Pumpkins

After choosing the perfect pumpkins, of course you have to carve them.  And of course the most fun part is removing the goo.

 Ellie, being the third child, had the most devious plan.  Take the goo out of the pumpkin...

 ...and put it in your brother's shoe.

 I couldn't resist showing off her chubby little fingers

 She got pretty serious about it after a while.

 We started with markers with the intent of drilling holes in the shape they drew.  We drilled some holes, but mostly just wasted our time getting the goo out.  Still it was fun.

 John's pumpkin

 John also drew on Ellie's pumpkin for her (my personal favorite)

And Eve's pumpkin.  John also drew our family on one, but somehow I didn't get a picture.

Go Bullfrogs!

John's first soccer season has come to an end.  Poor Bullfrogs...never scored a goal.  They tied one game, in which the opposing team scored two goals (one on each team's goal), but that was as close as we came.  Either way, John really came to enjoy soccer, a huge improvement from not playing at all during the first game.  You can see the smile on his face in all these pictures.

His buddy Jackson (my friend Holly's son) right behind him.

 Amoeba soccer

 Goalie pep talk

 This was as ready as John ever was.  Goalie is kind of boring and hard to pay attention.

 Supportive fans

 After each game the parents made a tunnel for the players to run through.  It was a hit, even with Eve and Ellie.

 John got a medal for participating.  He was so proud.  Big thank you to coach Bishop for being so patient with the team.

Great season Bullfrogs!

Denver Downs

A few Fridays ago we headed to Anderson to Denver Downs.  It's a farm with a pumpkin patch and lots of fun activities.  It's just down the road from Buck's work, so we picked John up from school and headed straight there.  I also borrowed a friends nice camera, so I went a little picture crazy, and was really please with how the pictures turned out.  Unfortunately, they didn't open until 5, so in the meantime we played on the playground in downtown Clemson and had supper at none other than Peppino's, of course.

 Denver Downs has all sorts of mazes, for every size person.

 They also have a large barn with huge piles of hay and rope swings!

 A corn pit (sort of like a sand box).  We're still finding corn all over the car and house.

 They have cows, goats, sheep, and pigs to pet.  John was the only one able to get the cow to come.  He seemed to be an animal whisperer.

 Actually we weren't supposed to pet the cute little piglets, but I didn't see the sign until after the fact.  Oops!

 But who could resist that anyway?

What a great place!  We rode the hayride and played in the barn until after bed time.  Everyone crashed hard on the ride home.  Success!

Planes, Trains, and Dinosaurs...and the President

A few weekends ago Buck, John, and I dropped the girls off for a girls' vacation with Grandma, and we headed up to Washington DC for a long weekend.  What a great trip!  We spent the night just over the Virginia border (and left Joey, John's favorite stuffed friend, but fortunately were able to pick him up on the way home).  The kids love hotels.  Thursday morning we finished the trip into DC, rode the trolley in Old Town Alexandria, and headed toward the mall.

 I told John to reach high like the Washington monument.  I couldn't figure out why he was blinking in all the pictures.  Finally he told us he was immitating the red blinking lights at the top.  Cute.

 As you can see, we really enjoyed being able to focus attention on John for a while and do a few big kid things that the girls would certainly not have enjoyed...at least not for more than 5 minutes.

 Since John has been enjoying photography, we brought our cheaper camera for him to use on the trip.  He loved taking pictures of things.  The first item on his to-do list for the trip was to see dinosaur bones, so we headed straight to the Museum of Natural History.

 He wouldn't pose for any pictures, but he had a camera, so guess who got to pose...
We were staying with my cousin Brian and his wife Kasey, and had a great time catching up with them.  Every night was a late one for John...really late.
Friday we went to the Air and Space Museum by the mall.  I had never been there before, so John and I were both equally excited.  It was awesome!  We stayed there most of the day.

 One of the Apollo capsules

 John really enjoyed watching the movies about the exhibits.  His attention span was pretty amazing.  He took TONS of pictures.

 They had a great hands-on section explaining the science of flight, aircraft mechanics, and such.  Lots of fun.

 A little engineering lesson...for us both.

 Unfortunately John's museum pictures ended up mostly with people in the way and reflecting flashes, but I'm pretty sure he took at least one picture of each plane and space craft there...and there were a bunch.  He was really into all of it, but I think the aircraft carrier was his favorite.  I guess with all the technology of today, the Spirit of St. Louis isn't quite as amazing to a 5-year-old, but we got to see the real deal.  After spending most of the day in the museum oohing and ahhing over cool airplanes and space stuff we went for a walk to see the monuments.  John wasn't really all that impressed, and there was a lot of walking involved (or should I say a lot of playing tag involved...that was our best method of pulling him along) so we only made it as far as the WWII memorial, but still we were able to talk about freedom and sacrifice some.

 This was a cool sculpture in one of the sculpture gardens.  When we asked John what he thought it was made of he suggested concrete.  We chuckled.  What do you know...he was right, partially.

 At some point we called to see how the girls' weekend was going.  John paces while he's on the phone (just like his daddy).  It was funny to see him pace away in the mall and strangers wonder who this random kid with a cell phone was.  He enjoyed giving updates from our trip and hearing how many tea parties they had had.

 LOVE this picture.

 As I said, John was not in the mood to be in pictures during the trip, so this was our best attempt.

 We tried to trick him, but he's smarter than the average bear.  Before we left he was telling everyone he was going to see the President.  We finally convinced him to settle for the President's house.

 Then out of the blue...literally...we saw three helicopters flying right beside the Washington Monument...

 ...and saw the President land on the lawn of the White House in Marine One.  Awesome!

 And last but not least...the beautiful reflection pond.  Under construction.  Bummer.
Friday night we got to see my Uncle Barney and Aunt Jackie and had a great time eating and visiting with them.  Again, a late night.  John was so tired, he fell asleep on the way to their house for dinner, and again on the way back.  I carried him in and he didn't wake up at all.  It's not often I get a chance to do that with him anymore, and probably not long I'll be able to do it, so I enjoyed it while I could.
Needless to say, John was exhausted Saturday.  We went to the National Zoo, but he wasn't interested in seeing much, and we quickly lost interest in convincing him.  We did see a few really cool animals.

 John took all of those pictures except the tiger.  Not too shabby.  So we headed back to rest and watch the Clemson/Maryland game with Brian and Kasey.  Of course, while we were there, we got to ride the METRO a lot, and John has become quite the expert on navigating public transportation (at least for a 5-year-old who has only tried it a few times).

Sunday's drive home went smoothly with lots of movies to watch.  It was a great and special time with John, but we were all excited to pick up Eve and Ellie (who also had enjoyed their vacation), and get home to bed.