A cat, Artemis, and Steve from Minecraft wish you Happy Halloween!

After getting our pumpkins the night before, the kids and I carved them with our personal signature—Kyla did so literally!  Wesley did the cyclops, while Piper took the biggest pumpkin she could (barely) carry, and I fell in love with my  wonky squash for my Vomiting Pumpkin trick.

I have found my favorite costume—and other than a red polka dot headband instead of a blue paisley—it’s pretty much what I wear every day.  WE CAN DO IT!

If you want to see Frank N. in action, click here!

The cabin project really ate up most of our October weekends, and I had promised the kids that we would adhere to tradition and make it to a pumpkin farm.  The day before Halloween, I kept my promise, and drove the kids to Bob’s Corn after school. 

Given a choice between lots of activities plus lots of crowds versus the opposite, we choose less people every time, so a Tuesday pumpkining suits us perfectly!

The kids still had plenty to do before we jumped on the hayride out to the pumpkin patch.

Piper could barely carry her squash, but that didn’t stop her from doing bunny ears.

I think I have a new tradition—thanks boring Tuesday nights for a relaxing trip to the pumpkin fields!

In our first weekend at the cabin with no Pergola/Garden work to do, I wanted to plan an “old-fashioned” weekend on the island for us.  That meant a daytime adventure or two. 

Papa Jim was on the island for a teardrop trailer get-together, so he and Daisy came by.  After our required Pergola homage, we gathered neighbor Abigail and we all set off for Meerkerk Rhododendron Gardens and Nature Trails. 

Every time we walk up do this little bit of loveliness, Dwayne has to listen to me whine “Why don’t I have one of these?”  He usually doesn’t hear me, as he is whining the same thing.

Look at these beauties!

The kids amused themselves by making pine cone fairies and fairy houses while the adults went around a nature loop. 

It was a beautiful day on the water and I was reminded why we invested in Whidbey Island in the first place, more than 6 y ears ago!

Official scores will be released to OSPI in mid-November, but I passed the library media test today!

I walked up to the school today, and found Wesley’s bike equipped for the crisp fall morning ride to school.

Last weekend, we finished the pergola (and added adorable lights—Denise’s contribution). 

I like how the picture makes it seem that it just grew there, but we had help.  A shout out to my amazing hubby, and Matt and Keith, who are very useful engineers, problem solvers and builders!  And Keith’s miter saw saved the day when ours coughed and died dramatically after years of loving abuse.

Dwayne and I feel like we’ve pretty much mastered the “Northwest Elegant” look, and good hardware is our secret sauce. 

This weekend, I finally got to start my garden.  With the addition of my dry rock stream and Spice Island, the area went from this:

to this:

I had been collecting from the McLendon’s clearance section for a while….

Then someone I hadn’t met before stopped by to compliment us on the project and gave us, what I think he called a Japanese Lizard Tree/Shrub.  

It’s so soft and scaly at the same time, and when you turn it over, it’s a beautiful white and green lace pattern.  I couldn’t find out more on the internet, but I love this guy!

But doing the garden meant that Dwayne was doing the stone facing on the pillars on his own.  It’s a truth about masonry, 2 people can go 3-4 times as fast as 1 person.  I pitched in towards the end of the day, but too late to make our goal for the weekend.

So we only got two pillars completed in those two days.  I love working with Dwayne, but that feeling’s mostly cancelled out by doing it in the rain.

We’re kinda cute, I admit.

I attempted a fun adventure day for the family to celebrate Daddy’s birthday, so had rented 4 inflatable paddle boards for the day.  Then we had the crappiest September on record, weather wise, so I postponed 3 times before I realized that we had no more free weekends until mid-October.  So we took our chances and went to a lake in Lynnwood.  Nice lake nice day, with enough wind to make paddling really, really hard.  Being who she is, Piper was the only kid not crying after an hour, and just put on her determined posture and got herself to shore.  I dumped my board on the sand, then swam through lots of waterlilies to reach Wesley, who was pretty much sobbing.  I pushed his board in while he steered.  Dwayne was doing the fatherly encouraging of his son, but managing not to actually encourage or help him.  Sigh.  This is why kids need more than one option for parents.  But we wrapped the kids in blankets and towels, and let them warm up while we took care of the equipment. It could have been an awesome day, but we spent more time inflating and deflating the boards than we spent in the water.  Lesson learned.  We’ll try again on a hot August day with no winds!

The fine print says that all blogs must contain some food posts, so I submit for your drooling pleasure…..

…..Dwayne’s fish tacos! 

They taste even better than they look.

Luckily I carry a camera in my pocket—there’s so much to do on the first day of school I often forget to snap a picture until the kids are walking into their classroom…or after school.

Or, if you are a middle schooler, that night at dinner.  Uh, sorry, Kyla.

Happy 3rd, 5th, and 6th grade, darling kids!