Playing Catch UP

It's been at least a month, right? Mostly holiday and birthday stuff amid the usual of school and work. The only other interesting thing is we've had virtually no rain, which is unusual. It commonly rains on Halloween and then keeps raining. Not so this year.

For Cash's birthday we did a pirate theme. There are virtually no pictures because I was putting everything together even as the party was happening. Not a very big shindig, but crafts and food and running around outside just before the sun set.

 What was left of my watermelon pirate ship...

We headed out to the Fairfield train historic museum. They are electric trains that have been retired. The one we drove on to the pumpkin patch was the old line on the bay bridge, if I remember correctly.

Face painting and a massive hay fort made for most of the action.

This one that Clay is pointing at is from Santa Rosa way back when.

Just us goofing off. Clay has gotten a couple of bowlers, some more bow ties, and even though the mustache annoys him a good deal of the time, I think he's having fun with it. Can't you tell?

Aaahhh... Pherson. He is turning out to be quite the explorer, destroyer and climber.

At the end of this post I'm putting in a video of him climbing the bunkbed ladder with no stool. He can easily climb up to the top bunk, as well as scale the drawers to get to the bottom bunk. He even tries to climb the baby gates and the footboard on my bed. He's also always looking up it seems, which might be why he climbs so much....
These are Cash's birthday rainboots. They fit me! They're still a bit big on him, but it's a reminder that pretty soon he'll be bigger than me and it's happening faster than I anticipated.

 For Halloween we had two events- trunk or treat for our ward and regular trick or treating. This is part of the decoration I made for the trunk of my volvo. Cash was such a good helper.

 Gru and his minion from Despicable Me.

 Batman- he almost switched to Spiderman, but being he was that the year before last I kind of nudged him to stay with his original choice. ;)

 Clay was able to come to the trunk or treat, but he was out of town for work on Halloween. So for $5 I picked up a parrot costume for Pherson and we had a pirate (moi), a parrot, a mermaid (specific Ariel) and Batman. A slightly motley crew.

Last year in November we started a tradition of doing a thankful tree. We ended up having to for go the trunk because of Pherson...

The animals have been kind of crazy here. We've had a rat under our sink for a while. I thought it was a mouse, but turns out it was a  juvenile rat. So we blocked it off with steel wool. So then it gnawed a hole in a closet and was getting out under the door and getting into the pantry under that door. So then we sealed that up and cleaned out everything and put on door space covers (good bye Saturday). It then proceeded to gnaw it's way through the insulation of the dishwasher and was coming out from behind it. One night I hear it chewing under the fridge. So I decided to set a trap for it.

 The first thing to die was this mole. Kind of random, but it was neat to have the kids figure out what kind of animal it was. Tuppy observed that because of it's paws and the dirt on them it must be a digger. Cash figured out it was indeed a mole.
My first bait failed to trigger the trap, so I reset it with a chip and viola! Came home later that day to find:

Take that sucker! And no, none of the red is blood. And yes, I threw away the entire thing. Honey couldn't convince me to reuse the trap. So we went to home depot and bought more. But the "rat guys" have since come and sealed up our foundation and ventilation areas as well as the outside trim where bats have been living (I though the droppings on our deck were from mice and was wondering why my traps weren't working). Thankfully we haven't had any further incidence other than an annoying couple of woodpeckers.

Just making some hair decorations.

Yes, he's finally one. He came fiercely into this world- after speeding down the freeway on my knees he threw himself full force into my heart within ten minutes of arriving at the birth center. We were both stunned, he and I. 

Pherson has always been cold. I've never known someone to get goosebumps so quickly. I love his mole. He is the biggest snugglepus EVER. He's always looking up, which might be why he climbs. He's confident and daring. He is fierce in determination but soft in temperament.
To my neglected third- oh how I love you so.

And lastly, no post is ever complete without Tupp in one of her get-ups. She cracks me up. :)

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!