Our pumpkin patch trip

Here's what's left of the pumpkin bread I made with one of the pumpkins we brought home...

Here's Adrienne, Lydia, & Simon on the wooden train--this is Simon's favorite thing about the pumpkin patch!

Maybe Aaron isn't too old to be playful?!!

Here's Simon and Annie...


Jonathan, Elijah, & Annie on the train--oh, and the reason everyone (except for Jonathan) is in coats and long sleeves is that it was exceptionally cold and windy that day (other than that, we've had a nice Indian summer!).

Simon showing his perfect pumpkin...



Simon and Jonathan at the pig race...

And the petting zoo. Annie *loved* it, but I'm not sure the goats felt the same way!

Lydia was more "goat friendly"...

Fortunately, she wasn't able to pet the pig!

Lydia, Annie, Simon, & Jonathan goofing...we had a great day, as this pumpkin patch is really fun. It's the 4th year we've gone, and it's one of the high points of our fall!

our fall so far

Simon loves all kinds of building toys, and here he is with his mega block creation, a "happy walking robot". He usually spends his days playing with various building toys while the older kids do their school work.

Here are the 5 younger kids at a local park--Aaron is too old to enjoy parks anymore! But we're thankful that at 13, Jonathan is still very playful.



Here is Simon getting buried--all the kids took turns burying each other, but I didn't want to fill this whole post with all the pictures!

Annie's birthday party

Our little Annie turned two on September 17th, and even though I'm a month late, I wanted to post a few pictures from her little birthday party. Since the only part of cake she ever eats is the frosting, we just had an ice cream "party" after dinner. I don't know why she was so serious in this picture, as ice cream is one of her most favorite foods!


Here is Lydia giving Annie the homemade card she made for her--Annie loves purses, and took a little while to figure out that there was a present in the bag...


Here she's opening play dough, which everyone has had fun with!

last few summer pics

Now that it's September, I guess summer is officially over (in spite of the lingering heat!). Here are pictures from one of our last swimming trips; it's our favorite swimming hole in Chico. We call it "the cliff", but I'm not sure what it's official name is. Anyway, it's along Butte creek, a beautiful creek that runs through Chico. Oh, and despite the way it looks, it's not snaky at all! Above you can see Jonathan and Adrienne jumping in...

Here's Yuya getting up the courage to jump--it may not look very high in these pictures, but when you're up there, it's pretty daunting!

Here's Yuya hitting the water...

swimming kids...

Thankfully there is a bank on the other side for the younger kids (and me!) to get in from!

fountains part 2

I had to break up the pictures into two posts, as blogger won't let me upload more than five pictures per post--is it the size of my pictures, or am I just goofy and don't know how to over ride it???Anyway, here's Adrienne and Yuya hanging out--and don't worry, the fountain water is heavily chlorinated!

Simon was a little more tentative about the fountains than everyone else...

he preferred sun bathing and running around the city plaza.

Annie soaking up the sunshine...

We finished the afternoon with gelato from Powell's sweet shop!

our afternoon in Chico

Like our trip to Waterworks, this happened several weeks ago, but I wanted to post it anyway--I'm almost all caught up with our summer pictures finally! The kids love playing in the fountains in downtown Chico; I guess it's become a summer tradition. Aaron is way too cool to actually get wet in the fountains, but he is with Annie (before he walked to the bookstore!).

Here's Adrienne before getting wet--isn't her bathing suit cute? And how convenient for us when she absolutely insisted on getting a long sleeve turtle neck top for it! I really did try to talk her into getting a tank top, but she wanted THIS top!

Lydia's bathing suit is more suited to 110 degree heat!

everyone (including Jonathan and Yuya in their clothes!) running around in the fountains...

Yuya spraying water up his shirt--it's quite funny to see all the things kids find to do in the fountains!

our trip to Waterworks park

Jonathan asked to go to Waterworks for his birthday, so here we are (minus me--hey, someone had to take the pictures, and you're really not missing anything by not seeing me in my bathing suit!). Oh, and we went on this trip back in July; we just about can't get out of town for the next three months between school and football, but that's OK. Anyway, above is Austin (Aaron's good friend), Yuya (our Japanese student), and Aaron.

Here's Elijah & Annie, with Lydia in the background. I don't know why Annie looks so serious, because she really did have lots of fun. And besides, when she tired of playing in the water and going down the kiddie slides, there was plenty of trash for her to try to get into! Why do people go to these parks and leave their half eaten food on the tables, when there are trash cans 3 feet away??!!

Jonathan & Yuya goofing off. We were sad when Yuya left, he was so much fun.

And if our entire day at Waterworks wasn't enough, we stopped by our good friends' house on the way home, where the kids swam for another hour! Jonathan was really intent on me getting pictures of them jumping into the water.

And I did it!