Entomologist.

Luke has become quite the entomologist (plus spiders) and is very excited to find one of his buggie friends to (ahem) "play" with. It has become a very Lenny and the rabbits kind of situation . . . "not so hard Luke, the bug doesn't want to be pet so hard . . ." which is completely against my instinct to go running for a tissue or napkin to squish it good and hard. Till its dead. Really really dead. I'm also working on not passing on my irrational phobias.

That being said, Luke discovered a little pincher bug wandering around on our carpet and proceeded to follow him and bug him (har har) and try to pet him. Needless to say, the bug was not appreciative of the attention. I hope he went and told his little buggie friends that our home is not safe to visit due to the smallest human and his tendancy to pet too hard.


"Come here, bug! Come here!"



Petting his buggy friend . . .

Girls Night

Over the years, Girls Night developed as a response to Todd participating in Mensday Wednesdays. After a Girls Night hiatus, it has been brought back, bigger and more exciting than ever! We have begun to hit up the Brit (local pub) for Tuesday Trivia nights. We are all super competitive and enjoy going through all the useless information we have accumulated over the years.

Granted, we don't win the trivia, but . . . we did win the raffle one night! Woo hoo! We split the Halloween bucket evenly and it was awesome!

Twins . . . almost

Jake and Luke have become quite the buddies (read: troublemakers, instigators, etc.) and they have been hanging out together a lot lately. We had the Gartins over for dinner and realized both boys were wearing navy athletic pants with two white stripes running down the sides. With their buzzed heads, they can be difficult to tell apart.

As wired as they get around each other, they sure do have fun together.

Going to Grandmas

Luke always wants to go to Grandma and Papas. Whenever we leave the house, he attempts to direct us to Grandma and Papas, no matter where we are actually going. Luke also loves to roll around his suitcase - personally, I love that suitcase too. I love anything personalized.

Raiders!

For Todd's birthday this year, Linda treated us all to a Raiders game! We left Luke at the Great-Grandparents house and were off to the stadium. Of course, Linda (in very Linda fashion) had a table set up for us for tail-gating, complete with decor and color themed paper goods.




Home of the Champions!! (Go A's too)

Todd bought me a Raider visor (to match my A's visor) and of course, it had to wear my flower.

Great seats!


We saw a few guys wearing t-shirts for the Raiders that said "10/10/10" which was the date of the game, as well as Todd's birthday. Gen went to go find out where they bought the shirts, but it turned out, they had them made. So the guy said that he would trade the shirt he was wearing for the one Todd was wearing under his jersey. Luckily, the two were the same size and Gen was able to get Todd the "birthday" shirt.


The guy in front of us was wearing a shirt that had "The Autumn Wind" on it from the old Raider films, which Todd loves. So, I had to take a picture.



The Raiders won the game over the San Diego Chargers, which was the first time that Todd had been to a Raiders game and they won. Best birthday present EVER.

Pumpkin Patch

Luke has been so excited about going to the pumpkin patch this year - the whole idea of pumpkins, going with his cousins, etc. has made this THE event of the year.

Little did I know how Luke would not be so agreeable to photos this year, unlike all the cutie pictures I got last year. Curses.

Uesugi Farms is the pumpkin patch to go to in the area and has everything from train rides to hay rides to mazes for adults and kids, pony rides and more. I'm usually the first in line for the corn on the cob (yum yum yum).

We went on the train first as that was Luke's main focus. On the train route, they've "hidden" five gold pumpkins, so the kids were intent on finding every one. Which they did, of course. But every time one of the kids pointed one out, Luke would shriek "GOLD PUMPKIN!!" as he is my passionate child.

They had fields of sunflowers, which I love. I love that they feel like a "happy" flower - they represent a great deal of good things in my life, so seeing fields of them was very special.


They had a hay bale area set up for the kids to run on and over and around and jump down into the middle. Luke was not as excited about the jumping part, but was definitely thrilled with the running part. Gracie and Collin were daredevils and jumping without concern. That is really impressive to Luke.



Gracie went on the pony ride, but Luke would have none of that. He just wanted to watch from afar and wave and shout to Gracie. The woman offered to let him just sit on the pony and that was not acceptable. He wouldn't even pet the pony. Fair enough.

The kids really loved the wooden cut-outs for pictures - Luke and Gracie had so much fun and looked cute together.



We hunted in the patch, Luke becoming very frustrated that he couldn't lift the big ones. The ones he could pick up, he enjoyed just dropping, like it was a ball. I was so glad that none of them cracked or broke. We found a Mommy pumpkin and a Daddy pumpkin and a little Luke pumpkin.




We also checked out the bee colony and Luke loved watching them - he pressed his little face right up to the glass and watched them carefully. He's my little etymologist.


Checking out the bees that were not contained.


We attempted to get another "Pumpkin-As-Hat" photo, but it was not to be. Again, not so agreeable with photos this year. Dang. But we were able to sneak a family picture in there, which I was glad about. I loved our last year pic, so I was hoping for another one. Pretty cute, it works. Todd is the most awesome husband ever: he wore the Halloween shirt I bought for him, even though he really didn't want to. But it made for great festive pics, which is what I'm all about.

Starbucks

Certainly my Starbucks intake has slowed considerably since having a kid (those kids are pricey!) but we still occasionally enjoy a treat together. Luke knows what he likes and will ask for it on especially hot days. Just like Mommy, Luke enjoys a passion iced tea unsweetened. Yummy! They have done away with the mini-donuts (boo hiss) but Luke will enjoy the mini vanilla scones, so we found a similar replacement.

Its always good to have a special treat on special days!