More Pumpkin Patch Fun

On Sunday we returned to the Central Oregon Pumpkin Company - only this time as a family.

We had a lot of fun this year since both kids could walk and had an attention span of longer than 30 seconds. We hit the petting zoo, which was remarkably low on goats to pet. Then we got a caramel apple, yum. With dark chocolate chips on top. Double yum. Then was the train ride, the archery challenge, the pirate ship and slide, the beloved pumpkin canon (I missed hitting that beat up old car by "that" much) and finally the maze.

Bob went on the train ride with the kids while I went with Katya to the archery challenge. She got five arrows and on her fourth hit a BULLSEYE. Right on! She is so cool.

After the archery we went to the pumpkin canon and I got to launch a cannon for the first time. I loved it. What a feeling of power when that thing launches. I so wanted to see it splat all over that beater car. Next year for sure!

By this point Alexis became demon child. I had to forceably strap her into the stroller and ignore her screams and tantrum throwing for seemingly forever. Luckily the "thump" of the pumpkin canon drown out her screams. Even kettle corn wouldn't appease her.

Then we got to the pumpkin patch to find our pumpkins. It took for freakin' ever because all the crazy frost had caused a bunch of pumpkins to start rotting. Alexis asked nicely if she could walk so I let her out and she roamed the patch for about an hour trying to touch the yulky ones. She became so happy that she started randomly hugging Logan. It was pretty cute but Logan wasn't loving it. I'm thinking that if a gigantic garden is what makes her happy, we are all over that next Spring.

It was fun and after several hours we headed home. I wish I could say that they fell asleep on the way home, but they didn't. I think the caramel apple and kettle corn might have been to blame.

Snugglebunnies

Kids are cutest when they are asleep.

Especially if they are toddlers who have given you a hard time all day.

Last night when I was checking on the kids before I went to bed I found them snuggled up together in the race car bed - laying backwards. They were so cute I just grabbed a blanket and covered them up.

Mama Bought a New Pair of Shoes

Lame, I know. But I haven't bought myself a new pair of shoes (that weren't walking shoes) in forever. I did buy some sandals over the Summer, but nothing I could wear when I had the kids with me. Work only kind of stuff.

Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but I have found out to my great dismay that my post-baby feet are a full size larger than my pre-baby feet. I have some beautiful shoes that I have worked hard to purchase over the last ten years and now they don't fit. I leave them in my closet even though I can't wear them because I love them.

Yesterday running around for work stressed to me the importance of getting some new shoes. You see I have been wearing tennis shoes for months now (broken toe and all) and evidently the venting that works so well in summer isn't so great in Fall. The cold breeze that would come up froze my little toes. So, I finally just broke down and went to Macys and bought a pair of shoes.

Evidently I did good because Katya says they are cute. I like them because they:

a) have some color
b) are warm
c) are waterproof
d) go up past my ankles to keep them warm
e) are flat so I can still chase after my kids while wearing them

I still need a few more pairs of shoes, but shoes are spendy and I have skinny little boat feet that are hard to fit. I would like another pair of dressier black or brown leather boots. I saw a pair of Michael Kors that were darling but the toe box was too tight and the heel was too loose. I was sad.

Trouble in DVR Land

Tragedy struck our house on Sunday evening. Bob and I were watching an episode of Chuck when all of a sudden - blip - the tv turned off. The DVR went dark and never was to recover.

That was very sad news for Katya who hadn't seen the episodes of Chuck or Bones that were on it.

Last night I ran to the upstairs TV at 8 o'clock to try and catch Chuck as it broadcast real time. But of course, I missed Boston Legal because it doesn't come on until 10pm. I just can't stay up that late when I wake up so early.

Today I have the cable guy coming over this afternoon to hopefully bring a working DVR with him so I don't miss recording any of our favorite shows. After all, we never actually sit down to watch TV at normal times and if we don't record what we actually want to see - there is nothing on.

And per Mandee's suggestion, I will have to plug in the pumpkin looking dude that she says is on the Disney channel right now.

Anyone else have suggestions of good stuff that I may not know about?

The Room Is Decorated

The kids' room is decorated as good as it is going to get for quite a while. I am a bit frustrated that it did not turn out quite as planned due to the frustrating habit that those self-stick borders had of NOT sticking to the walls. Every time I walked into the room it had peeled off. I managed to glue Tinkerbell up, but the Cars border fell down on top of Logan who promptly crumpled it into a nice big ball. Oh well.

Although the room is not exactly what I wanted it to be, I think it is pretty good. Logan's walls are silver and have some of the Cars characters on it. They are still sticking, thank goodness. Alexis' walls have Tinkerbell and courtesy of Elmer's Glue, her border is still up. I had Bob put up a curtain rod and I hung some curtains to dim the light a bit more for naptimes and it is working well already.

The kids are still enjoying looking at the walls and telling me the names of all the characters on it. I still want to put some stars on the ceiling, but I might have to have someone bring them up from San Diego at Christmas since I can't find them here.

