun of super-mud puddles.

Yippeeeee!

It was nice of the Slasher family to allow us to pay a visit to their Christmas tree farm, located right next to the Field of Screams.

At least you know the tree axes are sharp......

After chasing the kids about 4 miles into the tree field, they decided upon our tree.

Katie and Mikey tried their hands at tree choppin'.  It was decided that Daddy should finish it off.

BOOOO-YAAA-KAAAA-SHAAAAAAA!

While Huzbend carried the tree off to be de-needled and wrapped and stuff, the kids took off running again.

"Heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee....."

"She'll never find us!"

"Unnnnnnlesssss, there's hot cider and candy canes.

We're all over THAT!"

The next day it was time to get busy decorating.

Mikey decorated.....

.....Katie decorated.....

..... and Huzbend pretended he was Al Bundy.

"It's a-me! Mario!"

While the dog was hanging out in the driveway and attempting to eat our battery operated snowman light decorations ....

... Mikey climbed a tree and got stuck.....

... and I put up Festivus decorations.

Happy Festivus!

(It's prettier at night, the pictures just don't come out.)

41.

Not much to say about it except that it's old.

I looked in the mirror the other day and realized that my eyebrows are disappearing.

Sigh.

That's the smallest worry of the growing list of things going wrong.

Anywaysssss, I got these in the morning.

Later that day, I got eggplant parm and apple crisp.

And lots of other cool stuff - Thank you to all!

Huzbend once again proved he is the worst picture-taker EVER!

Mikey made a gingerbread house at school.

He continues to say that every school day is awesome and that he wished he could go to school everyday - even Saturday and Sunday.

His favorite thing to do there is Math.

December 19th was the last day of school before break.

That morning, Katie had a G.I. appointment.

She was having issues again so I took her in to be checked out.

All symptoms point to a Crohn's flare up.

Which is a complete bummer.

We're kinda in a "wait and see" thing right now.

She had to have blood drawn that morning.  Without numbing cream.

They hit up both arms but didn't manage to get enough for the full battery of tests.

It was not a good morning.

Not for Katie who was stressed, screaming and crying or for Mikey who had to watch and listen or for me who had to help restrain Katie so they could get it done.

But, on a postive note, I was able to get Katie back to school in time to enjoy the last half of her Comfy Cozy Day (pjs, cocoa, candy canes, blankets and reading).

When I got home from the craziness of the morning, I found that our fish had died.

I kinda had a feeling it would happen soon as he was swimming at the top of the tank and did not eat his food that morning.

Poor fishie.  He lasted a good amount of time.

He was buried the next day in the backyard.

R.I.P. Fishie.

4 years of preschool and Mikey never wanted to paint pictures.  They only time he would paint is if I was in the art room and asked him to.

Now he comes home from school each week with about 5 or 6 paintings.

And that brings us to to past weekend.

The Neighborhood Holiday party was this weekend.  The kids went to a Kids Nite Out thing at their gymnastics place and Huzbend and I mingled with the neighbors.

The next evening, I constructed the kids gingerbread house.

They were SO excited that there was a kit that they could eat.

I was SO excited that I did not have to bake it up.

Thank you Auntie Sheila, G.F. Expert Mommy, for the gingerbread house kit tip!

It's delicious!!!

Mikey decorated side.

And the Katie decorated side.

November

Katie was enjoying her coding class.

Besides the Halloween themed games from October....

...all her other games featured a black labrador puppy as the playable character.

Here's Ralph taking on a grumpy crab.

Mikey is obsessed with facial hair.  Although, he says when he grows up, he doesn't want it.

A local gardening center had a huge display of poinsettia's and some other Christmas-y stuff.

We decided to visit.

Balloons, candy canes, pretty flowers....

What else could you possibly need?

A giraffe, I guess.

Mikey REALLY wanted to take that guy home.

Notice the "I can't live without him" look.

Katie liked the reindeer, but thankfully didn't try to use her sad eyes to manipulate me.

Mikey had no such qualms.

I will let this picture speak for itself.....

Dude.  WE  HAVE A LIVE ONE AT HOME.

"What am I, chopped liver?"

"Mmmmmm.

Chopped liver sounds yummy right about now.

I'm soooooo hungry.  It sure would be nice if someone would give me a treat......."

Execute cute puppy eyes....NOW!

Sigh.

Mikey and Ralph.

Brothers from another mother.

Ralph spent most of the fall just like this.

Eating leaves.

Keeps him regular.

Mikey became an author this month.

He created about a dozen books.

Illustrations and words.

It's crazy.

Speaking of crazy, I'm not sure what happened here.

Maybe this helps the creative juices flow.

I have no idea.

Somewhere in November we went to see Disney On Ice.

Big hit, as always.

The kids learned about Jack Skellington and wanted to watch Nightmare Before Christmas.

I was a bit nervous.  That Oogie Boogie is creepy.

But they liked it!

And now we have to listen to the songs every day.

The same thing happened with The Muppets Most Wanted.

Everyday.

Muppets songs.

Over and over and over.......

Thanksgiving Day was finally here.

We all watched the parade, as tradition dictates.

