Going to the Pumpkin Patch

On the morning of Oct. 16, before soccer, I realized that day would be our only day available to go to the pumpkin patch! Brian agreed. So after the soccer games, we stopped for lunch at Carl's Jr. then went to La Familia Ranch. Right away the kids were going in the teepee, Lauren was riding the hay bale (saddle on it to make a pretend horse!), and Austin was roping the steer (or its head, anyway...).


We've taken pictures by this backdrop before, so of course had to do it this year.


Austin is such a good big brother to Caroline. He was making sure she wouldn't fall off the fence.


She's not worried about falling, at all.

We went through the corn maze. The big kids ran through it several times. Brian would hide in the "dead ends" and jump out and try to scare them. :D Caroline refused to get in this picture.

I made the kids pose for a group shot.

The older ones cooperated nicely. Caroline bucked and squirmed, then finally sat, pouting with her thumb in her mouth. Until I gave her bits of gum to chew (and swallow...). Then she sat for about 10 seconds. Ha ha.

The kids each got to pick a pumpkin, and searched till they found the perfect one. Austin chose a perfect $15 one. We told him they had to be marked $7 or less. ;)

Caroline kind of liked playing around the pumpkins. When she didn't have to be still and pose.

Austin had fun pushing the wheelbarrow of pumpkins. And it was fun to sit in the wheelbarrow and have Daddy push the kids around, too! We ended up getting 4 pumpkins and a mini gourd for $20. Not too bad. :)

On our way home we stopped at the Avila Barn. It was swarming with people! Which is why I prefer going to La Familia!! But the big kids wanted to go through the hay maze--Lauren got to on her field trip, but not Julia and Austin. And they sell ice cream and treats at the Avila Barn, which we all wanted. ;) They went through the hay maze lots of times. Austin and Lauren jumped and rolled and played in the straw pile. They were covered in straw! It was in Lauren's bath water that night, and fell out of their pockets and clothes when I did laundry. Lauren did plenty of posing. ;) We got ice cream cones then stood in line for a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch.

Since we'd already bought our pumpkins at La Familia, we just rode out to the patch and back. Just because it's fun to go on a wagon ride. :) The kids were getting tired after all the playing. I took this of the sisters while we waited for the tractor to bring the wagon back.

Brian took Austin and Caroline to the car, and these two and I were lagging behind. They liked these huge pumpkins and nicely sat together in the middle of them. Everyone was starving, even after the ice cream, and all the kids wanted some Wasabi peanuts Brian and I had bought for the two of us! LOL They only ate a few though, and I think Caroline just ate one, as their eyes were watering, and they were guzzling water every time they ate a peanut!

Kindergarten Field Trip

The girls and I got back from our trip to WA on Oct. 12. The next day I walked Lauren to the Kindergarten area, and an aid in her class, who we know from Awana, tells me, "Today's a special day for them...", with a look like she and I are in on a secret.

And I was clueless. I looked blankly at her, and asked the only thing I could, "Why?"

She nods, knowingly, and whispers, "Field trip!"

Oh yeah! It was on my calendar, I just forgot all about it, as did Lauren, with our trip to WA. Julia missed a field trip, her second 4-H meeting, and selling baked potatoes at the 4-H booth at Octoberfest, in the park when we were on our trip. Oh well. That's how it goes.

Anyway, I raced home and grabbed a few things, then Caroline and I headed off to the Avila Valley Barn to meet up with Lauren's class. As it was, we arrived plenty ahead of them. Caroline liked walking around looking at the animals. She gets so excited seeing the goats and chickens, especially.

I like these big pumpkins they had set up.


A group picture of Lauren's class. Those little kids are so cute!


The kids ran through the hay maze and ate their lunches before we all got on the hay wagon to go out to the pumpkin patch. I thought it was neat how the fog was deciding to burn off/come in, kind of just hovering behind the trees.


A classmate's mom took this of the girls and me on the hay wagon.

All the Kindergarteners could pick a sugar pumpkin and a mini pumpkin. Here Lauren is with hers. And with her friend, Braelyn, in the second picture.

And a couple cute ones of Caroline. She liked being included with the big kids.

I took Lauren home with me, which she was not happy about! She wanted to ride the bus back with her class! We picked out some mini gourds and pumpkins for our mantle at home.

