Next Generation

Joel already posted some of our pics of block-building on his blog, but here are some more with the little man.

Joel had a great time building Manhattan…

One of the things we did to celebrate Gr. M’s birthday (almost two months ago now…) was go to The Coffee Cottage for a free birthday drink!  It’s also a favorite source for steamy milk and yummy pastries.  Here are some fun pics Joel took that day.  We also went hiking and to Lincoln City, so I’ll put that post up next, hopefully.

Sometime in October we visited a farm called Baggenstos.  The kiddos played in the hay maze, E’s older cousin went with Grandpa through the corn maze, and we went on a tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch.  (Or at least the place where they put pumpkins out in a big field…they didn’t actually grow there, but hey–at least it’s on a farm!)  We had a great time!  (Again with the point-and-shoot, but it’s better than nothing, eh?)

E’s learning to say “Cheeeeeese!”

“OK, now do a NICE smile, E!”

Rock climbing!  Yessss!

No “cheese” this time…

A had fun startling the kiddos:

More “cheese”:

What could be better than a tractor ride?

E’s been getting into drumming on everything.  Pumpkins are good for that.

A charming shot of his little cousin:

We didn’t buy any pumpkins because we grew some in our yard–but then we never got around to carving any anyway!  I might cook them up and make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins with them, at least (if y’all in the area are lucky!).

We had a little dinosaur this Halloween!  Joel was unfortunately sick, so he couldn’t go with us.  E and I had a splendid time anyway.  The first shot is of E when he first got his costume:

The afternoon of Halloween we had to have some way of keeping him occupied until it was time to trick-or-treat…

Here’s the back of the costume:

Yay, all dressed!

First stop: The Coffee Cottage, where they gave out free hot chocolates or apple ciders to kids in costumes.  Here he is waiting for his drink…

and trying it out!  Mmm…tasty.

We trick-or-treated around downtown and he got basically a full pumpkin’s worth of candy.

We went home for dinner and photo ops.

Then we traipsed over to his cousins’ place.  These two are next to impossible to get a photo where they’re both looking and have a pleasant expression!

I was experimenting with the flash, and when I edited these two shots I thought they looked cool even though it wasn’t exactly what I meant to do:

Darth…

Let the trick-or-treating begin!

Getting a little tired, but still gung-ho.

Also present were E’s cousins’ cousins and some neighbor kids (and their parents).

After a long evening…

E only had 2 pieces of candy all evening, but was up until after 11!  He had a great time…now it’s just a matter of getting rid of the candy without a hyped-up kiddo.  *sigh*  It’s a rough job, but somebody’s gotta do it!