Pumpkin Carving at it's Finest

Last night we carved pumpkins and had a pumpkin roll for dessert: it's tradition. We had so much fun, and we had Elvis & Eugene with us which was a blast. We started the night with dinner at IN-N-OUT, and then headed home for some serious pumpkin carving. Callie & Hayden wanted to be on Elvis and Eugene's team. We have stepped our pumpkin carving up a notch, and use those pumpkin carving kits. Hayden and Elvis chose a spooky looking pattern and spent FOREVER meticulously notching out the pattern onto their pumpkin. When they took their pattern off of the pumpkin, and were ready to carve it, they realized they had a spotted pumpkin and couldn't see all of the holes they poked into their pumpkin! Oh the poor things - I felt so bad. Luckily, Elvis free-handed a pretty spooky pattern that Hayden was even more excited about.

Can you tell which pumpkin was mine? I found a Twilight pattern online, and had to give it a try. There's a Jacob one too that would be really fun....

New Dresses

I enjoy making Callie & Isabella matching dresses from time to time. My mother-in-law always helps me make a new one when she comes out for a visit, however, I've started breaking that tradition because Callie never wears the dresses I make. She always says she loves them, and she can't wait to wear them, but once she puts them on, she doesn't like them....because they "poof out when she sits down" or "go up when she lifts her arms up". I agree that "homemade clothes" do fit differently than store bought, but I thought she was still too young to care or notice.

This Saturday, I made dresses for the two of them. Callie couldn't wait until Sunday to wear her new dress. Come Sunday, she promptly took it off because it was "too big". Luckily, I was able to pin it in a desirable way, so it wouldn't be "too big" or "poof out when she sits down". I think I'm done with dress making for awhile.....or maybe I just make them for Isabella. She still too young to voice complaints with them :)

Halloween Festivities

We're ready for Halloween at the Christensen house!

We have been making spooky gingerbread houses.

We have been eating witch's fingers. Yum-O

We have been making caramel apples.

And last but definitely not least, we have been getting all dressed up.

Wicked

Last week Jeff and I went to see Wicked in San Francisco because we got a great deal on tickets. SO SO SO much fun!! I didn't know it would be so funny. It makes me want to watch Wizard of Oz again. We had Orchestra seats, which were fantastic. Technically, pictures aren't allowed.... but I pretended camera phones didn't count, and snapped a pic before the show started.

We took BART into San Fran from Walnut Creek, as the play got out right at 5pm. There was no way we were going to try and get out of San Fran on a weekday at 5pm. And it worked out perfectly, except I guess there is no eating on BART or at the stations......? Who would have known? Jeff and I were sitting there chomping down on some Quiznos, when I looked up and saw a sign that read NO EATING OR DRINKING. $250 fine enforced. Yikes!!! So we double timed it and crammed those toasty subs into our mouths. (picture was taken BEFORE I knew we weren't supposed to be eating :) It was so much fun to break away from the normal weekday routine and do something different. I'm ready to go again.

Pumpkin Patch

Photo journal of our trip to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch.

Spotlight on last week

The weeks are flying by, and with the holidays quickly approaching, it won't change anytime soon. Here is a little of what we were up to last week.

Bells is in full mommy stage. She loves to mother her dolls and stuffed animals. While singing a lullaby, she was changing her teddy's diaper. So sweet!

Little Dude completed a HUGE accomplishment last week - he now has 100% dry nights. HOORAY! I am jumping up and down and would do back flips if I could. Potty training was a breeze for him by age 2, but having dry nights were absolutely out of the question. We spent 2+ years wearing pull-ups and STILL needing to change his QUEEN size sheets DAILY. But after using the "Sleep Alarm" for 3 months, he now wakes himself up once (sometimes twice) a night to use the bathroom. It was hard at first because having a buzzer equivalent to a fire alarm going off next to his ear every night wasn't his favorite thing, but it really worked!

The school had it's Harvest Festival last week, and Missy loved getting her face painted like a butterfly. She went to bed with it on, and even wore it for most of the next day as well.