A few days after the field trip, I noticed a wet spot under Lauren's sugar pumpkin, on the table. It had started rotting! We hadn't seen any problems with it at the patch. I carved off the moldy/rotten part, then cooked up the rest. I pureed it in the food processor, and Caroline and I made pumpkin bread with part of the puree. Lauren was proud that her pumpkin was used in that yummy bread! :) This morning we used up the rest of the puree in pumpkin pancakes for breakfast.

Boys Go Camping

Brian has planned to take Austin camping for months, just the two of them. It's really hard during soccer and baseball season... Then summer is always jam-packed. Well, October 9 there was no soccer. It was also late in the camping season, so Brian couldn't make reservations at the Lodgepole campground in Sequoia National Park.

When the boys arrived Friday night (Oct. 8), the campground was full! So he and Austin ended up staying at a hotel in Visalia that night. The next day they headed back to Sequoia, and there was a campsite available. They got to spend 2 days and 1 night there. Here is Austin beside the tent site.


They hiked to Tokopah Falls. Brian saw 3 bears on this camping trip, and Austin saw 2 of them. They also saw two deer.


Austin spend much of his free time at their campsite searching for rocks to build a fort, and then building it. He loved playing with the rocks.

Brian gave him this head lamp for his birthday. Worked great for being out in the dark, camping!

Austin with his rock wall/fort.

Sunday they went to the Giant Forest, on the Sherman Tree Trail.

Austin used his walking stick as they hiked around the park. :)

They also toured Crystal Cave on Sunday. There are lights in the caves, but something was wrong with the electrical system, so the guides gave everyone flashlights to use. Austin (and the other kids on the tour) loved that!!

A cave formation--see Austin's flashlight beam highlighting it?

They enjoyed spending time together. It was a good weekend.

Girls off to WA

October 2 my grandma (Dad's mom) passed away. Sunday the 3rd, we spend all afternoon researching flights online. All the fares were expensive, around $300 for the cheapest, going from San Jose to Seattle. Finally, my sister-in-law found one for $120 round trip from Long Beach to Bellingham (much better on that leg than Seattle). We bought tickets for the girls and me, as Brian had already planned to take Austin camping the weekend of Oct. 8.

We left Oct. 7 and came home Oct. 12. It was a quick trip! The funeral was Friday, Oct. 8. First we went to the funeral home for a final viewing and a time together of family prayer. My brother and several boy cousins were pall bearers.


Next we went to the cemetery. Seventeen of the twenty grandchildren were able to be there for the funeral, and we all placed roses on the casket, as did the great-grandchildren. There was a rose representing each one, even if they couldn't be there. It was a hard day for my grandpa--they'd been married 64 years. I thought the second picture was a nice one of him.

Next, we went to church for the memorial service. It was a very nice service--lots of music, tributes read that the children and grandchildren wrote, and a Powerpoint presentation of pictures of grandma, set to music. After the service, there was lots of yummy food to eat, and lots of people to visit with. Here are my mom and dad, my girls and me, and my grandpa.

Julia sat and talked with Grandpa for a little bit. He wants her to come sing at the rest home where he lives. :)

Friday was a long day. It was good, but exhausting! I am glad I could be there for the funeral.

Julia woke me up early (like 4-5 am) Sat. morning saying her ear hurt. I gave her Advil all day long, and she slept much of the day. She threw up a few times, and ate very, very little. Lauren, Caroline, and I went on a walk with my mom and dad. We found a few blackberries to pick, leftover from summer.

My dad showed us the new pump house he's building.

My sister came over to see us Sat. night. Poor Julia just relaxed in the recliner, but Lauren and Caroline liked Auntie Colleen's attention! Lauren was practicing writing pretty much every word she knew, even words she was inventing, like "fok". ;) Along with sentences like, "I see a cat. I see a rat. I pat the cat." LOL Caroline told Auntie Colleen to draw lots of pictures: bat, rainbow, scarecrow, etc. Which Auntie Colleen did.

