More Punkin Pics

Here are a couple of shots *in the light* of the pumpkins Clint carved.

Grace said she just wanted a happy pumpkin with a big smile...


And Annie, of course, didn't specify, but he carved a Dora pumpkin for her. I wish everybody could see this pumpkin - because it's really, really REALLY good. He didn't use a stencil or pattern or anything! Just drew it on with a pencil and one of the story books for reference.

Proud to say that both my girls are "hams" in front of the camera!

Feelin' better

We had a TERRIBLE week last week. I don't think it was full-blown H1N1, but Grace ran a low-grade fever for a week straight, Annie had unexplainable spots and they both had yucky croupy sounding coughs when they laid down for bed, which 4 out of 5 nights resulted in puking episodes. Blech.

Thankfully that is over and we are on to celebrating Fall and of course, Halloween to be followed by Grace's birthday. Wow - and then, Thanksgiving and then Christmas - yikes! It feels like November and December are going to fly.

Yesterday we got the girls doing a little bit of raking...

Grace did well, but Annie, for some reason, was very into her nose. All my pics are of her doing this! ha ha ha

Then we carved up our pumpkins after dinner.

Grace got right in there with her hands - I was actually quite surprised!

My job was mainly to keep this one away from the knives...no easy feat! I took her picture and then distracted her with the camera. Bwah-ha-ha!

Not sure what she's confused about here...actually, I think she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She's going through a VAIN phase. (I hope it's a phase anyway! :P )

Only happy punkins for us! The one on the left is just a happy face, the one in the middle is actually a very good replication of Dora the Explorer - minus the hair. You just have to get the right perspective. Took me a while and Clint had to explain that the circle was her face and neck - not her mouth and then it came in for me! One more to go tonight...

Decorating Punkins

The Young Family loves to decorate pumpkins. Clint is an EXCELLENT pumpkin artist. Drawings, carvings, the whole nine yards - he's fantastic ( me, not so much - no patience)

Some of it has rubbed off on Grace, who doesn't want to carve the pumpkins, so much as decorate them. With markers and stickers . So, last Friday, we were having a sick day and we three girls found ourselves decorating two little pumpkins with wonderfully messy markers and glitter stickers.

So, what do you think? Which punkins are cuter?

Theirs?

Or mine?

Fall Fruit Farm Fun

We took the girls to Verhage Fruit Farms this past weekend with Grandma & Grandpa Gilson. It was so fun. It was chilly, but a beautiful day. This was the first time we'd done this. The girls are getting older so a lot more activities are fun, rather than just the work of toting EVERYTHING around in a backpack and stroller like when they are babies.

We had donuts, cider, a hayride, Grace got her face painted, we bought punkins and generally had a wonderful day, just being together and being outside.

Grandpa, Grandma & Grace

Daddy & Annie

Grace had the camera during our hayride. Three generations of shoes are pictured here. *Hee*

Best Buds: Gracie & Grandma

Annie was just NOT going to sit still for anything!

Grace posing - Annie was wandering.

Grace getting her face painted. She was so serious, she sat very still and was quite the prima donna.

Grandpa, Grandma & Annie - waiting for Grace to get finished with face painting. See? She would NOT. SIT. STILL!

Grandparents & Grandkids

Not at the fruit farm, but at TSC they had this GINORMOUS pumpkin.

It was so big, it won an award!

Could new hats be any cuter??

"Then You May Take Me to the Fair..."

Ah, the Young family LOVES the St. Joe County Fair. It was a couple of weeks ago, so the pics are a little late, but we had a great time at the fair this year. I do have to say that I am glad it only comes once a year, because it is expensive!

Wretched blow-up Dora doll - it's actually still alive!

Anything Grace has, Annie wants - Yep, we are the proud owners of TWO!

And yes, Grace has hit the age where she BEGS for everything. We told her we'd do games one day and rides one day, but that was it. Of course, we had french fries on both days, but whatever!

1st Trip!

2nd Trip!

The cousins came on the last Saturday, the day we did rides and Grace is tall enough now that she can go on the rides by herself. Whoo-whee! And did she think she was the stuff. You should have seen the look of pride she had on her face, when she gave her ticket to the ticket-taker to ride those spinning bears.

If it spins, it's for us!

Annie was pretty content with a Tootsie Pop, the stroller and some occasional toddling around kiddie land. She's still pretty easy!

Speaking of Annie: she has really started talking up a storm! It is just jibber-jabber nonstop from her these days! Her vocabulary has gone from "No", "doggie", and "Dora" to "Mess", "Stuck", "Cereal", "Shoe", "Sissy", "Gacie", and TONS more. It's really fun to listen too. She is getting to be sooo funny and soooo cute!

Needin' Daddy to be brave enough to throw the dart!

Poppin' the balloons!

Ahh, sweet success!

Until next September, Elephant Ears & Cotton Candy. We will miss you.

So Proud

Wednesday Night Kid's Club started this week. It's a project I'm pretty excited about, as I get to be the teacher for it. It feels good to be back into teaching, even if just for 1/2 hour.

We've included the program to include pre-K kids, of which Grace is a proud member. I was so proud of her - she was not intimidated or shy at all around all those 3-5th graders. She sat right in the first row, had her little New Testament in her hand and was BIG STUFF. I have to say that I, as a worker, didn't even provide much direction for her. She pretty much did it all on her own. Found her own seat, went to her table and her leader and ate her snack. Then, we came to the part where Pastor went over the directions and rules for Kid's Club.

And Grace told him about her pink, princess trunk. Never raising her hand, of course!

After listening, he went on about how the kid's would get points for their teams by bringing visitors.

And Grace told him about her cousins, Maddy & Kenzie

And then he went on and she, of course, had another point <--I didn't catch what this one was

And as he was wrapping it up, she put her head in her New Testament and told Pastor that she was "done listening now."

We're off to a great start!