Halloween Carnival Stop

Hazel and I took a bit of our busy day to stop by a fun Halloween Carnival hosted by the Rocks' church. We had fun snacking, decorating pumpkins, riding the pony, and visiting!

Hamlin Haunt

The kids and I decided to hit the Hamlin Haunt again this year. Since I was nervous about ruining costumes/parts were not done, we found alternate attire and did a photo shoot before heading out, Theo wanted to join in too!

 

 In case you wondered I was a pilot on a "froggy day" ;) in Todd's space camp outfit.

 Q wanted to be a vampire, so I did his makeup and H was Snow White.

The Haunt was popular, full of carnival type games,

 singing, marshmallows around the campfire,

 and lit by all these candles.

I'm glad we went and I think the only thing missing was a good scare in the haunted woods...maybe I can arrange that next year!

Twin Falls with Nami and Danpa

 In honor of Danpa, and as per our tradition of hiking for his birthday, this year we went to Twin Falls. It's a close, not too challenging hike considering Dad's still sensitve knee and the kids, it seemed a good bet. Fortunately our rain free fall continued and gave us an incredible s perfect 70 degree day! 

Look at how photogenic my family was! Thanks guys!

Orca of the Week!

Q got chosen to be the Orca of the week at school! It's a random drawing and he was excited to be the 2nd kiddo chosen. We had the day off on Friday so we used it to show Orca around town. Buckle up Orca!

 First, it was a visit to the Aquarium, which seemed fitting.

 While there, Q especailly got really into taking photos with my camera: 

Then we headed over to the Science Center for a little chill time watching an Imax, "To the Arctic" in 3D, also fitting for an orca to see!

 Of course we had play time there too, and then dinner at the Seattle Center "Armory"! 

On Saturday Orca chilled while Q played soccer, and then we had a calm night with lots of playtime outside and a backyard campfire. 

Sunday, Orca swam in a chalk sea, read books with us, performed in a puppet show, went for a trip to Picnic Point (partly to gather story stones for the "estimation bucket" that's part of Q's Orca of the week job), and we even sang him Happy UnBirthday!

It's been really fun having Orca, aka "Orcy" here to entertain!

H and Emri Show Goers!

Hazel has been lucky enough to get to go to some wonderful shows lately with our 9 year old friend Emri! She was invited to see the Seattle Children's theater production of The Cat in the Hat with Emri and her sweet Mom Danielle, 

 and she had a blast of course!

Then, I got a fabulous deal on tickets to see the Pacific NW Ballet's production of Cinderella!

It was so much fun to take the girls.

 Hazel loved getting all dressed up as Cinderella (in one of Emri's old costumes in fact) and got so much attention from it.

 They were both happy as could be there seeing the real ballerinas.

We couldn't stay for the whole show as it went pretty late. After the second act H was asleep and I carried a Sleeping Beauty Cinderella out of the theater to lots of "awwwe's". What a treat of a night!

Fall Season

We kicked off the first weekend of fall with some nice times together. Todd's awesome co-worked gave us a beautiful insect display box, complete with pics etc. and after a week studying bugs at FH I was thrilled. The kids immediately went outside to add more to the collection (already had a few dozen when given to us!). So, after a lazy morn on Saturday Q and I had some solo time at Yost Park to do some hunting. I love moments I get with my boy like this, and so does he! After our quick walk in the woods, he asked if just I could take him to soccer, and I happily did! It's such a treat to watch him play. He's so fast, really hustles out there, and is aware of what he needs to do on defense and makes good passes to teammates. I'm excited to see him gain confidence on offense too, especially against more challenging players. After the game, we stopped by one more park and scrambled around a bit before we got the call to help with with Miss. H. Saturday night Q and Todd got to go to the Sounders game Todd WON tickets to! and I dropped off H to play with Cedella while I went out to celebrate Rebecca and Tara's birthdays at Tula's!

 Sunday, we headed over to Vashon to visit Nami and Danpa, smoke some fish (YUM!), 

 

visit with baby Vivian (and the Sanders and Tuckers too! ;)), 

pick fruit, gather pumpkins, eat fresh produce, ride Tommy, hunt insects some more, hold chickens, catch a pet rat, and you know generally have fallish fun! 

Fall, I love you already!

ZAGOFOPO '12!

Ok, I have to admit somehow I can't remember if this was ZAGOFOPO #4 or #5! Either way, it's fun to cook up fish activities, eat salmon, and visit with Fish Oriented People and Others! ;)

 I think I got about half of the crew...but most of the kids at least! ;)

Don't tell Todd but ZAGOFOPO is really just another excuse for Erin to plan a themed party for kids right?! ;)

 

 Reminder to self, perhaps reconsider planning ZAGOFOPO 2013 for a less seriously BUSY week in September. Regardless of the fact that many folks are off vacationing in the summer, that's probably a better time to have a shindig, and not after the first full week of school (=super busy time for this Mama!). That said, my husband is a ROCK STAR at home cleaning when it comes to it! Even after the party our home is still more clean than normal, hooray!