The room itself is pretty small and with the addition of the extra huge car bed, there is no room for playing in the the room itself anymore. Luckily, the closet is a walk-in so they can play in there. It should be a fun and happy room for the next few years.

The Bed Is Here - sorta

On Thursday I got the magic email from Walmart saying that the much anticipated car bed had arrived and needed to be picked up. Bob told me that he would pick it up after work and bring it home. I had a Campfire event to go to, so I left the kids with Debbie K. and figured that all would be well.

I got home and ran upstairs to find Bob huffing and puffing having just finished the bed. I turned the corner of their bedroom to look in and I found - the wrong bed. It was not the bed that I ordered at all. In fact, it is much wider (6 inches) and longer (5 inches) and a solid light blue. Bob was exhausted from dismanteling the crib and hauling all the bed pieces upstairs and putting it all together. Inside he had set the toddler mattress and told me that he just didn't think that it looked right.

That is when I had to tell him that he put over an hours effort into the wrong bed. I had to go and show him on the computer the bed that he picked out and the bed that he put together. The fact that the bed we now have upstairs is in fact more expensive than the bed we ordered finalized Bob's decision that it was good and we weren't going to dismantel the bed, put it back into the packaging, drive it back to Walmart, have to re-order the correct bed, wait another two weeks, re-assemble the crib and go through the bed assembly all over again. Luckily we had a twin mattress in the Art Room so we just dropped it in.

With all that out of the way, we brought the kids upstairs to see the new bed and Logan LOVED it. He kept climbing in and out and he would lean over to look at the tires. Then he would climb out of the bed to touch the tires some more and then climb back in. It was really funny. You can tell by the look on his face how thrilled he was. Bob was there with his video camera catching the whole thing.

I had put Alexis' new Tinkerbell bedding on her bed and she was all into that before she even noticed the new car bed, which was good.

So now this is Logan's new bed. Alexis has already slept with him in it and it is the designated play area for non-sleep times. Although, I must tell you that I have already had to sleep overnight in the bed with Logan to keep him in his bed and Alexis in hers and during naptime. We'll see how long I have to lay down in that thing before the novelty kind of wears off.

I am currently decorating the walls and will post the finished bedroom as soon as I am done.

Winterizing The Home

I'm from San Diego. Winterizing the home in San Diego consisted of having the furnace checked once a year and maybe replacing an old window.

Not so here. Bob and I wrote out our winter checklist and it is 21 items long. We'll never finish the whole thing, especially since we both end up doing extra things that weren't on the list to start with.

For example, yesterday Bob decided that we needed a storm door on the front door. Too much cold air leaks through the door and we have been debating it for a while now. Pretty much all of yesterday was taken up with Bob working on this project. And no, it isn't finished yet.

I spent this weekend painting two walls in the kids bedroom. With Logan's new bed coming, he needed his two walls in the room a color other than pale green. It wouldn't go with his new racecar bed at all. Now his two walls are silver. It took three coats to get it to a nice silver, but it is finally done!

Still to go is blowing out the sprinkler system (it's freezing every night), clean up my garden bed and backyard (gardening trash is still sitting around), get the furnace checked, move the kid toys from the front patio to storage along with the carpet, finish cleaning up the art room for our Christmas company, replace the futon mattress, finish painting some exterior window trim ...etc.

The list is still sitting on our chalkboard telling me to get a move on my other action items. I promise to try and get at least one other item done this week. I promise!

Pumpkin Patch with MOPS

This year my MOPS group arranged for us to go to our local Central Oregon Pumpkin Company as a group on Thursday. This meant that we got to get the kids in for $5 each and we did a rotation of the offerings that they had there.

We started with a "train" ride. Actually it was a tractor with a train nose attached to the front. The kids LOVED it! We rode around the property and looked for all the painted characters out of the movie "Robin Hood". The trip took us next to the horses in their grazing area and the big chicken and duck coop. Alexis had a fit when we got out of the train and before we left we got to ride it one more time.

Then there was storytime (my kids couldn't have cared less, too young), the petting zoo, the play area behind the petting zoo, and the pumpkin patch. There were organized trips through the maze, but I couldn't keep them both together so we left that early. They had a patch just for school groups with little pumpkins and each kid was able to pick out one. It was a crisp 46 degrees so we bought a hot chocolate and a funnel cake that we shared with the other kids.

Alexis did her level best to avoid ever getting her picture taken and not once actually looked at the camera.

Then the end of the visit was their seemingly favorite part. They found a flat bed trailer and had the best time jumping, singing and running on it. I recorded some video of their frolicking.


It was such a good time and they were wiped out when I put them back in the car to go home.

We are still going back as a family next weekend, but it was a good time for us to go with all the other MOPS moms.

Bend's Fall Festival

This past Sunday we all headed downtown to attend my favorite event of the year - the Fall Festival. Fall is my favorite time of year with the leaves changing colors, the crispness in the air, wearing sweaters and fuzzy boots, hot cocoa and snuggling under layers of blankets in the living room while watching tv.

Well, the weather noted the festival was here and did an abrupt about face from the 80's a week ago down to the 60's with a cold wind.



