Saturday, October 22, 2011

A Few Things

*I am really loving this whole "boys getting older" thing. Case in point--last night as we were putting Max and Gus to bed, I commented that their room was getting a bit too messy. Max offered to clean it right then and there which I took to simply be a bedtime stall-tactic. I told him he could deal with it in the morning, which he assured me he would do first thing. I was fairly certain this declaration would be forgotten after a night's sleep, but at 6am this morning I awoke to the sound of quiet footsteps interspersed amongst the clangs and crashes of toys. I realized that Max was up at the crack of dawn, making good on his word and cleaning his room. I rolled back over and went back to sleep, figuring it was just a matter of minutes before the boys came into our room. When Jack started crying nearly an hour later, Mark got up and found Max and Gus in the living room, quietly watching a program on Netflix, eating breakfast which they had gotten for themselves. I could definitely get used to this! Well, maybe not completely. After all, a couple months ago Max announced he was officially too old to give his mom a kiss. A small piece of my heart died upon hearing those words. I have just a sliver of understanding now what it must feel like to let your child go out into the world and become something separate from yourself.

*In art class Max is working on a Day of the Dead project. Apparently they had a discussion about ancestors, because yesterday when he got off the school bus, he wanted to know if he had any. I named a few of his ancestors for him and we talked about how people came from many different places to the United States looking for a better life which is how we ended up living here so many years later. That evening, out of the blue Max said to Mark and I that Ms. Mackin, his art teacher, doesn't know who her ancestors are because she was adopted. I asked Max if he knew what that meant and he shook his head. I (rather clumsily) started to explain the concept, but let Mark take over when I saw the puzzled look on Max's face at my overly wordy answer. After Mark finished up his much-clearer explanation, I asked Max very seriously, "Did you know you're adopted?" You should have seen the look on his face! I then explained that while he was born from my body, he was adopted in a different way...into God's family. We explained how even though he isn't God's son the same way Jesus is, that because he loves God with all his heart, he is one of God's children and God cares for him like a father. "What do you think about that?" I asked. "Cooooool!" he responded.


*This is what I found inside my boot this morning when I tried to put it on:

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Pumpkins!

Yesterday we headed all the way out to Issaquah to go to a pumpkin farm. I had purchased a coupon for a farm out there, but when we arrived, it was so crowded and the parking was so bad that we bailed and went a couple miles down the road to a much smaller place called Trinity Tree Farm. As you can probably guess from the name, it's actually a Christmas tree farm, but this is the second year they have opened for pumpkin season. It was a blast!

First we hunted for pumpkins. The boys announced that they were going to find the biggest possible pumpkins this year. Apparently last year's pumpkins did not meet their expectations. We had to talk them away from a few huge ones given that they cost $0.55/lb! Even still, they picked 3 pumpkins that weighed nearly 50 lbs. We haven't cut them open yet, but at that price I'm hoping they're filled with treasure or something!





I tried multiple times to get a good shot of the boys together. I finally got one but my darn flash went off for some reason so it's a bit washed out. I really need to get into a photo class so I can stop using the automatic settings on my camera. No use having such a nice one if I don't even know how to use it! Even still, the photo is really sweet, don't you think?




Next we took a tractor ride. The boys loved that they got to sit on hay bales.




Jack wasn't so sure about this and opted to sit in my lap.




Here's Max enjoying the ride:




Gus too:




The boys really wanted to ride the little train and thought it was so cool that it took them through the Christmas trees. Smart marketing if you ask me. See something you like? Well just come on back in December and cut it down.






All in all, a really fun day!
Posted by Picasa