More photos

Just some more pictures... it wasn't worth trying to get them into the right place on the last blog. I get so confused! :)

Kareli and Kayin loved the face painting :)

Pin the Nose on the Pumkin

Ring Toss

Darts

(Kareli might have had a little help...)

He actually got several to stick!

Mmm... gooey chocolately Brownies...!

Kayin loves dressing himself :) The black socks are my favorite...

I can't figure out why animals flock to me... it's not because I spoil them or anything... I wouldn't build them a big cat tree or something like that, because that would just be sad and pathetic, right?

They actually do really well in the bath! They like it best when the kids are in there with them and don't meow at all, but the pictures weren't exactly publicly appropriate. :)

This movie just cracks me up every time I see it. :) Poor Kareli... she had to sit there while I ran back inside to get the camera!!! I'm such a bad person, but at least now you can all smile with me!

Life goes on...

Well, we're keeping super busy while Mickey is gone, that's for sure. It makes time pass much faster. Can you believe it's almost November?!?!?!

We went to a fair over at Nathalia's house and the kids all got to go on rides together. First time for Kareli, and she wasn't too sure if she liked it or not. The nice worker kept making silly faces at her every time she went around to help keep her from crying. The boys were hilarious; their first ride was that spinny car, where you turn the wheel. They got in and had a blast spinning the wheel and thought that was the whole ride. They all had a moment of panic when the whole thing started moving! Then they loved it. :)

Kayin's first cotton candy! Yum! But oh so sticky...

We also went to Oxbow Lake with some friends and played in the sand and water there, on one of the few gorgeous days we had this summer. Almost like going to the beach! We found big patches of wild blackberries and scratched the tar out of ourselves getting them, but they were SO worth it!



Our first Pinata! Man that glue gets everywhere! We still haven't worked up the nerve to break it though... we had too much fun making it!

We were very surprised one evening to find a little bat crawling across our living room carpet! I picked it up in a cup and took it outside, then we all took turns petting it and looking at it closely. Then I finally thought.... hey, if it's not flying and it's not acting normal, perhaps there's something wrong with this thing. Maybe we shouldn't be touching it....." Which led to a frantic hand-washing/sanitizing evening. We left him on the porch for a few days to see what would happen, then finally moved him to the garden. I think it was sick, or too young to leave it's mother, because we found him dead a few days later. Poor thing; he was really neat to watch. We loved his clicking. Another addition to our pet cemetary...

Before Mickey left we went to the kid's museum in Portland and had a great day there; I was thinking an hour, maybe hour and half, and we'd be bored and ready to go. We spent the whole day! And still didn't see everything! That place is amazing. :) Kayin loved the contruction room and the cars you could pretend to drive.

Kareli loved the cars also, and the water room. The water room was my favorite too; I could have changed the currents the whole time we were there, just to see where the rubber duckies would go next!

We have (temporarily, I hope!) 3 little kitties now: Smokey, Bandit, and Jo Jo. Jo Jo is the light-colored one in front. Troy gave us 3 week old Jo Jo to bottlefeed, but he needed so much attention to be happy that I called a shelter to ask if they had an older kitten I could have/borrow, to teach him how to be a cat. I don't need another neurotic pet. :) I figured the new one could also teach him to eat and use the litter box. Well, they called back saying they had two 4 week old kittens that were still bottle feeding that needed a home. You know me; how could I say no?? So I had to bottle feed them all for a couple weeks. :) But honestly, it really was a lot less work because JoJo stopped whining for attention, and they all started using the litter box the second day! Yay! I have enough bums to wipe around here without them added to the mix. :)

The army had a little harvest party for all the families with deployed soldiers and it was a ton of fun. It was an all-you-can-eat pizza feed, and they had a magic show, face painting, balloon animals, pumpkins, and lots of games to do for the kids Kayin and Kareli went nuts! I love child-oriented activies. :)

Kareli's been having a horrible time sleeping since Mickey left, and kept waking up earlier and earlier. I don't know about you, but I'm not very friendly at 4:30 in the morning. So I started laying her down with her Daddy Doll and told her to talk to him if she woke up, then snuggle him back to sleep. And no crying, because it makes him sad. It worked! First night she slept until 7:30, which is the lastest in months! Hooray!! Now it's settled to around 6:30, which I can handle. Ahh, but wouldn't 7:30 be great every day??? It's so cute to see her hug him tight and give him kisses. Both kids love their dolls. Umm, action figures?

It was a horrible year for gardening her... cold and cloudy all summer. My plants finally started producing just as the frost hit. :( We'll be eating fried green tomatoes for ages, apparently. Well, Kareli actually just love them as-is. She's always walking around with one. :) At least the plants grew though!

So anyway, we're just keeping busy doing a lot of living. It's already been a month since Mickey left, so yay, time's going fast!! Hope you're all doing great too!