Happy Halloween!

Instead of door to door we went to downtown Coeur d'Alene on Saturday afternoon for a quick run of candy gathering. Karsten was a trooper with all of the crowds and we quickly made our way to the car when the rain sprinkles started. Not bad for our first go at Halloween (we bowed out last year)!

School Harvest Party

Today the little bee, I mean Karsten, had her school Harvest Party. They paraded from room to room in the building getting treats. She loved it and caught on pretty quickly!

Showing Mommy the goods!
Center stage chewing on her new straw.

Being silly with the princess hat on. What a combination!

Daddy's First Day of Work

For Daddy's first day of work, Karsten and Mommy made him a new travel mug. We hope that the pictures of the family and the "I Love You Daddy!" keep him company as he make the trek to and from work!

Cookie Decorating with Friends

We have gotten to be good friends with a group of parents from church. There are 4 families and 3 of us have our kids in school together at the church learning center. It has been great fun getting to know these families and we try very hard to meet once a month. This month's theme, fall soup and cookie decorating-YUMMY! We're not quite sure who had more fun, the parents or the kiddos!

Seth, Miles. Ryan, Samantha, Karsten, Britt, Ashlyn and Krista

(from bottom center and clockwise) Daddy got to partake in the finished product!

Pun'kin Carving

Our friends the Cushmans had us over for "Pun'kin Carving" this year. It was a great time and Dawson and Karsten had a blast together...when don't they?! Karsten was all over the gooey pun'kin innards, and well, Dawson, not so much. He took a pass on digging out the guts!

Karsten calls them punka punka pun'kins.

Enough Said...

So the picture below basically sums up how we felt about our garden this year.
Think what you will of it, but I sum it up this way...it SUCKED!
You see we had a hard frost in late May that killed everything. After replanting we had a super-duper wet June and it killed everything. After replanting yet again, it never got hot this summer. Just sad in every way, shape and form...

So here we are in mid-October, ripping out the garden that is chock full of green tomatoes, summer squash that is going nuts only in the past 2 weeks and, oh, did I mention that we had 2 squash plants cross breed into these gigantic, yellow-greenish,warty looking, crooked necked mass of something no one would want to eat?!

And may I not forget that we have yet to get a cucumber...or at least that is what we thought. As I was picking the sad vines out of the ground, still with flowers all over them hoping for one last chance for life, I find this hunk of a cucumber. But wait, the dang thing is STUCK in the fence. It has grown its fat, green, body in between the rungs of the fence and I am now pulling quite hard to get this dang thing out. Once my vegetable friend is dislodged, I pick the thing up to take a look and it just makes me laugh...yes, I feel the same way, Mr. Cucumber...like my own garden is flipping me the bird!

Enough said for our garden experience of 2010.

Feet in the Sand

After an exhausting day of visiting pumpkin patches we took a rest for lunch at the car and then decided on a quick drive to the beach. Talk about being reinvigorated! The water was a BIT chilly and Auntie Jenn, mommy and Karsten got soaked...all in good fun. Karsten LOVED IT!

Between the sand, the waves and the cold, Karsten had quite the sensory experience.

Bay Area visit

Over the weekend Karsten and Mommy went to visit Auntie Jenn and Uncle John in the San Francisco Bay Area. We spent Saturday in Half Moon Bay and visited 3 pumpkin patches and then the beach! SO FUN.

What kiddo doesn't look cute standing in a cornucopia?
Such a helper

Hooray, I made it to the top of the hay bales...

With the help of Uncle John!

Such a good time-

Auntie Jenn surprised Karsten with a new shirt-

"Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch"

Big girl on her first pony ride. She was a natural!

Sooooo many pumpkins to choose from.

Karsten was not even a bit scared to feed the goats-she went for it!

Good Friends

Life is more special and meaningful with good friends. The funny thing is that Nicci, Chris and I just figured out recently that we have known each other for more years of our lives than we have not known each other...how crazy is that?

It is so fun to see her son, Dawson, and Karsten play together. They are rough to say the least. You see, Dawson's daddy is a wrestling coach so the evening that they visited recently, Dawson hopped out of the truck with his head gear on! Needless to say, it was ON with he and Karsten. They had so much fun together :-)

Hugs for the friends!

Daws's goofy "cheese" face.

Karsten, Aunt Nickers, the new baby to come and Dawson.

Vandal Fan!

We truly have a Vandal fan on our hands. Karsten loves to wear her IDAHO shirt and match daddy. She even chants I D A H O, go go go as she spells out the letters on daddy's shirt.

Nummy tomato right off the vine!
Oh, all the work that has to be done...gardening is dirty work!