Saturday, November 24, 2012

Papa's funeral

Ben's grandpa (Papa) passed away at the end of October.  We attended his funeral the Friday before Veteran's Day.  It was a wonderful day to honor Papa and his life.  And it was great to see so much of Ben's extended family...


I don't think Claire is happy about the group hug...



Ben's mom and all her siblings...


Claire and cousin Adam...


Two of Ben's cute cousins - Abby and Sophie :)


butterflies and the park

We participated in the Botanical Gardens butterfly tag and release with the kids. It was a really fun experience! 





After tagging our butterflies, we walked through the butterfly exhibit...

I love how red Claire's hair is in this picture!  I love this girl...





In another part of the Botanical Garden they had these wild sculptures on display - inspired by the paintings of the Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo...





 

After the Gardens visit - we all got shave ice at Bahama Bucks. :)





The weather has been finally cooling down and the kids were so excited to put on their sweaters and walk to the park one evening...





On the way home, Emma challenged Jake to a race - Jake started out cheerful...


But quickly realized that Emma is much faster so he wandered off and pouted...


And off roaded his way home...


Monday, November 05, 2012

The Walking Bones

A couple days before Halloween we carved our pumpkins.  The kids always have mixed reactions to the experience of digging out the pumpkin slime.  Becca enjoyed it!


And Ben did a very thorough job cleaning his out...


Jake was so proud of his finished product (designed by Jake, carved by mom)


Emma pouted about having to dig out the pumpkin goo... but she cheered up when mommy and daddy took over the gross part and she got to watch daddy carve out her jack-o-lantern design.  Becca and Jake colored on the table for entertainment...


Left to Right- Becca, Emma, Claire, and Jake


On the morning of Halloween, Jake had his preschool Halloween party.  He was so excited!  They started with a costume parade down the street.  The kids waved excitedly as a few cars drove by :) Most of the party pictures below were taken by Ashley - she's great!  Thanks for the cute pics!






There were lots of crafts and treats and activities...








My sweet Claire Bear...


Lining up for pictures...







Singing Halloween songs...



Halloween night we went to Aunt Emily's house for dinner and trick or treating.  Here's a bunch of skeletons...






The kids loved trick or treating house to house.  They got so much candy.  I've been eating a lot of it... and there's still some left.  I think I'm finally tired of eating candy and that's hard to do for me.  :)  Now onto November and Thanksgiving - wahoo!