happy halloween!

This morning we got dressed up in our Halloween finery and headed over to Wyatt's house for a party. Lots of kids, lots of cute, lots of food, lots of fun -- thanks, Kelly (she's Wyatt's mom and our playgroup party planner extraordinaire)!

ETA -- We went to one place tonight for M's inaugural trick-or-treating: Jonathan and Chelsea's pad. Thanks for letting her terrorize Sydney (and for giving us yummy candy)!

decisions, decisions

Today's story time at the library featured a Halloween theme (go figure) and Mr. Tom told us that the kids could come in costume. So we obliged. M did not want to wear her Yoda costume this morning, so I presented two other options: bunny ears to coordinate with her bunny-themed footed pajamas or last year's ballerina skirt.

After a test drive of the bunny ears, she chose to be a ballerina. And then she proceeded to include the skirt with every outfit she's worn since then.

a visit from gpa and lil bit

Gpa L came over for breakfast/brunch today and brought a special visitor with him. Lil Bit entertained M immensely. After we ate, there was lots of chasing to be done in the backyard. M would chase the dog, the dog would chase squirrels, M would chase the dog, the dog would chase birds, M would chase the dog, etc. It was so fun to watch! Even with the camera on the "kids and pets" setting, I still never managed to get a full frame of them in motion. I think you still get the idea from this....

what the...

We ran some errands at a local mega-mall today. As we were leaving one of the outlying stores, we turned the corner and were nearly knocked down by the sight of this ginormous Christmas tree on the plaza. *Rant on* Um, excuse me, dear sirs, IT'S STILL OCTOBER! The leaves haven't even finished changing colors yet! Let me enjoy a little smidgen of fall!*Rant off* I was awed, however, by the sheer size of the thing (hugemongous would also be an adequate descriptor) and my nerdy engineer mind wished I could have witnessed it being assembled/flown into place.

For scale, Josh is approximately 6' tall.
(Madeline is the little brown and pink thing squatting
next to the tree, trying to detach ornaments from it.)

sitting at the big kids table

We're starting to see little sparks of independent spirit in little Miss M. She now wants to eat her snacks sitting on a big chair at the big table. She'll pull her plate and her bowl out of her drawer in the kitchen, set her place at the table and then page us with "Hep, hep!" (translation = help, help) while simultaneously signing for cereal. She hasn't quite figured out how to climb up on these particular chairs yet nor can she reach the cabinet containing the Cheerios (mastering the former will aid in accomplishing the latter, though). It won't be long, I'm afraid.

that's some dedication...

Noticed this license plate on the car in front of me. Thankfully, we were stopped at a red light so that I could safely snap a pic. Who needs a bumper sticker if you can put it on your tag?

taunting

The critters are active today! Not only are the squirrels going crazy knocking the pinecones off the trees and tempting Pickles to make mad dashes out the front door, but now the birds are at it, too. I think our finely feathered friends were actually involved in a rumble over territory (our hanging containers of impatients are hip hangouts for the nesting types, don't cha know). And all of this was playing out right in front of Pickles -- but she was stuck inside while all the fun was outside. Life just isn't fair.

The arrows are pointing to the rival bird gang members.
It appears as though the Cardinal's lone rep is taking on two
house wrens and a finch from the Brown and Small crew.

it's a good morning

Leisurely breakfasting on the back porch in our PJ's

pumpkin patching

This is the third year we've gotten our pumpkins at Ganyard Hill Farm. Maybe next year we'll pay the admission and check out all the extra activities they have besides just picking out pumpkins!

approaching the farm



"Look at all these pumpkins!"



the inspection team



a winner is chosen



chelsea's selection



"I don't wanna take a family picture...



... I just wanna push my stroller!"

parade of homes 2008

The local homebuilders associations hold their Parade of Homes events during the first three weekends of October. We decided to check out some of the really, really expensive homes that are just down the road from us in the Hasentree community. We were simply awed by the amenities of this development. As far as the houses were concerned, some of the things we saw we filed away in our brains for our "someday" house (this house's home theater was awesome!)... other things made us question who in their right mind would waste money in such a ridiculous fashion. Overall, it was a fun way to spend an afternoon... and made us thankful for the house that we do have.

bubbles!

bob the builder can't compete

Over the past couple of weeks, the crews have been prepping our entire neighborhood's roads for resurfacing. We thought they were going to just be doing some strategic patching of the worst areas, but they have completely stripped down the entire road bed. We've had a whole fleet of heavy machinery driving up and down our street and it has thrilled Miss M. All day yesterday and today, the road crew laid down the new surface in front of our house. Dump trucks, road rollers, and front-loaders, oh my! Madeline loves watching the action and waving at the crew. I'll be ready for the noise and mess to be over, but it sure has been fun to have some free entertainment right in front of our house!

ikea

Had a great time this weekend with Bartel cousins. I made the trek up to Woodbridge, VA with Jonathan and Chelsea and we met Kristine up there. There was laughing, there was eating, and we were all exahusted by the end -- sounds like a typical Bartel gathering, no? I forgot to bring along my iPod so that we would have theme music for the road trip, so here is the IKEA song in all it's glory. Adrian was the one who first shared this with me (on a previous IKEA trip no less) and it has been played on every trip thereafter.

My major purchases during this trip were Bestå bookcases (in black-brown) for our living and dining rooms. We need storage that can be childproofed and a bookcase with options for doors and drawers seemed like the winning plan for us. Everything is assembled, but the configuration is still being tweaked. I'll post pics once the final arranging is complete.

aww...

running off energy

Madeline has been taking early naps this past week, so that leaves A LOT of time to occupy during the afternoons. We missed this morning's playgroup due to another early nap, so to run off some excess energy we went to the Museum of Life and Science this afternoon.

Jamaican me crazy on those drums, mon!

gobble, gobble

Train montage