A taste of our Halloween

Here is a taste of our Halloween:
(sorry for the poor quality, with left the camera at home tonight!)







We went to our church "Hullabaloo" and they sugared up our children..... Emma went for the cotton candy and Ian is two fisting it with a lollipop and popcorn in the other. More pictures of Emma's school parade to come.

Our pumpkins

Emma wanted to have a photo shoot with our pumpkins, so here are Emma and Ian showing off their pumpkin choices...

Emma really likes her baby pumpkin

But she let Ian hold it so he would join her for pictures!

Emma 's gymnastics show

After going to the farm yesterday, we had another event to head to in the afternoon. (Did I mention that fall weekends seem to be very busy?) Emma's annual gymnastics show was being held, so we headed off to see some of Emma's skills.
This is the second year that Emma participated in this event. The children are advised to wear their halloween costumes, so here is the unveiling of Emma's costume this year..... She chose to be


A hula girl!

Emma waiting with her group

Her turn! The children practice their routine for about a month before the show.

Preparing for cartwheels

Giving Dad a wave

Proud!

Emma's friend, Kaylie introduces herself

Emma's turn
Emma had a great time performing and it was fun to see how much she has learned this year!

Fun on the Farm

Yesterday morning, we decided that it was time to head to the farm and a choose some pumpkins. In my quest to find a "real" pumpkin Patch in Northern California where you take the hayride into the field to pick your pumpkin, we headed about and hour away to try out a new farm that was recommended to us. Although there was no hayride and the pumpkins were already picked, we still had a great time on the farm.
The first thing we did was made Daddy happy by going to the pumpkin blasters....

As you can see, these were some serious pumpkin shooters

Ian was excited to try

Daddy gets ready to blast a pumpkin

Emma's turn

There was a place where you could "mine" for treasure

Emma enjoyed the jumping pillow

Ian enjoyed the pony ride

Ian and his horse

Then we went on a train ride

Emma with the pumpkins
One of the most fun parts of the day was the Corn Maze

Ian and Daddy on top of the bridge

Good friends

An attempt at a family pic
Even though it did not fit my vision for a pumpkin patch, we had a great day on the farm.

Fleet Week 2011

Every few months, we brave going into San Francisco to enjoy a little city life and remind ourselves why we live in the suburbs :) Last weekend was fleet week in the city and since we have a 2 year old that is infatuated with any form of transportation, we decided to incorporate trains, boat, and planes into one big adventure.
We started off the day by heading to the train station to take the "choo choo" into the city.


Waiting for the train. This was also the subway station, so Ian was pointing to the other "train" and trying to get us to go on it

Still waiting...

Ian spots the train!

Once we got into the city we took the trolley to the waterfront and after a nice lunch, found a spot to see some boats and airplanes.

This is one of the first planes we saw.

Followed by this awesome Canadian group of flyers

Their planes were white on one side and red on the other

They made some awesome formations

Emma wanted her picture with one of the airplanes

Ian having fun at the show
The airshow ended with the Blue Angels

Flying behind one of the ships; Alcatraz is on the right

They were truly and awesome sight
We ended the day with a subway trip back to our car with two tired, happy kids enjoying all their favorite forms of transportation.

Read to Me, Emma

Emma is really enjoying Kindergarten, and even though she can not read yet, she still likes to share stories with Ian.


"Reading" before nap

Emma is a great story teller!

Picking on the Farm

Even though it is not feeling like fall much here yet, we decided to jump into some fun fall activities to kick start the season. Some friends invited us to go apple picking yesterday and we were excited to join them.

It took about an hour to get to the farm and we were really surprised at how uncommercial it felt compared to many of the pumpkin places here. The farm had has several pick your own fruits through out the season and we were excited to also be able to pick some yummy strawberries, too.


Ian was really excited to find this old tractor to play on

Can we say 2 year old boy heaven??!



There was also a hay tunnel to play in

Ian was a little wary, but made it through


On to strawberry picking...

Ian walking through the fields

Emma looks for the ripe ones

Ian finds one

Into the bucket

Emma was really good at finding ripe strawberries

Ian was really good at eating them

Follow the leader

Now Ian is the leader

Onto the main event, some apple picking....

There were some beautiful apples to choose from

Taste testing

Ian needed to taste also

Another taste

Emma points out some good ones

Showing off her pick

Ian, still eating

Oh wait, he actually put on in the bag!

A great activity for a fun fall day!