Month by Month-October 2010

October has been incredibly busy, with birthdays, traveling, house renovating, furniture shopping, and tons more. I feel like October went by in a heartbeat, and has left me wanting a vacation! We tried to enjoy the last of the warm fall days, as we are approaching winter.

This month we:

• Jack and Sophie-turned three. I should have never blinked my eyes. How did this happen?
• Matt-Made it to the semi-finals in his Men's Soccer league. We watched him play a couple of games, and score a couple of goals. He's still got it! ;)
• Jack and Sophie-spent most of the month bickering. Sibling rivalry is in full effect. My favorite from the month? Sophie-"Mommy! Jack is looking at me!"
• Amy-joined a MOM's club, and is looking forward to some fun activities for the kids...and ME!
• Matt-is still plodding away at his business.
• Jack and Sophie-have enjoyed the last of the warm days playing outside.
• Sophie has figured out how to ride the tricycle, the big wheel, and the scooter.
• Jack and Sophie-went trick or treating. Jack was Lightning again, and Sophie was Cinderella. They LOVED getting candy in their bags...and eating it too!
  
• Matt and Amy-planted trees from our parent's yard in our yard, and are hoping they take, and start growing in the spring. We planted a maple, and three sassafras tress. We were unable to find the elusive tulip tree in my parent's yard.
• Matt-helped to put a new roof on his parent's house.
• Jack loved playing with the boys in our playdate. The three boys had all of the little matchbox cars talking to each other.
  

*This is a new part of our blog. In an attempt to record my family's history, I stumbled upon this idea on a blog. Each month, I will write the small things that we experienced as individuals and as a family. Each month will have one picture. It will be easy to print out each post and put it in a binder for future perusing. My official title is "family historian." I scrapbook a lot, but I also love the idea of having memories tucked away to remember at a time when our own memories fail us. I would love to have a recorded history of my family's past. We have printed out the blog and keep in a binder already, and we have most of the "big" events covered. So, in an attempt to give my children some insight into our day to day activities, I am going to try to do these posts every month!

Pucknik Carving

We didn't get to visit a pumpkin patch as a family this year, so yesterday, we carved pumpkins. The kids were way excited to get started, even though I am not sure they knew what we were going to do. We helped Jack and Sophie draw faces on the pumpkins, but Jack didn't really want to help, so Matt ended up drawing his. Then we cut the top off of Jack's pumpkin, and told him to dig in. This was his reaction:

He was apprehensive at first, so Matt shoved his hand in the pumpkin. After he got his first feel, he pulled his hand out, giggling, and refused to stick it back in. He also wouldn't go anywhere near the goop that I pulled out. Next up was Sophie. This was her reaction to the pumpkin after we cut the top off:

Typical Sophie! She loves goopy, yucky stuff. Matt couldn't cut the top off fast enough! She cleaned every last seed out of her pumpkin, and then, helped me to pick the seeds out to roast. After all of the seeds were out, she ended up mashing, smashing, and kneading it! Too much fun!

Matt ended up doing the cutting, because who would seriously trust our kids with a knife? He cut the kids faces, and then he cut two of the papers that came with the pumpkin knife. From left to right, Sophie's(which you can tell Matt cut on the lines she drew for the eyes and nose, and I drew the mouth), Matt's mouse with a candycorn, Jack's, and my kitty.

Jack and Sophie were pretty excited when we took them outside and put candles in them. They were also excited to blow the candles out! It was lots of fun, and later we enjoyed the fruits of our labor, which was yummy toasted(and a little burnt! oops!) seeds.