Happy Halloween

I was a dust bunny


Toby was a "I-refuse-to-wear-a-costume-but-I'll-agree-to-wearing-a-skeleton-shirt, and maybe a pumpkin hat my mom knit the night before to try to make my outfit look more like a costume, but only because you're bribing me with candy."


It was his first time trick-or-treating. He even said, "Trick or Treat" a few times, mostly after we left the houses, and "thank you for the candy" - and once he said, "Thank you pumpkins for the candy," which was my favorite quote of the evening - a close tie with "we are going fishing for candy."
Here he is with his friend Marco, the candy corn.

And the other cool cats we went trick-or-treating with.

Their cat, Tiger, came trick-or-treating with us. It followed us around the neighborhood like a dog, and ran inside 3 of the houses we stopped at when they opened their doors! That cat was too funny.

Lovin' the Fall

It's finally cool enough to be comfortable outside, and it is so nice! I packed a picnic lunch for us, and we spent the afternoon at Woodword Park; my new favorite sanctuary. It is so peaceful and beautiful there.

Except for the geese. The geese can get pretty loud sometimes - but they only hang out around the lake - and I kinda love them too.

Thomas the Train Decals

I got these "Thomas the Train" wall decals at Target last night and we've been having a blast playing with them today. They are re-useable, and re-re-re-re-useable. We've been re-using them, moving them around all over the place, all day and they still work just the same. They stick to just about anything and don't take off the paint or varnish. They are cute, and cheery -- and clean. We love 'em. They are awesome.

Our new dining room table!

Our apartment complex had a garage sale on Saturday and we got a new dining room table. We had a little table for Toby in the kitchen, and we had been eating our dinners around the coffee table in the living room after he went to sleep. Now we finally have a place for all of us to eat together. I love our new table! It is so exciting - and inspiring. It makes our place look like more of a home - and made me wonder what else we could do to make our house look nice. I hung some more pictures up and we moved furniture around a lot yesterday, trying to figure out what the best configuration would be. Here are some of the pictures. Toby's table has been repurposed as a craft/train/airport table, and is in his room now.

Exeter Parade

Oliver's Uncle John and his wife Phillis came down to Exeter this weekend for Uncle John's high school reunion. Oliver's Aunt Peggy also came down from San Francisco - and we all want to the parade in Exeter, where Oliver's mom and sister live. It was Toby's first parade. The cars honked their horns as they went by and this scared him. He got used to it though; by the very end of the parade! When the street sweeper came, he clapped and waved as it want by - like we had done with the parade floats. It made me laugh. Yay street sweeper!

Halloween is Coming!

I love Halloween. It is my favorite holiday, probably because it is the craftiest. I love all the creative costumes and decorations that people come up with - the candy's just a bonus. The weather is cooling off a lot and that makes me pretty happy too. To celebrate, I decorated our apartment with spooky decals, and we went to the pumpkin patch today.

They had bounce houses and pony rides, but Toby was more than happy to roll around in the hay. He was scared of it at first, and didn't want to walk on it; but, as you can see he warmed up to it pretty quickly. He discovered that it is really fun to run, run, run, and then dive and slide in the hay.

He also really enjoyed picking up pumpkins that were almost as big as he was.

My little weightlifter.

My little pumpkin.

We Went to the Zoo with Nanna Yesterday

We saw lots of animals

and we played with interactive displays, animal furs, bones, etc.

It was a lot of fun!

I'm knitting a shawl, and showing my mom how to blog

Look mom, it's a blog post.

And now I'm going to link to something so you can see how to do that, what should I link to.... hummm... here's a link to wikipedia.

Nana Juli and Bob the Builder

My mom is in town for a weekend visit! She took today off too (Friday) and drove up last night. This morning we went to the Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art and Science to see their "Bob the Builder Exhibit." It was amazing. There was a lot of activity - lots of kids, lots of movement, and so only a few pictures came out. Most were a total blur. We had a lot of fun. They had an area for the kids to plant a pretend garden. Giant ball mazes, puzzles, a slide, Bob the Builder's building equipment, and a visit from a larger-than-life foam Bob. We were there for hours. It was really fun.

Toby the builder, building his block tower in Bob's workshop.

Golf balls, air pressure, and gravity illustrate kinetic energy.... and, when paired with the energy of a pre-schooler, it's a dynamic duo. My mom and I are very tired. Toby is still going strong.