Both Lauren and Julia's teachers had given them homework to do on our trip. Lauren finished all hers the night before we left, except a journal she had to do. She wrote a picture every day in it, and I wrote the description, as she told it to me. Julia thankfully finished most of hers, but then got sick, and it really was too bad she was sick a full two days she/we could have been visiting/playing/having fun. :(

Only Lauren went to church Sunday with my mom and dad. Julia was still sick, so I stayed home with her and Caroline. That afternoon my mom and I took Julia to a walk-in clinic, where we waited, and waited, and waited--about 2 hours!--to be seen. Finally it was Julia's turn, and she ended up having a double ear infection. We made it to the pharmacy about 3 minutes before they closed, and the pharmacist nicely filled her prescription. That night we ate dinner at Marty and Colleen's, and Julia actually ate a little bit!

This picture was Sat. night. My mom's cat, Priscilla, snuggled by Julia a lot of the time when she was in that chair.

Monday we went to visit Colleen at her house, and Julia stayed with her and watched an entire season of Full House on DVD while the two younger girls had a nap at my mom's. Annette, her kids, and Brian's mom stopped by Colleen's for awhile around lunch time so all the girls could play. That night Scott and Kim stopped by and we visited with them.

Tuesday morning Annette brought us to the airport, and we were headed back to CA! It was a whirlwind trip. Brian picked us up in Long Beach, we stopped for dinner at Panda Express in Santa Barbara, then picked up Austin at his friend Kana's house, where he'd gone after school. Then it was back to our regular routine at home.

Eight is Great

Sometimes I'm folding boy laundry and think, "Who's the kid wearing these big clothes?!" Austin turned 8, October 1. He eats a lot these days and is a big kid! Especially, he's grown tall this summer. I bought him all 8 slims for pants for fall since he's so skinny--some of the shorts from summer are still 5T's, since they fit around his waist. Crazy!


Austin requested a Star Wars cake. I told him I didn't know how to make one, and he came up with the entire plan himself. He wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. He wanted a cliff, and showed me where to cut the cake to make the cliff. Then he arranged his Star Wars Lego guys on top in a battle. He told me who was climbing up, who was shooting who, who was dead on the cake... Such a boy!

I told him to show me 8 fingers... Thinking about it:

Then he got silly with 8 fingers.

With his presents

With his sisters and his presents. Julia said, "It's not my birthday. Why do I have to be in the pictures?!"

He was very happy about his new Star Wars Legos.

Brian's mom came up for the weekend to celebrate with us.

The birthday boy before we sang to him.

That weekend:

*Brian's mom came with us to the soccer field and watched Austin and Lauren's games with us. Austin's team played a very hard opponent, and he scored the only goal for his team. That's my boy! I wish I'd had the video camera, as he got the ball and took off running, pumping his arms so he could run faster. An opponent tried to steal the ball, but Austin got it back and scored the goal! We were so proud of him!

*She babysat the kids while Brian and I went to a Farm Bureau dinner for his work.

*We found out my grandma (dad's mom) died, October 2.

*Sunday the 3rd, Brian and I spent hours looking for plane tickets for the girls and I to fly up to WA for the funeral. Brian had already planned to take Austin camping Oct. 8 -9, so they didn't need tickets.

*Sunday night we told Austin to come sit down for dinner. He'd been sitting on the floor playing Legos in the family room, and started crying, "I can't get up! My legs hurt!" He had lots of red round welts on both legs, with what looked like a bite in the center. Brian, his mom, and I didn't know what they were.

We thought maybe flea bites, since the cats have had them recently. The welts were all over, and 1 -2" in diameter. None of us had seen flea bites like that before, but we didn't know what else it could be. I talked to the on-call doctor who said to give Austin Benedryl, but also thought he should be seen the next day. Brian had to carry Austin to bed that night, as his legs hurt too much for him to walk!

Our regular dr. ordered a blood test for Austin, and said he suspected Purpura. Which I'd never heard of before. The blood test was to make sure Austin's platelet count was normal, as the welt swelling had gone down, but there was bruising under them that Monday. So weird! Anyway, the blood test results came back Mon. afternoon (Oct. 4), and thankfully everything was normal!

The dr. said Austin did have Purpura, specifically H.S. Purpura. Austin's spots didn't look like the ones in that link, but more like in this link. Our dr. said they might spread to his thighs--they'd only been below his knees--and sure enough, they spread. Even up to and on his bottom! I was glad we'd had the blood test, as it was all so odd, I think I would have worried about leukemia or ???? otherwise! Austin's knees and ankles hurt, for several days, but were much better by the end of the week. He was limping all day Monday, the 4th. And now, almost 2 weeks later, it's all just a memory.