Pumpkin Guts

We carved Jack o' Lanterns tonight.  It's the first time ever that Allan and I haven't ended up alone in the kitchen while the children slowly drifted away to baths or books or the television out of boredom.  Emma and Walker even cleaned out most of the guts from their pumpkins, which also usually ends up being my job.  

Lillian very halfheartedly de-gutting.

We convinced them this year to do traditional Jack o' Lantern faces instead of Tinkerbell flying by mermaid lagoon or Spiderman battling Doc Oc.  That's a bit of an exaggeration, but because of the internet our kids are pretty sure that we can turn a pumpkin into just about anything.  So they each drew their own pumkin, or in Lillian's case, dictated what it should look like.

Can you guess which pumpkin belongs to which child?

They were so thrilled with how they looked out on the front step!

And how about Violet's creepy shadow in the background.

Thank Heaven for Little Girls

With the older kids back in school the little girls have had the opportunity to develop a whole new kind of relationship.  I've loved to watch them enjoy one another's company in the quiet moments while they read books or watch Curious George or see them keep each other entertained in the grocery cart during long shopping trips.  I finally feel like Lillian has the buddy in the house she's been hoping for since Violet was born.  She can play and laugh with her and follow her around all over the house and Lillian loves it.  I love watching this little friendship blossom!

Yogurt drums at Safeway

Fruit Pizza

The much anticipated day finally arrived and Lillian got her night in the kitchen yesterday.  She made a delicious fruit pizza that everyone devoured, except for her, funny enough.  She just ate the fruit, scraped the icing off and ate the remaining cookie crust.  She's so fun to cook and bake with!  She loves every second of it and was actually willing to skip out of playing with the neighborhood kids so that she could finish helping.