Pioneer Park and Pumpkin Cookies

I have been in a funk...I guess, I feel like I haven't done anything fun with the kids for forever...which I know I have, but I guess with Jeff being gone for so long I just really needed to go and DO something! So, I've been wanting to go to this park in Tustin for a long time...It's the Pioneer Road Park. We had it to ourselves, and it was sooo neat!Obviously, the theme was Pioneers...hence the covered wagons, wood chips, etc, but it had awesome slides, max-sized monkey bars, fireman poles, and a rickety bridge (that wasn't rickety at all) Max and Ivy both had a ball...i love how Ives wouldn't stop looking at her big brother! Max doesn't enjoy these baby swings as much anymore because they hurt him...but he wanted to swing next to 'Ibes'. cute kids.Then Jeff came home, and all was well...ahhhhhh.

Max and I made pumpkin sugar cookies with leftover frosting and sprkinkles from preschool. I don't think I'm a perfectionist...really not...OCD, yes, perfectionist, no...but overlapping pumpkin cutouts were really frustrating to me...should've waited a few days post Jeff coming home to do this project, but we survived...:) Max loves to do projects like this:

ps...do you like my apron? my MIL made it from a Halloween Tea Towel...so fun to have a halloween apron! and especially loves eating them.

good grief...what are we going to do with cookies...grrr

guess we'll eat 'em

Our Wild Day

This morning... I needed a break. Our house has been a little too 'wild' for me to stay sane, so the only way I could think to take a break without actually taking a break was to go see a movie. So, I grabbed my two little wild things,a half-used gift card to AMC, a familiar book, and our life savings for a bag of popcorn and headed to Irvine dressed like this: {king max} and sat quietly like this: {hands over the ears...classic max}
while we watched this cute, cute movie. Oh my gosh, I want it!, I thought it was so awesome, and followed the book so well...i loved hearing the lines straight from the page, i loved that the wild things looked exactly as they were illustrated in the book...i loved how they made it so real. I wondered how they could me a full-length movie from such a short book, but it was awesome! and even made me boob!

Where the Wild Things Are is one of our favorite books, especially because the main character is, of course, King Max...any story with a Max in it is our favorite! When we got home, we read the picture book again, took a nap, and then began painting a spare TP roll... to make our very own King Max dolly.

This made for a little less of a wild and crazy day...sigh.

Jeff's home in 1 more day! {phew}

I need a stiff drink!...aka d.c.

Halloween Books

Thought I'd post a few of our favorite Halloween books...'tis the season you know. The Ugly Pumpkin...good for halloween and thanksgiving, (or for us, year round.)
Room on the Broom...Our absolute favorite favorite favorite...again, a year round reader!

Big Pumpkin...all the Halloween creatures help to make the much coveted pumpkin pie

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything...Max likes to help me with all the noises...

Humbug Witch...A favorite from when I was little

Go Away Big Green Monster...sooo fun, helps get ride of monsters under the bed!

Goodnight Goon...we only like this one because it is a parody off of Goodnight Moon, which used to be Max's favorite book...it's silly...and halloweenish.

Happy Haunting!

extras...

OK...so I'm sitting on our couch, admiring my hairy scary Halloween tree when I notice something peeking out from under the fabric I have wrapped around the base...

I was nervous to pull it back because it didn't look like ANYTHING I have around the house, but I manned up and pulled it back carefully and look what it was... sick. refried pinto bean sprouts. I put the beans in it to add some weight and keep it from toppling over. Apparently there is tooooo much moisture here, and our couch-side table is the perfect place to raise a family of beans. sick. what else can I put in there so I dont have a nasty garden...??? seriously.
On a lighter note, Ivy ate sweet potatoes yesterday...still wouldn't open wide, but managed to slurp some off the spoon like it was a straw. She stinkin' won't open her mouth to eat!!! But she's cute!

Fun Day at the Big D

While Jeff's brother's family was in town for their fall break, they sooo graciously offered to sacrifice some of their Disneyland vacation time to do the kiddie rides with Max, Ivy and I. I think Max has a little crush on these two cute blondies, Lexi and Julie, and will do anything just at the mention of their names! We had such a fun day, and I want Lexi and Julie to know how cool Max thinks they are, and how happy it made him today that they were there to entertain him in the lines, and go on all the little kid rides, when they could have been California Screamin' all day long. He had a great time, as did I! Thanks, Becky for holding Ivy most of the day so I could wrangle my cute little crazy, or so I could go on a big-kid ride for a change...Loved California Screamin' by the way... As soon as I got off, I began concocting a way for Jeff and I to go back and do some more of the fun rides. Anyway, more pics to come, I'm sure, this one was just from my phone, but we had such a fun day! We love it when people come visit!!!

Thanks again, AZ Mousser's! We love you guys!

