Fall birthdays, halloween and stuff.

A big important happening this fall included these guys' third birthday!  Who would of thought during that whole fiasco of getting them here safely that this is what they would be three years later.  My heart runneth over :)!!!

 They loved their train cake.  After the crowd left we re-lit the cake at least 5 times because they kept wanting to blow the candles out and be sung to....and hey, it's their birthday, so we did it.

My favorite plant this year.  It was like three different plants in one.  

Made lots and lots of salsa and chunky applesauce.

Tried to make apple cider with this old press, but it didn't work as well as the one we usually rent.

First day of 5th grade!!!

Picking flowers to take to Opa.  It looks like summer, but we just had a super nice, dry, warm fall (until November).

The kids loved helping me make the bench for the table (they wanted to help a little bit too much, so it felt like it took forever to finish).

HIKING

These pictures are funny.  Carlos was playing "Red light, Green light" with them one night and they were having so much fun I had to get the camera out.  Love Dreyton's karate chop stance.  Ready....

Green light!!  Rivers is a little bit faster off the line than the others :)

This was Carlos' birthday party.  We just had friends over for coconut cream pie.  It was an absolutely perfect night.  Wish I had a picture of the sunset that night.

The finished farmtable and bench set!  Yeah!

For the twins party, we dug in sand boxes for treasure...

and made a "Balloon City"!

Then came Halloween.  The kids costumes were so fun this year.  Rivers looked exactly like Katniss Everdeen (complete with a gold mockingjay pin).  CD decided last Halloween that he wanted to be "Puss n Boots" and he stuck with it.  For some reason, it made me laugh everytime I looked at him.  Reagan loved being a flower...as seen by the look on her face in this pic and the bumblebee costume was perfect for Dre because he could run, jump and fall down in it and not ruin it.  

Halloween treats for Rivers' school party (thank you Pinterest).  That day I went to preschool with the three youngest, left straight from there to go do Rivers' party, had an hour break, then we went trick or treating downtown, helped with a preschool fundraiser, went to the trunk or treat at the church, then took the kids neighborhood trick or treating.  It felt like 3 days in 1.

Some people treated Rivers like she was a celebrity when we were trick or treating.  High school kids would recognize who she was and go crazy, like she was really Katniss.  

Reagan actually liked being in the flower pot (I just cut the bottom out and  held it up with yarn over her shoulders like suspenders).  She even figured a way to keep in on in her carseat and it must have been comfortable because she fell asleep in it.

 I was a gardener for my bee and flower...

 ...and Carlos was the beekeeper.

 He insisted that I make him a mask instead of just drawing a cat face on him.

 Reagan used a watering can for her candy bucket.  

And just a cute pic of Rea to finish up this blog.  I couldn't get my pictures together of the San Juan Island trip yet, so that blog will have to wait.

Catching up...roadtrips #3 and a little from #4.

Right now I really just want to rant about how disappointed I am with Americans for electing a President that Snoop Dog (oh excuse me, Snoop LION) thinks is cool instead of someone that actually has the qualifications and work ethic and trustworthiness to lead this country to greatness again.  I felt like the country had finally found a team in Romney and Ryan that had intellect and ambition that I could 100% support.  So many supported the current President for his stance on gay marriage and abortion, yet those things aren't going to matter a whole heck of a lot if this country falls to terrorist plots from weak foreign policy and/or the economy continues to plummet to the point where the American Dream is dead for my children (and for me for that matter), or even if our healthcare becomes second rate.  I better stop and get onto my online journalling, but I'm still a little sick thinking about how Obama supporters make excuses for or don't want to look at the numbers and how far this country has fallen in the last 4 years and try to blame anyone but the commander in chief.  I feel like if anyone educated looked at and compared the numbers during Romney's stint as governor and the numbers during Obama's 4 years, the choice would be 100% clear who should run the country and get us economically back on track.  But instead they choose the "cool" guy....guess Americans these days want to be cool and broke instead of a leading nation in the world again with secure, happy families that can support themselves.  Aaaahhhhh!  OK....enough.

Looking back at happier days.....here are a few pics from Carlos' phone from our Santa Cruz camping trip.

This is where the "bug" started.  We left the campsite, drove through some winding mountain roads and CD started puking.  I mean like every hour for 10 hours.  I was up with him all night and by the next morning wasn't feeling so great.  We made the long drive home with CD and me kind of moaning deliriously.  This crazy bug then went on to infect everyone in the family with the first symptom being a sudden, violent up-chuck.  It then passed to my sister, her whole family, to both of my brothers and their families and my Mom. Oops.  

Black pebble beach in Newport, OR

CASCADIA - coolest river spot ever.  I took our little raft and made at least 10 trips down a little section of rapids with the kids taking turns.  I was worn out at the end of the day from carrying it back up river so many times.

Our next roadtrip was to Folsom, CA for Carlos' sister's oldest daughter's wedding:)  We had a family party the night before at this super nice friend's house.  

Everyone had a great time exploring this fun pool, complete with two hot tubs, secret cave under the waterfall, cliffs for diving, long slide, etc., etc.

Me and the beautiful bride!!

Cousin time

Dre enjoying one of the many delectable treats at the reception.  I believe that was chocolate covered cookie dough.

Carlos' bros and sissies.  The non-polka dot sister was the mother-of-the-bride.

Rivers (a flower girl:) and cutie sister-of-the-bride.

The boys

The Nuno cousins with bride and groom

The day after we got home we buzzed the boys long locks before setting off on our next road trip the following day.  We had fun cutting it into some great mohawks and mullets along the way to being all buzzed.  CD had been called a "she" one too many times, so he was ready.    

And here is a preview of roadtrip #4 to the San Juan Islands (so I guess part of it was a boat-trip).  The ferry rides from island to island were one of the highlights.

MOST PERFECT PLACE EVER!!!
(If you want to see more now, go to my sister's blog at deckerrdseeds.com/blog.   She has a great little synopsis write-up about the trip.  And order seeds from her website while you're at it :)