It's October

 Getting our pumpkin patch on.  Three times in a row makes a solid tradition, right?  Today we went to Bob's corn and pumpkin patch farm to get some pumpkins and various jams and syrups!  Deven was pretty excited and even though Tova was just hanging out she got all patch'd out.  Until next year.  Fall is the best!!
 

All three looked at me at the same time!

This is more like it.

We hang out together a lot like this.

Waiting "patiently" for the next wagon ride down to the patch

He was so excited

pumpkin patch'd out

Aquafest!!

This is Deven's second Aquafest (Lake Steven's little carnival) one of his favorite events is the fireman pancake breakfast.

The fireman (and firewomen) literally make this little city breakfast!  It's pretty awesome.
 

This year we invited Deven's friend Charlie to come with us. I believe we have a new tradition.

Impromptu sleep over

I didn't think twice about the hospital letting me stay by myself with Tova on our first night and frankly was a little miffed when they said I couldn't.  Not without her being taken to the nursery except when she was hungry. Given that she had been nursing almost as much as Deven did, this didn't seem like the best way to go.  I had expertly planned for Deven to come visit us at the hospital and then Nick and Deven would go home and have a normal night with Sam.  Well thank goodness for professional nursing and hospital rules because really who was I kidding??
Tova was great, ate almost every hour (seems like she is a day time sleeper / cluster feeder right now) but this did not bode well for my exhaustion or level of pain around the incision.  Which was exactly why rational nursing staff put their foot down...albeit gently...to the irrational momma. 
So what to do with Deven at 7:30pm on a work day??  Call in reinforcements from the Burgess family and the Wright family.  Our good friend is one of the most popular teachers in town and just happens to be on spring break this week so an sudden 2 year old guest was a okay with her.  Words cannot express our gratitude! 
Of course there was Sam to think of as well...I'd already sent my sister home to tacoma thinking we didn't need her so making her drive up to LS on a work night just seemed cruel!!  Nick stopped in to check on him and we had our good friends the Wright's check in on him first thing in the morning to make sure he had not started some sort of revenge on us for our complete neglect!!
By the time nick made it back to Swedish it was after 11pm but super daddo that he is, he was able to continue to help Tova and me through the night and morning before taking off again to collect Deven.
Somehow I feel like this is just a preview of the chaos our new lives will be filled with but we did it so I guess all I can say is bring it on, we are ready...we think...

Deven's First Trick-or-Treating Adventure

I don't really remember Halloween that well from when I was trick-or-treating age. Maybe it just wasn't that big of deal? Either way right now, it is a huge deal to Deven. The lead up to Halloween was a month long process...I even had to hide his costume from him when it came in the mail to ensure it would still be in tact for the big day. Deven was, of course, a fireman. We did it right with new fire boots, pants, jacket and helmet. Underneath he even had on his fireman pj's. It was epic. We were invited to spend the evening with our friends Renee and Chip Burgess. Their little guy Charlie is the same age as Deven and was equally as thrilled to go door-to-door for free candy. Renee is an aspiring Martha Stewart (pre-insider trading) and decorated so well. She even had labeled appetizers: grapes were eye balls and pretzel sticks were goblin bones. It's her dream to have a walk through haunted house some day. I am anticipating that we will spend many more Halloween's with the Burgess family!!

We captured the boys' first trick-or-treat. Awesome. Other fun moments was Deven's 'eye ball' belch into a nice ladies face as she was handing him some candy..."Excuse me, I burped." Then upon a nice old man opening the door for the boys Charlie felt right at home and walked right in...we were thinking he just wanted to be more social then trick-or-treating allowed. He is quite the gentleman. We had such a great time and ended the night with a pizza, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", and a little Monday night football. A perfect first Halloween night out for Deven and Charlie!!!

Pumpkin Patching

We had an early morning trip to Bob's Corn Farm. Now that I am linking to the website I see the farm was not actually open until 10am. Whoops - we got there around 9:30. Thankfully everyone there was super nice and didn't make us leave!! We made the trip with our friends Chip, Renee and their little man Charlie. The boys lasted about an hour, which was pretty awesome given the temperature this morning. Deven was so cold when we left his hand were bright red. I need to do some hunting for some little man gloves! Anyway, before the cold set in Deven was having a blast picking out pumpkins, rolling around in the mud and playing on the huge tractor. Good fall fun!

Weekend Warriors: #1 Cresent Bar

This next series of blogs will give you an idea of just why I haven't posted anythings for weeks. This summer has been marked with mini weekend get-aways. We are soon going to take a vacation from our vacations, but more on that early next month!!

Weekend #1 - Deven and I ditched Nick for the weekend and went to celebrate our friend Renee's birthday. I think it was our first trip out of town without him so I was pretty nervous. With Nick's help we piled almost everything we own in my Kia (yes I still drive my Kia) and we were out the door by 6:45...this was an amazing feat given that I picked Deven up, got home had dinner and packed the car...well I think its amazing anyhow! Deven fell asleep almost immediately just as I suspected he would. It was going great until about 2.5 hours into our 3 hour trip the bright lights on those big Eastern Washington Trucks started getting to him. We made it with only a minor turn around...good thing there is only really one road in that little town!! I'm not sure what I was nervous about, with help from my friends Deven was an excellent swimmer, eater, napper and sleeper. We had a blast!! Thanks for the invite Chip and Renee, can't wait to play again soon!!