Halloween Dec's

my neighbors invited me to make this halloween project that they found with them. Jen cut all of the numbers out with her new cricut {totally awesome} and Kristy's dad cut all the wood for us. So, here is a fun little Halloween project for 2009...our countdown to All Hallows Eve {my favorite} And then my sister, Brandy, emailed me a picture of this wicked banner that some ca-razy crafty girl did. Mine's not half as cute as hers, but I thought I'd give 'er a try. {see, Brand.} I'm in love with my hairy-scary crow {need more crows} and my hairy-scary tree.

no cricut here...dang! I stinkin' hand cut all those wicked gothic letters myself...bleh. Halloween has such fun colors...I LOVE IT!

OCFA Fire Station Open House

The Orange County Fire Authority Fire Station Open House was on Saturday morning...we were the first people there, and the only people there for the first 20 minutes or so, which totally rocked. Max had one on one time with all the fire guys and asked a bazillion questions...what's this, what's this, what does that do?

We got to get in and touch everything on the HazMat truck, the Pumper truck, and the ambulance (he avoided that last one...)

This Fireman was hilarious, and paid extra special attention to Max. Max thought he was really funny, and couldn't stop laughing at him or asking him questions. This is Max asking his 137th question...

don't be alarmed...that's our little nerd. hee hee. cracks me up.

Max was obsessed with this dog...

no, really, obsessed...

At the end, they lit 'Joe's Garage' on fire. Holy Smokes, for sure. Fire Truck to the Rescue!!! They pulled out all the stops, raced around the scene with their siren wailing and their horn honking, and extinguished the flames with ease. Way stinkin' cool to watch.

I'm so glad that we went, and aside from the shiner Max got from running into a gas pump, we had an amazing time...even that wasn't so bad because his favorite fire fighter friend took him into the ambulance (which he's deathly afraid of) and fixed him up and was soooo sweet to him, that maybe, just maybe, we are getting over our fear of that certain truck. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Max came away with a hat, a balloon, coloring books, a keychain...we had a great time...oh, Ivy was there, too... :)

Annual Harvest Fair

Our ward had its annual chile cook-off tonight. It was really fun last year, so I was excited to go again. I got the kids dressed in their Halloween duds and met Jeff there. Our neighbors the Haights got second place with their chile...woo-doggy! get 'em...everything they make is good; I'm not surprised! Anyway, we had a fun time. Here are the kids in their Halloweenie shirts Max was running around like a crazy guy...well, he always runs around like a crazy guy, but even more so tonight. It was fun to see him interact with some of his friends from his moonbeams class... He was so excited to see Carter and Nate, he could hardly stand himself. Nate Briscoe and Max playing 'ring around the rosie' and running back and forth across the gym floor...Max should sleep well tonight!

Our harvest family picture...ha ha, of the three they took, this was the best one...just the way it goes with kids, right? love it. There are so many fun things to do in the autumn-time...I LOVE IT!

Pumpkin Patch take 2

We met our neighbors at another pumpkin patch tonight. Still no pumpkins were purchased, but there was fun to be had. I don't think I could get sick of autumn-time parties and festivities...we WILL be going to another patch, don't be alarmed. *took some silly pictures.

*got a substantial ride on a tractor.

{like 10 minutes or more}
*posed like champs.

*found a bum-shaped pumpkin...

{the only one Max would stop to look at}

what could be more fun?

Apple Bottom Jeans...

...Boots with the fur ...The whole club was lookin' at her
Ivy wore her first pair o' jeans today...and real shoes ...and she loved it!

thanks!

that's all I have to say about that.

This Weekend

We did lots of things...

My cousin Sherry was here, which was waaay fun! Sherry and I were roommates while I was at BYU for a while, and have always been good friends. We had a really fun time together, and she was Such a Big Help because I had a T-rex arm all weekend, and was pretty much a one-armed bandit. It was sooo nice to have her here!

Max and I made more Strawberry freezer jam...we tried it with Splenda this time...a personal joy of mine. We'll see if it tastes as good as the other stuff that we seem to down like it's goin' out of style. We were trying to use up the last part of the box that we used to make Grandpa's Bday present...hope you're enjoying it, Grandpa!!! Ivy ate some more rice cereal! mmmm
Sherry flew out on Monday night...from San Diego. She hadn't been to SeaWorld since she was like 5, so we spent all day there, and took her to the airport at 6. We had such a fun, chill day, and did some things that we hadn't done before.

Shamu...makes Max nervous everytime, but he always LOVES it...and was totally doing the Shamu Slam, which he usually won't do!

We were in the splash zone, but didn't get wet...phew!

We went on the SkyRide over the bay...so fun. Just a quick little jaunt, but it was fun to fly over the sailboats. Max loved it!

He was so excited, this was the best picture we could get of the little turkey.

Sad you're gone, Sher! Come again in November!!!!