October 2014....that went fast...

October was a little slower, almost.  Noelle was busy with photography sessions.  She shot three this month and delivered her wedding from this summer.  The kids are getting in the swing of school  We spent the month studying South America, specifically the Amazon.  It was great fun.  We went on a few field trips, including a whale watching trip with our charter school.  I was so glad to get back off the boat with all the kids and our things.  The kids were wonderful and while we didn't see much, some seals and a pod of dolphins.

We then went and played on the beach.  It was a great day.  I love what the kids wrote in the sand...  

 Our second field trip was to the San Diego Zoo. We love it here.  I grew up coming here with my family as a child. I love that my children love it too.  It is worth the drive.  We had a great time enjoying our day here.  After the zoo we went to Old Town and saw the altares that were set up for Day of the Dead and then off to La Jolla to find the sleeping sea lions.  Unfortunately the sea lions weren't there but it was such great fun to take the kids to my favorite childhood haunts for the day.  

A little aside here about Anna and Woody.  She brought him all over the zoo and carried him on her back.  It is so sweet how caring she is for her "babies".    And how kind it was of Vinny to let her adopt Woody from his collection for the day.

 It rained!  It rained!  The kids loved spending the rainy day playing in the rain. 

Anna has discovered Barbies, I love that she plays with them the way I did.  They have whole worlds and conversations.  Thank you Gillichs for sharing your collection with us. 

 The CalPoly Pumpkin Patch.  We love that we moved from one Poly to another.  Although at this Poly, they have all these funny shirts that highlight their insecurity about not being CalPoly SLO, referring to it as the "other Poly".  They put on a great pumpkin patch every year.  It is huge and well organized.  And we made it through the patch without losing anyone.  Unlike last year when we had to shut down the patch to find two of our children who panicked and headed back to the car when they couldn't see us.  We found them quickly, thank goodness.  But back to this year...we didn't have much time, having crushed as much into one Saturday as possible (photo shoot, smog check, pumpkin patch and birthday party).  

We attended a few Halloween parties this year.  The first was at our Church.  It was great fun.  The kids love being with their friends.  Here is our sweet Elsa.  She loved singing and her beautiful capes. 

Gianni and his best friend Chris 

Some more Co-op fun, the teenagers built hovercrafts and gave rides to all the kids at lunch.  It was great fun. 

Pumpkin Carving Time!  You didn't tell me you were going to kill it!  The kids all helped us scrape out the insides of the pumpkins a first for us, it is usually my job to scrape them all clean as no one wanted to put their hands inside them until this year.  We got a great assortment of faces.  I love that Anna wanted curls on her pumpkin so it would look like her.  Gianni carved his own and kept all of his fingers too!  Vinny chose a cyclops theme for his and Mudge and Frankie had his dad help him design his face. Vinny and Gianni took turns grossing us out by eating the pumpkin guts.  We had a great discussion about the gross things that boys eat. They thought it was hilarious.  I love that when we put them out on our wall, the kids insisted on placing them close together like our family.  It was so great! 

Frankie was a Pokemon named Oshawatt.  He is an otter type creature.  He showed me a photo and I did my best to recreate it.  People who knew Pokemon knew who he was, so I call that success! 

This is Frankie at his preschool.  He is attending a Pre-K program four days a week.  The program's director is one of our close friends and she does the most amazing job!  Frankie does so many crafts and I love that he is allowed to create and create all day.  He loves it and is learning a lot.  It was a hard sell to convince him to stay at school in the beginning, but he is getting better.  It takes a series of hugs to leave him there, but he enjoys it once he relaxes into it.  

 These are our Pokemon Connoisseurs.  Vinny was Ash Ketchum who trains Pokemons, such as Oshawatt and Pikachu.  Gianni was Cilan, who trains Pansage, whom he is holding.  Again, they just said make me look like that.  I had a marathon sewing session and got them all done.  I didn't mean to stay up all night, but when I went to lay down that night before our Halloween Party, Gianni woke up just enough to ask me, "Mom, if you are going to sleep will our costumes be done?" And I realized the answer was, no.  So I got up and finished all that I had to do.  I was so grateful to have finished it off and the rest of the week went so much better. My favorite part was when Dan came in and I asked him why he was up in the middle of the night, he answered that he was getting up for work...

 Pokemon Collection, our boys with Vinny's best friend Luke as a Pokemon. 

 We ended the night at our friend's haunted house.  Frankie was done in, he asked if he could lay down.  He did and fell asleep in the driveway.  We didn't realize how tired he was.