Sunday, October 30, 2011

2011 Pumpkin Carving Party

DSCF1629 Our annual Pumpkin Carving Party was a great success again!  Although the crowd was small, it was fun to gather together again with pumpkins and great food and conversation.  DSCF1630 The kids that attend get bigger and older, DSCF1615 but still enjoy the thrill of carving, not to mention the trampoline and pool table. DSCF1618   DSCF1619  DSCF1621 Gypsy Girl had to be tied out to prevent her from jumping all over folks and stealing their food.  DSCF1614 She was an angel the entire afternoon, just laying there and watching.  She didn’t whine or tug on the lead once.  But when we finally let her off, later in the day, she immediately stole a piece of pumpkin pie off of one of the kid’s plates (that he had just put down on the chair for a second!). 

The pumpkins were very scary this year, as the kids age.  DSCF1625 There was some unusually violent ones, a few traditional faces, DSCF1628 and a couple of downright STRANGE ones.  What imaginations!  No one used any patterns this year, just their brains!  I downloaded a bunch of unusual ideas on a sheet for viewing, then let them at it.  Even Steve carved one. DSCF1624 Max’s was one of the more violent ones, complete with a knife he had made a few years ago.  DSCF1626

All in all the weather was super, in the 70’s with little wind.  Lots of sun kept all jackets off and everyone seemed comfortable. DSCF1633 Hope you all have a happy, safe Halloween evening---oh, and don’t forget to watch a scary movie or two---my favorite being “Hocus Pocus!”

Monday, October 10, 2011

Happy Birthday to ME!

DSCF1535 as most of you know, I had a birthday last week.  My older boy, Sean, came home for the weekend so we went out and  had fun, fun, fun!  DSCF1551   Near Santa Rosa is a franchise called Scandia (see Scandia.com) that has two miniature golf courses, a go-cart raceway, a big arcade full of machines and such and inner tube-boats with built in water guns.   Of course we tried all of them, starting with the putt-putt golf.  DSCF1547 Lots of fun DSCF1546 and competitive.  The boys couldn’t resist this test of strengthDSCF1537 ---Max won with a top score of 899! DSCF1541 The go-carts were tight to handle DSCF1557 and the course was windy (lots of curves!) but I floored it the whole wayDSCF1563 ---and still came in last.  But it was still fun.  Max took it all too seriouslyDSCF1558 but beat both sean DSCF1564 and me.  Steve was the master photographer for us.  Lastly, the water boats DSCF1580 ended up being quite wet DSCF1572 but we had many battles DSCF1578 and lots of screeching (the water was cold!).  I managed to get one up onto the photographer too. DSCF1577 All in all, the day was extremely entertaining but it was good to get into a nice warm car at the end of the afternoon!!!