(As if anyone had a choice)

After the parade the dog show was on.

Ralph really liked it.

Turkey's done!

It was FAN-TAS-TIC!!

I found a pre-made gluten-free nut-free pumpkin pie.

Ralph was so jealous.

"Whazzat?"

Katie really liked the pie.

I think Mikey bit off more than he could chew, dessert wise.

It snowed.

The kids got outside to make some snow men and throw some snowballs then retreated quickly inside because it was COLD.

Ralph LOVED the snow.

He was a happy, snow-mustachioed puppy.

Did I mention that it was COLD?

Ugh.

It was.

Below freezing for days.

I had to bundle up for Ralph walks.

Even put foot and hand warmers on.

Um.

Yeah.

Beard.

October

Some things that happened that I don't have pictures of:

Katie started a weekly art class.  She's in heaven.

Cross Country continued.  Katie's school ended up winning first place at the district-wide meet.

The got to have a popsicle party and she got some ribbons.

Myself and a friend took another friend out for her birthday.

We headed back to Stalker Farms for some s'mores and some scares.

We'd done this once before.

This time we were able to hit up ALL the haunts.

Never thought I'd say this but ... Good times!

Although I screamed (A LOT) and my back hurt from walking all stressed out and hunched over, I highly recommend it.  Good, gross, loud, creepy fun.

Hoping we can head back next year with husbands in tow.

I'd like to hear them scream.

NOTE: If you're in a group of three (or more) and you're walking all together in a bunch holding on to each other, the first one in line misses the scares.  Although you do have to lead the group through the mazes, the scare actors jump out and scream at the second and third person in line.  Unfortunately, that second person was me.

My favorite part was walking by a 6ft-something HUGE creepy guy in a half-face bunny mask who was holding a bloody hatchet.

Me, in a sheepish voice: "Hello, Mr. Easter Bunny...."

Him, in a menacing growl: "Do I LOOK like the Easter Bunny? 'Cause you look like a CHICKEN to me."

HA!  Awesome sauce!

And on a calmer and not so violent note, I began to volunteer in Mikey's kindergarten class.

Speaking of Mikey, he began getting homework.

He likes doing it.

Most of the time.

Huzbend had some homework too.

Fixed the toilet.

He had some help.

We went for a hike with Ralph.

He was a happy puppy.  He got to play in the water.

LOTS of water.

Which meant that I was soaked.

The kids had fun too.

If I remember correctly, Mikey walked almost the whole way!!

Unheard of!

Oh yeah.  This guy was there too.

One rainy October weekend was spent creating cardboard armor.

It wasn't created for any other reason than for the sheer awesomeness of it.

Then the next big school event occurred!

Kids and Donuts!

Wait.  That was supposed to be DADS and Donuts.

He did have one, in case you were curious.

It's his one donut of the year.

This year, we were able to make sure there was not only a nut-free option, but also a GF option!  My kids were able to have donuts too.  They were SO excited.

After the pig-out, we stopped by Katie's classroom for a visit.

Although she spends most of the donut part of the morning off socializing, she is always very proud to bring her Dad to visit her teacher and see her classroom.

PUMPKIN PATCH!

After we spent a bit of time on the bouncy bubble, playing the various farm games, climbing tire mountains and riding in the tractor train we got down to business and began,

THE GREAT PUMPKIN SEARCH!

MUSH, DADDY, MUSH!

Wagon butt.

It took just about FOREVER for Mikey to pick out a pumpkin.

Took Katie just a minute or two less than Forever.

The weekend prior to Halloween, we got to work carving our precious pumpkins.

We put the kids to work de-glopping.

Eeee-yuck.

After hours, and I do mean hours, the pumpkins were done.

From left to right:

Katie's - Owl

Mine - Ender-Man

Ralphs - Bone

Mikey - Nova Corp Guy

Huzbend - S.H.I.E.L.D. symbol

That same weekend we went to see Beauty and the Beast, The Broadway Show.

The kids LOVED it.  With a capitol L.

And then, it was Halloween time.

First up, the school parties.

Then the neighborhood party.

Did you know that The Wolverine likes pizza?

Bet you never thought you would see,

Seahawks fan

Ash

80's Karate Guy

SHEILD agent

and Magnum P.I. 

having polite conversation.

Here is the whole crew.

And here's the kids.

Time for trick or treating!

We had a group of like 100 kids and two dogs.

Well, it felt that way.

The two dogs part was true.

Charlie the dog was there (see pic below) and Ralph came too.

Partway through trick or treating, Mikey lost his mojo.

Realized that working that hard for candy that he can't even eat was kinda a waste of time.

Katie worked to get him back in the spirit.

She's always got that positive attitude.

We got home and dumped out the haul.

95% of which ended up in the trash or in Huzbend and I's tummies.

Below is what they were left with.

To supplement, I made sure to make some special chocolates.

Witch shaped coffins with tiny chocolate Halloween shapes inside.

As well as pumpkin and ghost chocolate lollipops.

And, there's always, PEEPS.

Well, only certain kinds.

You gotta read the ingredients on those puppies too.

Sigh.