At first we just wandered around looking at all the vendors offerings. Katya and I both got new shirts and we came pretty close to actually buying something to put on the wall of the laundry room.

When the kids had decided we had done enough shopping, we headed over to the kid area and did some pony rides! Alexis went with Bob hovering next to her and Logan rode with Katya firmly holding onto his jacket. They both loved it! At first Alexis didn't even want to get on the horse at the last minute and then it became getting her off of the horse was the problem. Logan love it and was screaming something (I think he was saying horse).

After the pony rides Bob and the little ones had fun running around the maze while Katya was visiting with some friends that she spotted.

Then after having some lunch we headed back to our car and walked right by the giant blow up slide. Well, that was a fun thing to pass up so Katya went with Alexis and Bob went with Logan. Both kids would gladly have gone again and again, but we were out of tickets and it was nap time.
All in all it was a great time and I am looking forward to next years!

Harlem Globetrotter Ambassadors

Hey all you families in Bend & Redmond! Are you up for a fun-filled night of basketball fun?

The Harlem Globetrotter Ambassadors are coming to Bend!

Saturday, November 15th
7:00pm
Summit High School

Adults $10
Students $7
Children 4 and under are free

Most of you don't know this, but I am on the Board of Directors for Campfire here in Bend. Our Campfire office serves all of Central Oregon from Klamath Falls to Sisters and out to Prineville. I am a big supporter and believer of scouting organizations for helping kids become great adults.

Anyway, I digress.

The tickets are on sale at Umpqua Bank and I also am selling them to those that are interested. If you would like to get some tickets for your family, just let me know and I will hook you up!

P.S. Katya is going to be a referee! It should be a lot of fun.

P.S.S. For kids that like autographs, the team will not leave until every child that wants an autograph, gets one. I think that is pretty cool.

Fact Checking

Ok,

Pretty much everyone I know already has their mind made up regarding this Presidential Election. I have no desire to go into who I will be voting for or why - after all my vote is private.

However, with all the smear going on from both camps I would advise you all to check out a website that I really like. It is a fact check site that evaluates what all these candidates are saying, gives background, and finally tells you if the statement was True or False.

Please check this out before you believe the statements being made on all of the zillions of TV commercials. With less than a month to go, the bunk will get pretty thick before it is all over.

"The" Bed for a Little Boy

My mom keeps telling me that boys are boys no matter how big they might become. Inside, a full grown man is really just a little boy who likes toys, just more expensive ones.

Well, the time has come to put Logan into a different bed. The crib is all of a sudden causing all kinds of problems. Logan tries to climb out (we found him hanging by his fingers once) and Alexis likes to climb in to visit. Or torment. I still haven't figured out which since she likes to do both.

We have an awesome little toddler bed that our neighbor gave us, but Logan would fling himself right out of it. He is an all-over-the bed kinda sleeper. So then that puts us at a twin. Most twin beds are too high and would require a step stool like Alexis has to get into and out of her bed. That is a bit too dangerous for a little almost two year old.

When looking on Craigs list I found a race car bed. Bob didn't know that they made race car beds for little boys in a twin size. Unfortunatly, I missed that one opportunity. Nobody else in Bend is selling a race car bed. Then comes Target and WalMart. I found a cool bed, but it was not exactly cheap. But Bob was all excited about his little boy sleeping in a race car bed. I ordered it from WalMart since they had no shipping (Target wanted to charge me $300 in shipping!) and we pick it up later this month. Bob can't stand the wait. Here is the new bed:

Now, being Mom, I don't want Alexis getting all jealous since she didn't get a princess throne bed or anything. So we sat down and I let her pick out some new bedding on-line. It is arriving from Target and will be put on her bed the same day as Logan's new bed arrives to hopefully mitigate the jealousy factor.

Man, I didn't realize this whole gender specific bed/bedding thing would hit so soon!

Baby Boy

Logan; aka: Bruiser, Bam Bam, Boo, Destructo.

He is ALL boy. He loves anything with wheels, gears, buttons, levers...etc. So, without any encouragement from me he loves all the typical boy stuff like cars, trains, planes, bicycles and dirt bikes (he hangs in the garage when Bob is working on his). He was introduced to Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars when visiting Dylan and Ryan over the summer. Ever since, all I hear is "cars, cars, cars". He can't go anywhere without at least two. I have several in my purse for emergencies.

This is Logan at one of his sisters volleyball games. Total and utter boredom.

Just being a cutie in his Dad's shoes.

Forget the toddler playsets. Logan only plays on the big kid playsets at the playground. He is a rough and tumble kinda guy.

Middle Child

Alexi-bear is the middle child - but she likes to think of herself as the center of the universe in our house. And she usually is. Especially when she really lets her keen fashion sense loose and she puts together outfits that are just breathtaking.

Favorite phrase: "I do it!"

Current passion: Avoiding getting her picture taken

Alexis feels that tutus just are an all around good accessory.

When you are at one of your sisters many volleyball tournaments, it is good to get comfy to stave off the boredom of sitting on bleachers for 8 hours.

It is too bad Katya's high school colors aren't pink and purple.