Jack-O-Lanterns

It was time to carve pumpkins, since Halloween is tomorrow. They did a nice job, and Jillian even did the carving herself. The kids are next to their pumpkins (and Mommy and Daddy's are on the ground).

After all these years, the kids were OK with pulling the guts out ... though Tor hesitated a bit.

Bridget and Tor got right to it, knowing what they wanted (Bridget's was a cat, and Tor's was "scary"), but it took Jillian some time to figure hers out.

More Halloween

Jillian, Bridget, and Tor came up to Castle Rock to stay and just in time for the Spooky Trunk Halloween Party. The many pickups and trunks were decorated and gave out candy to the kids. They didn't wear their Halloween costumes, just went to the dress-up box and tried to find something. Tor here is wearing an old Navy top and hat that Papa wore in the Navy.

 Bridget found a black dress and hat but Jillian just decided that a witch hat was enough. Here they had to decide if they wanted a treat out of the toilet of a plumbing business. Yes, the candy won.

Tierney came along too, and went into the Haunted House with them but in her words, "It was pretty lame." All I know is that it took them a whole 3-4 minutes before they came out. They did have a lot of candy at the end.

Dolan Halloween Party

After a long hiatus, the annual Dolan Halloween Party is back!

Some of the traditions that returned were The Spooky Trail, followed by Fear Factor. Tor was the only one in our family to try a food / drink ... he went for Uncle Dave's bath water, and drank it all down. There were also tons of activities, including Family Fued, where Bridget was in charge of the "strikes":

We all tried our hand at bingo, and Jillian was the big winner with 2 victories.

It took some practice, but eventually we figured out how to pass the ping pong ball during the relay race:

We played an intense game of Spoons, and Tor helped Daddy. We ended up winning, which made Tor's night. He definitely showed everyone his competitive side.

End of Soccer Parties

Bridget and Tor had their final soccer games of this season, followed by their team parties. We got lucky, with both parties at the same place and same time.

Bridget was given the "Team Player" award, and Tor got a little soccer trophy.

Civil War

Friday night football next door! The weather was nice, and Cousin Adam was cheerleading for the Jacks.

Tor was thrilled that his friend and teammate Bowen came to the game and sat with him.

We left at halftime when the score was 0-42.

The Giant Leaf Pile

Tonight was our best opportunity for some leaf pile jumping, so we headed to the RAL campus where some trees had dropped a ton of leaves. It didn't take much raking to end up with our biggest leaf pile yet, which was necessary with the kids getting so big. They did a bunch of jumps, but they most enjoyed getting buried inside the pile.

At the end, they attacked Daddy with armfuls of leaves.

The (Pumpkin) Patch

We tried a different pumpkin patch this year ... The Patch in Woodland.

It was very large with lots to choose from. Jillian and Tor found their pumpkins within the first minute of looking.

Bridget wanted to pick out a white pumpkin, and they were all big, so Bridget eadily ended up with largest pumpkin. She couldn't lift it on her own.

The highlight for all of us was the 5-acre corn maze. At the beginning, we got turned around and lost quite a bit, so we pulled out the website map to help. The kids loved trying to find their way.

Blustery Day!

They got out of school early today and luckily it had quit raining, but was still really blowing hard in gusts. They got out umbrellas and ran around for awhile, then decided to let the wind pull them on their ripsticks. They would go to the end of the driveway and wait for a big gust and then take off. When they got to the end of the driveway they had to release the umbrellas to fly on since they couldn't stop while holding them. It was blowing really hard. Tor tried it but his umbrella kept turning inside out so he gave up on that since his ripstick skills were still coming along. Lots of fun!

Later, Bridget and Tor found this tree to play in since it started sprinkling and under the tree it was dry. Bridget worked on Tor being able to hang upside down with no hands-and he did it. Later they took out some Halloween decorations and played there to stay dry until they had to come in to go home.

Tor's 1st Grade Picture

Here's Tor's first grade school picture:

Bridget's 3rd Grade Picture

Here's Bridget's third grade school picture. When asked why she didn't show a big smile, she said that the photographer didn't do something funny to make her laugh. Oh well, there's always retakes.

Oktoberfest

Our church had an Oktoberfest potluck, but the kids wouldn't try much of the food (like sauerkraut). They did pose for a pic, though, with Jillian holding up Tor, and Bridget on her tiptoes.

Junior's Tacos

It was a warm, fall night, so we ate outside on the picnic tables at Junior's Tacos. The food was amazing (and cheap), as usual, so it's becoming one of our favorites.

Lumberjill Volleyball

No school tomorrow, so we stayed up late to watch a Lumberjill volleyball match against Washougal (we lost). On the way out, we checked out Mommy's picture and trophy.

Aunt Dany's B-day Party

We enjoyed a trip to Papa Pete's for some pizza, video games and a celebration for Aunt Dany.

The New Office

Bridget tried out the new office this morning, getting to watch her own show and snuggling on the new recliner.

Runnin' Round Riverdale

It was family game night on Friday, with a round of Bridget's new board game Runnin' Round Riverdale.