Happy Halloween!

Sophie decided early in September that she wanted to be a witch, and Cade wanted to be a racecar. I got both costumes big- thinking that it's always cold on Halloween- and wanted to be ready to add layers.  To our delight, it was really nice out and both kids could be outside without heavy coats. 

 Cade had a great time trick or treating. If someone let him pick out a piece of candy, he would stand there for a good 30 seconds trying to decide which piece of candy to get. He would usually settle on a lollypop, or a yollypop in cade-speak.  He yoves yollypops.

 Sophie was all business this Halloween.  She wanted to go from store to store, or house to house- quickly and move on.  She did not like waiting for her little brother to pick the perfect lollypop.

The kids always have such fun on Main street. It is a blast to see all the costumes from kids- and adults!

 Grandma and Papa came over to hit the neighborhood.  The kids loved having them here!

Sophie's favorite part of Halloween is giving out candy to the kids who come to our door.  She takes this job very seriously and sat by the door for over 2 hours. We let her stay up late because she did such a great job. 

 The time honored tradition of sorting candy.  The kids both got a ton!

Carving Pumpkins

 Carving Pumpkins is an adventure with a 2 year old, and 5 year old who cannot use their right hand.Cade was excited to do his pumpkin- until he felt the ooey-gooey slime on the inside and then wanted nothing to do with it anymore. Sophie wanted to her pumpkin but had trouble scooping out the inside left handed. Therefore Carl and I had to do most of the pumpkin work. Yuck! Pumpkin carving is probably my least favorite Halloween activity.

Sophie was less than thrilled that I tied a bag around her arm, but I was worried that her cast would stink like pumpkin for the next 2 weeks. No one wants to sit by the stinky kid in class, so she finally wore a bag.

 Cade checking out the inside of the pumpkin from a safe distance.

Finished products.  Sophie wanted a spooky pumpkin and chose a grim reaper, and Cade wanted a monster pumpkin. Hopefully next year's pumpkin carving will be a little easier!  

Sophie's Broken Arm

 Well, I got the call from school that every parent dreads- Sophie fell off the monkey bars and broke her arm. She actually broke it in 2 places.  She has been a trooper- and has not complained once about anything.  She has had couple of casts on now- she had a soft cast for a week, then a hard cast for 3 weeks and will go in and get yet another cast this week.  I cannot wait for her cast to come off.  Sophie is so physical and full of energy that it has been really hard to come up with fun activities for her to do.  We cannot go to playgrounds,the pool or swim lessons, and soccer ended early for her. When her cast finally does come off, she has requested a cake and ice cream party, followed by a trip to the pool.  Done!

Cade has been very concerned about Sophie and her broken arm.  When she came home with her cast he immediately grabbed his doctor bag.

Dr. Cade tending to Sophie

Sophie's first hard cast-pink!  Of course.  In Sophie's world there are not too many other colors.

Cade Gymnastics

Cade started taking gymnastics classes in September.  I thought this would be a good fit for him because he is constantly doing somersaults, trying to stand on his head, and he has alarming strong upper body strength. Cade loves the classes!  The 2 year olds are supposed to do specific activities in a certain order, but Cade likes to just go at his own pace and in any order.  Basically he is the crazy boy in a class of well behaved girls. But, he has a lot of fun and is always exhausted afterwards. Just what I like!

 Running across the trampoline- they are supposed to jump in each circle.  Cade just likes to run and then crash into the mats.

 Hanging from the bars.  Cade has enough strength to pull himself up, over and around the bar.

Balance beam-not his speciality since he likes to run across. Oh well, he has fun!

Soccer

 Sophie started playing soccer this fall, and so far seems to enjoy it!  She's not exactly the star of the team, as she usually runs about 2 seconds behind all the action.  She also will stop running after the ball to pick clovers in the field, fiddle with her shoes, or just daydream.  But when she is focused she has really good coordination and shows promise. We will see if she will want to stick with it another year, right now I am just happy that she is trying something new.

Summer Wrap Up!

As always, summer flies by- and before I know it, we're into fall!  This summer seemed especially fast, here is our catch up of lake activities.  Sophie was always in the water, and always looking for someone to cannonball with. This summer Cade got in the action too- he liked to jump in off the dock!

 Sophie loves to tube, and Cade tried it too!

 Sophie skied this summer, she did not enjoy it so much.  Cade skied too- although I don't have a picture because I was completely terrified the entire time.  We will see if he will do it again next summer.

 Cade and Papa spent many hours on the deck squirting things with water guns.

 Cade also logged in many hours in the sandbox.

 Sophie "caught" her first fish.  (She had a little help from Daddy)

Cade spent a lot of time fishing too- He never realized that his pole didn't have a hook.

 All the kids liked the paddleboard.

Cade and Nana had fun throwing rocks in the river. 

Huckleberry Picking

 Our routine at the cabin for the last month has been the same- wake up, have a leisurely breakfast, and then pick huckleberries. Huckleberries are a small tart berry that are native to Montana.  They can only grow in the wild, have a short growing season, and can sell for $60 dollars a gallon.  We have picked around 4 gallons this summer so far.  We have been using the berries to make muffins, scones, eat them on ice cream and cool whip desserts.  They are tasty!

 Cade is like a little bear.  He finds a bush, plops down next to it and proceeds to eat all the berries.  He never actually puts any berries into the bucket- just straight into his mouth.

 Mmm... berries!

 Sophie is our scouter.  She is excellent at finding the berries, but tends to quickly lose interest in picking them.

 Putting some berries into her bucket.

 The kids have all got really good at picking/finding the berries this summer.  Picking huckleberries is a great morning activity because it gets the kids outside and keeps them busy, before its warm enough to go down to the lake.

Searching, searching for huckleberries!

Hiking and Catching Up With Old Friends

 Last weekend Carl's friend Pete came to visit us with his family. It is always fun to meet up with college friends now that we all have kids.When Pete visited last, we did a lot of hiking- we thought it would be fun to do that again. We thought wrong.  It was really tough.  Between the 3 kids we had 6 scraped knees, and lots of tears.  We joked that with all the crying we were keeping the bears away.

 Seeing the gorge.  This was always fun to see, but now with kids a little scary as there is a sudden drop off.

 Sophie did a great job hiking and only cried when she fell.  She walked all 5 miles.  She did awesome!

We made it to the top!  The kids had fun splashing their toes in the freezing lake.  Now we have to get back down...

Quick Portland Trip

 We did a super quick 3 day trip out to Portland.  We crammed a lot of stuff into those few days!  One of the kids favorite spots is the Portland Children's Museum.  This summer they added a whole outdoor section with climbing trees, water features, sand boxes, and fun climbing rocks.  The kids were in heaven!

 We should have came prepared for the water- If I had thought it through I would have packed their suits.  Since I didn't they had a blast running through the water and getting their clothes all wet. At least it was a nice day!

 Cade at the clay station.  He had messy clay and a hammer.  He happily sat for a good half-hour.

 It was great fun to meet up with cousins Claire and Miranda again!

 Rock wall climbing.

 For whatever reason, my kids love to dress up in hats.  This always freaks me out since I am afraid they will catch lice.

 The construction room.  Another favorite spot, another hat.

 On our last day we met up with Claire and Miranda again for some good old fashioned slip-n-slide fun.  This was a lot of fun!

Perfecting the belly slide.