Pumpkin Carving

I searched the blog for photos from past years' pumpkin carvings, but I only found this one. I'm pretty sure we've carved a pumpkin every year. Anyway, the kids are all set and ready to go!

Amelie's goofy face.

James and his goofy face.

Take two. 

Now we're getting down to business. They look so serious!

James liked putting the lid on and taking it back off (though he seemed slightly confused by it). It's kind of like a puzzle.

We carved on Tuesday (and we've already eaten all of the seeds). You can see who did most of the work sorting out seeds from "guts" as Amelie called them. I was busy taking pictures.

The finished product.

You can tell I don't know much about photography because this was so interesting to me. The picture above is with the flash off and the picture below was with the flash on. They were taken just a few seconds apart.

Happy Halloween, all!

P.S. The squirrels have started chewing on the one in front already, but I think it just makes it look slightly creepier.

Coloring

James really likes to color. Amelie does, too, sometimes.

I think she had some kind of over-arching plan, but James just kept on making his marks.

Down to work (and it looks like they finally got the paper turned around, too).

Fall Leaves

Just look at this tree! It's a sugar maple at Stephens Lake Park (I know this because there is a plaque). Amelie and I walked by it this morning on the way to the Equine Open House at Stephen's College and then we stopped and played under it on the way back.

It actually got hot today, so it was nice to play under the shade of the tree.

Jumping! Leaf piles!

She didn't mind me taking pictures (no shouts of "no more photos!" anyway) but she didn't want to look right at the camera, either. 

More Vibraphone!

One more video of Sam playing the vibraphone. This time it's "The Long and Winding Road" by the Beatles. 

Back to your regularly scheduled Baby Buffaloe programming tomorrow :) 

Vibraphone Sam

Sam made a few videos of himself playing the Vibraphone. Here's "I Will Follow You into the Dark."

There were some inadvertent baby Buffaloes in the practice takes, but he recorded after they were in bed. (Thanks to our friend Kara for the camera stand!) 

Grindstone Nature Area

I don't guess I've posted about it, but we've been going to Grindstone Nature Area and letting the kids run around in the nature :)

Their favorite part may be throwing rocks into the creek.

I made a video of James making a "big splash," if I can get it to upload later.

Sam and his walking stick.

Amelie also likes to collect leaves and grass.

She had some grass plus colorful leaves later on in the walk and a woman with two dogs said that they'd look nice at our house. Amelie replied, "They're for my giraffes. I have giraffes in my playhouse." Obviously.

I can't even handle the cuteness. James says, "Hand. Ahm-a-wee hand," when he wants to hold hands.

James wanted a walking stick like Dada. "Mine stick." 

According to my fitbit, we walked about 2.5 miles (Amelie did more because of doubling back & not sticking to the path). James walked a fair way, but I carried him back just to save some time.

School Photos

Amelie & James had school photos made at their preschool! Since they go to the same school, we got some pictures of them together.

Bootheel Visit

We got to see Grandpa Bob while we were in the bootheel (and his dog, Sadie - Amelie and Sadie were very exited to see each other). Isn't this a good picture?

At Grandma Doris's they played the touch-screen game. I think we have about a million pictures of people playing it. 

"Cheese!" he says. I couldn't get both James and Grandma Doris to look at the camera at the same time.

They were not quite as cooperative as they were with Grandpa Bob in getting a photo, but I like this one.

James was being rotten, but we were all laughing at him anyway.

Nana Jana