Carving Pumpkins

Last year Tatum was a bit too young for pumpkin carving but this year she and Grandma worked as a team to come up with a scary jack-o-lantern face.

She wasn't too sure about the pumpkin guts, kind of yucky!

We had a contest to see who could come up with the most interesting pumpkin. Daddy definitely won with his throwing up pumpkin face.

Mommy went with a jolly, winking pumpkin. I think the face on Mommy is the scariest part! :)

Tatum and Grandma made a scary little pumpkin with big eye brows (Tatum designed those herself) Grandma does a great job imitating the pumpkin, so scary Tatum is a little frightened! Hopefully our scary pumpkins don't scare off the trick-or-treaters!

Halloween party

Sunday Tatum and I went to a Halloween party at the house of a friend through the play group I'm in. It's a group I joined a few months back and we've only been to a couple activities so far but can't wait to go to many more. Here's Tatum enjoying the school house in the backyard.

She also loved playing in he sand with some princesses she met.

Tatum was a bit overwhelmed by the number of kids and adults that attended, but she loved the kitchen and plastic food to play with!

As you can see, Tatum was a "Meow Cat" as she says it and kept her ears on the whole time. She enjoyed have a bit of yummy Halloween cupcake and some cookie too, bring on the sweets!!

Halloween Bunco

I can't believe I'm posting this but Julie and I hosted Halloween Bunco for our mom's group last night at Julie's new house and it was a blast. This was my first experience playing Bunco, better referred to as Drunko, and it was great! A lot going on, or at least to me, but that doesn't say much since I get overwhelmed playing Bingo at Viejas, go figure.

Everyone had to come in costume and if they didn't, we had costumes waiting for them at the door. Here's my devil costume getting good use by Stephanie.

All in all, we had a great night. Who says 30 year olds can't wear Halloween costumes!! :)

Making Cookies!

Tatum had her first cookie making lesson and she loved it. Of course, cooking in our house is using a box of cake mix, two eggs and some oil but hey, she thought it was great! She's so cute and growing up so fast, I can't believe it! Hopefully she'll take after her dad and be a wonderful chef!

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch with Shauna, Julie and Logan and had such a fun time!

First we rode the toy tractor...

looked at silly pumpkins...

ran around in the hay maze...

went on a hay ride...

got lost in the corn maze... Where's Logan?...

picked out a pumpkin...

and ended the fun day with a good car nap. We love the pumpkin patch!

Oh Jimmy

The Jimmy Buffet concert was Thursday and we started enjoying the parking lot festivites at 4:00 pm. We had lots of delicious food but the liquor soaked fruit was by far the best. :)

Ali and I have been enjoying Buffet together since 2000!

We had lawn seats again, which were pretty cold and windy. But I put this picture in to show the family in front of us who felt it was necessary to bring their small children to the concert. Really?!

And this is my favorite pic from the night. "Drrrrrr!" All in all, a fabulous night o' fun!

Another wonderful visit from Lee and Baby Isaac

Lee and Isaac came down to stay with us for two days and we had a great time. Tuesday we had a park play date with Julie and Logan (I forgot to bring my camera) and then Wednesday we went to the pumpkin patch with our class. We got to look at the animals in the petting zoo...

take a hay ride (which was more miserable than fun since it was close to 100 degrees out and the tractor driver spent 10 minutes going over how to wave hello to the scarecrows!)...

enjoy a corn maze (which we skipped due to the horrific heat) and pick out our pumpkin in the patch. Tatum took this last chore very seriously...

but after much thought and consideration, chose this beauty. She is a very proud pumpkin owner.

And so is Isaac, he picked this out all by himself! And look at that expression, such a man. :)

Tatum was very sad to see Isaac go today. She sent him off with a big kiss...

and a big hug...

And the highlight of the whole visit was when Tatum got to hold Baby Isaac, so exciting! She was such a great helper and friend to her Baby Isaac and we can't wait for the next visit!

Fun in Paradise

On Saturday, even though it was gloomy out, we went to the Paradise Point hotel in Pacific Beach. They have many little paths along ponds full of all kinds of birds and ducks, Tatum loved it. They also have this tall tower that you can climb eighty steps to get to the top. Tatum insisted on climbing them all herself, what a big girl!

Tatum and Daddy made it to the top, too bad the view wasn't clearer. But you can see the bay behind them.

Here Tatum is showing her hanging skills. Please don't drop her!

And here's a hawk in a tree near by that was being dive bombed by a group of crows. We think he had something in his mouth so maybe he got one of their babies. I don't know but even though many of the crows got close to hitting him, he never flinched.

Later that night was girls night out! Erica, Liz and I went to meet some of Erica's work friends at Incahoots. Not our favorite place and I don't know as we'll be making it back there anytime soon, but we had a fun time. There was line dancing and a tight jean contest, for men and women, who could ask for anything more! :)

The flea epidemic

A few of you have heard about the flea epidemic that we've been having. We've done everything imaginable to tackle this issue with no avail. Finally, on Wednesday, Garrett got so frustrated with the situation that he decided to shave Harley completely.

As you can see from his head, Garrett didn't take time to shave Harley as nicely as he shaves his own head. We have since tried to clean up the spottiness so that his hair will grow in evenly.

Poor Harley misses his beautiful red locks as you can tell from the look on his face. But we have since gotten the flea problem under control (at the moment) and I think Harley feels much better even though he isn't looking his best.

Race for the Cure!

The race for the fight against breast cancer was on Sunday and our team Ta Ta's in Motion did awesome! We all had hats and Tatum wore a handmade onsie to show her dedication to the cause.

Here's a picture of our oldest member and youngest member!

Tatum woke up that morning at 5:45 am due to the excitement and anticipation of the race. (and possibly because she's a light sleeper and over heard us talking and getting ready) She was so excited she chanted "The Race!" the whole car ride there.

Loriann gave her a ride on her shoulders the last lap of the race and through the finish line, how exciting!!

We all felt very fulfilled by the movement and our involvement. I would highly recommend doing it, in any town, any length of race. Just walking with that many people, all fighting for the same thing. Amazing is all I can say...

More fun with our BFF

We only get up to Irvine ever few weeks now so when we are in town, we try to squeeze in as much time with Jenny and Mattie as we can. This time we had three fun play dates at three new parks, so much fun!

The swings are one of the girls favorite activities, as you can see here.

Tatum even decided to try out the big girl swing, oooo!

We also got to hang with our close friends Leanne and Baby Issac (not shown here because he was peacefully sleeping off to the side as most 2 month olds do)

Mattie is the dare devil of the two, going down the slide by herself. Tatum, on the other hand, is very cautious and is fine with just watching her BFFs crazy antics. :)

Mattie also enjoys putting anything and everything in her mouth and here's Tatum attempting to feed her wood chips. What a friend! :)

But here's Mattie helping Tatum bare it all. What does your belly button look like?