New Camera!!!

I think Derek and I realized how important a camera would be the day Tate was born. We received a nice digital camera as a wedding present from a vendor when Derek was the camera buyer at Soundtrack. That one camera has documented everything since then and has always taken GREAT photos, easy to operate, great size, durable. Well, apparantly eveything has its day and that camera's day came last week when it informed me that it couldn't read the memory card. What?!?! After I tried a few memory cards, made a trip to the camera store, and the specialized camera repair man, the sad reality was that the camera bit the dust. I sulked over it for a few days, not ready to make friends with a new one. Well, Derek is not the camera buyer anymore so there was no great gift this time. But we were able to find a new version of our old one and we tested it out last night during Sunday Night Funtime on the Bridge (that's what Tate calls this playtime.) So far so good . . . it's going to get a test this week with my Ebay listings and as we enter the holiday season. Hope it can last as long as the last one!

Run, Tate, run!!! Daddy has been hiding . . .

Avarie needs a break . . . Daddy is scary, she says.

Mommy's turn - and Avarie's turn to have CHUBBY CHEEKS!!!

Halloween and Leaf Collecting

Happy (2 weeks later) Halloween!
We had a great Halloween and enjoyed all the usual fun - pumpkin carving, dressing up, trick or treating and eating candy! Here's Tate helping carve one of 5 pumpkins Derek carved this year. Tate loved helping sort the seeds so we could cook and eat them. Avarie was a little more concerned with the mess and followed everyone around with a tissue to wipe up. Hmm...maybe she can clean the kitchen today.


Here are the kids in their costumes. Tate had wanted to be a spider and have Avarie be Little Miss Muffet, but appropriate Miss Muffet costumes are hard to find unless she was going for the sexiest baby contest. So, we settled on a pig which Tate was thrilled that it was like Wilbur and Charlotte, "Only I'm not a girl spider," he informed us.

Here's Dora and Diego; we also had a white one that said BOO, a pirate ship and a good ol' fashioned smiling jack-o-lantern. Derek is a bit of a pumpkin overacheiver, but we got lots of compliments that night.

Here's Avarie after trick or treating as she digs into the candy! She was thrilled that she had a bucket all to herself. A new tradition in our house this year was a visit from The Great Pumpkin, as in the Charlie Brown special. The allergist suggested separating all the unsafe candy (peanut butter and many chocolates, and those with no label to check) and leaving it out for The Great Pumpkin. The Great Pumpkin then visited after the kids were asleep and left a safe treat - some safe candy and some Potato Head characters. Yay for the allergist and The Great Pumpkin!!!

Fall colors in central Virginia don't usually peak until the week after Halloween. We had an unusually cold Halloween here this year, so that hurried the leaves along and we were able to get out and take a few pictures and collect a few leaves. This is in our neighborhood the week after Halloween when it had warmed up a bit.

Tate Speaks

Tate has been home with me and Avarie this week since the county schools are off for conferences. I love having him home and can't imagine how quiet it will be next year when he goes to kindergarten. Here's two conversations . . .

I brought Avarie into our room while I finished getting ready and put her on the couch with Tate. They were watching their usual morning fare of "Arthur" and "Martha Speaks" when he started to get a little sentimental with her.
Tate: Avarie, I love you. You are my best sister I ever had. I'm so glad you came to live at our house.
Avarie: Yeah, me.
Tate: You are my best buddy. (Now hugging (wrestling) her off the couch to be sure he has her full attention.) Avarie, I love you. Buddy, guess what? I get to stay home with you two days this week. I have no school because the big kids are out of school. Buddy, did you hear me?
Avarie: uhhh-huuuuh (This is the standard answer when she doesn't really understand. A happy affirmative.)
Tate: Avarie, aren't you so HAPPY to get to play with me? We are bestest buddies, and I love you. Am I your best buddy too?
Avarie: No. . . No, Tate.
Tate: Mom, Avarie is not understanding us this morning. She is answering the wrong things I am asking her.

I love listening to them!

Then today Tate was in examining the jack-o-lanterns that are now in the foyer waiting to go with the trash tomorrow. I thought I knew where this would go, but I was wrong. I thought he would be so sad that Halloween is over and "what time" (how long until) we can carve pumpkins again.
Tate: Mommy . . . something is going on in here. These pumpkins are. . . are. . . are. . .
(I'm smiling and listening in the other room, ready with "Halloween will come again next year. Don't worry, there are lots of other things to look forward to.")
Tate: Well, they are not happy. On Sid the Science Kid they said a word DECAY. That's it, mom, the sad news is that our pumpkins are in decay. Do you know that word?
Me: Wow, Tate, that's a big word.
Tate: Yes, I know. I learned it and wanted to try it out and this is the perfect chance. Our pumpkins are decaying. I think I will look to see if anything else is in decay around here.

Seriously?! I think I better donate to PBS for my kids for Christmas. I wonder if they know what they have created in my house.

Fall Festivities

I can't believe I didn't get this posted during the week. Oh well, guess I will have to get busy then!
We had an action packed weekend last week with three days of fun. Derek took a much deserved afternoon off so we could head up to Charlottesville to pick apples at Carter Mountain Orchard. We had heard about it for a few years and finally got a chance to go check it out. It was a cool, grey day but it was perfect for a walk in the orchard and picking apples. We found trees full of Fuji apples; we wish we could have been there the next day for Pink Lady apples but maybe next time. We picked (and ate) lots of apples, drank some warm apple cider and ate the famous apple cider donuts before we headed back. The donuts absolutely melted in your mouth - TDF! We took a short detour to drive around the UVA campus and decided that we will definately have to make a trip back this winter. Charlottesville is just far enough west, and just a little higher, that they actually get SNOW.

Saturday night, Derek and I were lucky enough to attend a wedding of someone that works for Derek. Matt and Annie had a beautiful wedding in Colonial Williamsburg and a fabulous reception at a winery there. How cool - the church where they were married dates back to 1683 and is where some of our country's founding fathers worhipped. Mary was so nice to keep the kids at home so we enjoyed the evening without kids and drove back the next morning. Congratulations, Matt and Annie!

Sunday we had to pry our eyes open and head back so I could put on the community Halloween party at the Clubhouse. (Probably not my best date planning, but at least the party wasn't until 4:30.) Actually, as it usually happens, Derek ends up doing as much work as I do and we end up co-hosting the party, hee hee! The kids ate, paraded, ran around and got another chance to show off their costumes. Tate chose Spiderman for this party and Avarie was a piggy.

It was such a FUN weekend with Derek and the kids, and next we are ready for Halloween!