Happy Halloween!

The kids were very excited to carve pumpkins this year, I think partially due to the fact they could stick their hands in pumpkin guts!  :-)  

 Mason's pumpkin!  He drew the face and Matt carved it out for him.  He did a great job!

Anna's pumpkin!  She drew the design and Matt carved it out for her.  

Matt's dragon pumpkin, and yes, he drew it (from a stencil) and carved it all by himself!  :-)

Olivier opted for the skeleton kit that he has used in the past and wanted to keep it inside so we kept it by the front door to greet visitors.  

Tonight as we were heading out.  Mason was a lion/tiger, Anna was a black cat, and Olivier was a fireman.

 A closer photo of our fireman!

 Mason as a lion tiger.  Yes, that is what he asked to be last year and was very excited to wear the costume again this year!

Mason loves shaking his mane and wanted me to take a video of him.  Olivier then wanted me to take video of him shaking his head.  Silly boys!  

Self portraits

The boys completed self portraits at school to start the school year. This is the first year they have done them so it is interesting to see what they drew (it is multiple stages before getting to this final project). They are excited to point them out in their classroom and we are excited to see them take steps like this in their projects.

Run, Run, Run!

Today was the City to Sea Half Marathon and 5k which Matt has run at least two times before.  

http://mattandtania.blogspot.com/2008/10/matts-half-marathon.html

http://mattandtania.blogspot.com/2010/10/run-matt-run.html

It was a chilly morning (in the upper 40's) but overall not bad running weather.  This year I ran the 5k and the kids ran a 1/4 mile fun run.  We were in our running shoes!  :-)

For the half it started downtown and finished at Dinosaur Caves Park.  The 5k run started and finished at the park.  

I crossed the finish line!  Yippee!  It was my first 5k and although I didn't do as well as I would have liked, I still did it which still amazes even me!  :-)  I am NOT a runner by any means.  My time was 36 minutes, 2 seconds.  

A short while after I finished it was time for the kids 1/4 mile fun run!  They got to meet the Cuesta Cougar before the race, although they were still a little hesitant.  

Just as the race was starting, and yes, all three ran!  Mason held my hand and Olivier held Grandma's.  They did a great job and got a metal when they finished!

Once that finished we very very quickly went to the finish of the half marathon, just with steps to spare as Matt crossed the finish line!  Yeah!  We have a photo but he didn't want me to share so I am being nice!  :-)  Matt finish in 1 hour, 44 minutes and 13 seconds!  Way to go!  He reached his goal and we are so proud of all his hard work!

The boys had been asking:  "can we go in the bounce house NOW?" for a while and were thrilled when the answer was finally yes!  It was a bit one with the slide.  

After playing on the bounce house for a while and watching friends cross, Matt got to see Heather cross!  Yeah!  Way to go Heather!  

 Love this photo of Heather and Audrey after Heather went through the finish line!

A good group shot as the kids were playing in the park!  I think they would have stayed all day if we had let them!

 And all of our running bibs!  :-)

Anna's school picture!

Doesn't she look so serious?  When the kids were born we got frames that had a space for each month up to their first birthday.  I guess it is time to get ones for kindergarten through high school?  Wow!!

Anna's learning Spanish

I am amazed at how quickly Anna is learning Spanish! She brought this home earlier this week and was able to tell us the parts if the tree in Spanish (although she couldn't remember how the roots were pronounced). We have no clue if she is right but it sure sounds good!

She also sang "Happy Birthday" in Spanish tonight for Natalie's birthday.  I need to learn some Spanish to find out how well she is doing!  :-)

Rufus!

I don't often get a chance to include Rufus in a blog post so I wanted to take the opportunity when it did come up, and this is a sweet one.  Rufus was hanging out in the living room tonight while we were eating dinner. After dinner, Matt went over to him to give him some attention.  As soon as Matt was down, Olivier came over and rested on Matt.  It was sweet.  Only lasted for a moment (quite literally!) but sweet none the less.  And I think Rufus is now eight and a half.  I will have to tell the kids tomorrow, after all, a half is a big deal to them!  :-)

Pumpkin patch!

This afternoon we went to the pumpkin patch!  The kids were very excited and happy to play with their friend Henry again too!  

We started by getting a group shot of the kiddos, and they are all looking at the camera!  (Thank you Jenni for helping Anna!)

 Anna and Henry were working the horse trying to rope the bull!  She did surprisingly well circling the rope.  Not so good on the toss but you have to start somewhere!

 Olivier and his turn with the rope.  Watch out!  :-)  And I love his expression!

 Anna taking another turn, this time with Mason.  Henry is trying to get the rope to put it on the bull for her but I was worried she would actually lasso him instead!

 A better visual of the setup.  Anna on the "horse" and Olivier and Henry on the "bull".

 Henry and Mason setting up the bean bag toss.  Too much set up work though so they weren't interested for too long.  Bummer!

 Jenni got a great shot of Anna during a thoughtful moment.  Really captures her personality.

And now we have a whole bunch of pumpkins!  :-)

Happy Birthday Natalie!

Today we celebrated our niece's 4th birthday!  So exciting to start the wave of birthday parties for some very cool 4 year olds!  :-)  I remember sitting in the hospital waiting room counting contractions and just so excited to meet her!  

It was very sweet to arrive to the party, to be greeted by Natalie who ran to Anna, thrilled to see her!  

I tried to get a good photo of "little" sister, Rhys, but this is the best she would give me.  She is full of personality!

 And Miss Natalie so proud to be four!

 Make a wish!

 Love this look she gave!

 And she got a bike so of course everyone had to go for a ride, birthday girl first!

 And "little" Rhys would not hear the news that she wouldn't be able to ride.  She did eventually get a turn and it won't be long before she asks for her very own big bike.  Although I think she may have already!  :-)

 Wishing you all the best Natalie!  We love you!