Beautiful October

It seems with the start of each new season I hear myself say, "I love spring ... or summer... or..." I guess part of the fun is the change from the norm with new things to do. That said, I love the fall! It's so beautiful with all the colorful leaves and the crispness in the air seems to usher in the start of the holiday season. So far we've kept ourselves busy with a visit from my parents, Ethan's birthday, a trip to The Farm for pumpkins and more, and of course the start of Halloween festivities. So, here are a few pictures to highlight what we've been doing.

I decided that making progress in raking the leaves was nearly impossible with a 2 year old. I would make a pile and Ethan would jump in and throw the leaves out of the pile. He did help with the raking a bit, but it was usually in the direction of re-spreading the leaves rather than piling.

Ethan was all psyched about getting to ride the cow train. He had talked about it the whole time we were at The Farm. He even waited in line patiently for about 15 minutes (which, for those without 2 year olds, is an eternity!). The we got in, took and few pictures, and once the driver headed to the tractor to get the ride started Ethan wanted none of it. Full out scream, "OUT OUT, OFF OFF. NO MOOOORE!" Can someone please tell me how to predict a 2 year old.

With grandma and grandpa Rubalcava at The Farm in Snohomish.

Ward Halloween Trunk-or Treat party.

Yummy blackberry pie!

All around our home in undeveloped fields, along hiking trails, and nearly everywhere there are green spaces you can find blackberry bushes. Each year as these wild blackberries ripen I always say that I will get out, pick some, and make a treat. We've been here 4 years and I finally did it!

Last week while I was with some friends we stood around and picked berries from the bushes surrounding the park near my house while our boys were playing. While enjoying how sweet and ripe they were, we decided to get together the next day, do some real berry picking, and make a few pies. The next day after being stained by berries, scratched, pricked, and rained on we finally had a few bowls full of juicy berries. Too bad we didn't have pictures of the berry picking because it was quite comical!

Thanks to Anjee, we were all successful in making some delicious golden flaky pie crusts and delicious berry fillings. I have a few berries left that I plan to use for a peach berry cobbler. Man ... I sure don't have to wait for the holidays to put on 10 lbs! Oh well. :) I'm happy to have another project off my perpetual "someday" list.

Bran Flakes

Just wanted to share this picture of Ethan trying to take care of himself. We had already finished breakfast and I had gone upstairs to get ready for the day. As I'm up stairs I hear the sound of a crinkling cereal bag and head over to take a look at what's going on. By this time Ethan had already grabbed his used cereal bowl and spoon off the counter, found a box of Bran Flakes, emptied the entire box into the bowl and was shoveling it in, sans milk. Maddie was also joining in the affair by cleaning up anything that didn't make it into his bowl. When I went down to confront him on the situation he was just so proud that he was able to help himself that I just didn't want to take the wind out of his sail by saying that he shouldn't do that. So, I just sat by and watched while he got his daily dose of fiber.

Our First Squash

When Jairo and I bought our first home in Utah my plan was to get the yard in order and plant a garden. Well, we moved before we finished getting the yard in order. So, we've now been here in Washington for 4 years and I finally started a garden! I admit, it is quite small, but at least I finally got something started. I planted tomatoes, summer squash, zucchini, and red peppers. I got started a bit late so I used starts for all of the plants and the zucchini didn't make it past the first week. I was actually shocked by this as you always hear how easy it is to grow zucchini. So, I wasn't holding out much hope for the rest of my plants, but luckily all of the other plants have done well. Here is our first squash. Yum!!

So, Ethan has been dying for a scooter for some time. It does amaze me that at 1 1/2 he already has his mind set on things he would like to have for his own. When we visited Utah in May every time we went on walks he kept stealing scooters from the yards in my mom's neighborhood. Here, whenever we go outside if he see someone on a scooter he looses interest in whatever he is doing and runs over to try and wrestle his way onto the scooter. So, I finally broke down and bought him a scooter last week. I assembled it while he was napping and when he came down stairs he was so excited that he forgot all about wanting a snack. He just jumped right on and kept saying, "Outside! Outside!" It was fun to see him so happy with his scooter. To my surprise, he's actually quite a coordinated rider. The unfortunate part to the scooter story is that we have been dragging that thing around with us for days! I have to load it in the car just to get him out the door without a total meltdown. Hopefully that part of his scooter excitement will soon fade. :)