Halloween!

Since Brittany and I went to Disneyland last February we've been planning on having a Peter Pan and Captain Hook of our own this Halloween.

And with Miss Kik as Tinkerbell. And of course it started raining as we walked out the door.

This is the first year I've made Jensen's costume for him. I had so much fun making it. And he was so cute!
Pit stop...
Pit stop from the pit stop- Whoah- that's a truck!

They were so cute knocking on doors all by themselves!

See his hook? Hehe!
Half way through the trip Jence no longer wanted to walk- which was fine with me, because he was never that cuddly and never wants to be held, but when I picked him up he squeezed my neck and said "hold on tight!"

When we finished our short and wet run of a mostly empty neighborhood we came home to share our spoils.

We made dessert (which was wonderful) and played while we "watched" some football game.

Jensen has always had a thing for Brittany.

And we ended the evening in a rousing game of horsey with Daniel.

One of the rougher games of horsey I've witnessed... poor Daniel.

Trunk or Treat

Captain Book! Aka: Captain Hook

We got to do a dry run of the costume during the ward's Trunk or Treat.

I was worried that Jence wouldn't want to wear the costume with all it's pieces, but with the promise of candy brightly awaiting he was all for it!

This is Jence's official stance... he's always squatting. Joe Kuban loves our little "Shen-shen", and we love him and his family, they are so good to us!

Madam Tinkerbell.
Off to get the candy!
Every time we pass their house Jence says "Ryan and Joe's truck! Ryan and Joe's Jeep!"

He got a frog... Don't you love the mustache? I'm so bummed I forgot it on Halloween!

Another shot of Miss Bell.

Tonight at bedtime Jensen decided that he would rather go sit in the papasan chair than go to bed. Alex has (against my better judgement) developed a bedtime routine of offering a small piece of chocolate to calm the raging beast and lure him into bed.

Tonight when he had other plans on his agenda and Al offered the chocolate he also offered the choice of hot sauce. He was being a bit crazy. So, I swear it wasn't harsh- we told Jence that he could calm down and lay down and get the chocolate, or he could go "sit down" as he so desperately wanted to do- but then he would be getting a taste of hot sauce- and hot sauce is the dreaded around here, I mean horror of all horrors. He didn't seem to be getting it. So I took him and the hot sauce to the chair and told him that he could sit down and have the hot sauce or he could go back to bed and get the chocolate. He insisted he wanted to sit down. I tried again- holding up the bottle as I lowered him to the chair, stopping before he got to it to ask if he wanted hot sauce. And he looked at me and opened his mouth!! Silly little monster opened up his mouth kept it open as I opened the bottle, then still as I brought it to his mouth, and as I poured some in!! He got a bit of a pained look, swallowed, said "hot sauce". He tried to wipe some of it out a little as we laughed hysterically. He sat for a minute or so and then said he would like his chocolate- happily ran to his bedroom, let daddy put him in bed, ate his chocolate- giggling- and said "nigh-night."

Crazy child...

A Morning on the Farm

This morning we went to a local farm that is hosting some harvest fun-ness. Today was our first cold day of the season. Hat and coats were required, but once dressed appropriately the the cold was entirely forgettable.

Jensen was impressed by his first turkey encounter. This one mooned him.

Bunnies! We love bunnies, don't we Aunt Kookie?!

The huge goats.

Here we have documented a huge developmental leap- Jensen reached through the bars and pet an animal-

And he liked it! He's always been a bit hesitant with animals. But look at that face!

And onto the pasture sheep. Apparently they like to eat acorns, which is convenient because behind Jensen were 200 oak trees. Jence actually let them eat out of his hand!

This was very exciting for all of us. It was so fun for us to see him enjoying himself doing kid stuff- like maybe we can start taking him to these kinds of places and having more fun than fights.

Here you can see more sheep in the field. There were lots of them. They did border collie demos and wrangled them up. It really was amazing.

The best part of the whole thing was the "corn box". They filled 4 huge feed pools with feed corn. And kids. The sign behind him says no throwing the corn. And I have about 50 pictures with corn flying through the air. He is being quite obstinate these days. Even after being evicted by mommy & threatened with permanent removal he still pushed his luck. And won. Which I suppose is the problem...

But he had so much fun.

And was so cute doing it.

You have to look at this one closely to see the hay maze induced excitement that has the hands flexing...

Jence actually followed Daddy all the way through the maze.

As a side note- Alex thinks that nobody goes to places like this. He was baffled when we drove up this little dirt driveway and were met by the parking lot. This is not the first time he has had this exact same suprise...and yet somehow it continues to be a surprise, not to mention a fight to convince him that going and doing things is a normal human activity...

There was a fun hayride, made all the more fun because it didn't start with Jensen screaming and kicking not wanting to get onto the truck. (He did have to get on by himself though...)
All in all this trip was very productive. Jensen seemed so much cooler with quite a few different experiences. An official success in our plans to make him a bit more adjusted to life...

In the pumpkin patch at the end of the hayride.

All of a sudden the crazy running stopped and he just looked at me until I took the picture... felt like camera freeze tag...

He found this silver Tacoma and pointed and yelled, "Kennedi's car, tha's Kennedi's car!" until he was satisfied with our "Yeeees, that's Kennedi's car."

Random kid.

The doves were our last stop. It was a great morning.

This Weekend

This past weekend we really wanted to do something so when Al called from work on Thrusday at 11:00 am and asked if I wanted to head to Savannah to visit his brother and family for the weekend I said yes, and we were there by 8.

At first we weren't sure riding in the boat would be Jensen's favorite activity. (And by the way. Someone really needs to come up with a more kid friendly floatation device...)

But wonder of wonders, he started to enjoy himself.

See?
Alex and I have started getting a little concerned that he can be so timid in new situations (not with people- just circumstances- he gets scared easily going into small dark spaces for instance.)
So we were pleased to see that he was happy on the boat- having had a bit of reluctance in the past.

Though when Al, Phil, and Isabella got into the water I caught this picture of Jence explaining to Alex why he did not want to go with them. Really, that's what he was doing.

So Al would bring the fun to him. (Check out that classic Al face!)

Jence examining the crab daddy brought him.

Eventually Al just took Jence to the beach without making him get in the water and he and Isabella had a grand old time playing in the sand.

Al and Phil catching fish.

Phil and Paula's baby William is at a fun stage right now where he just chills quietly until lunch time. It was easy to get big smiles out of him.

He looks a lot like Izzy did.

On our way we had seen cotton fields all white and puffy and ready for picking. Being a product of public education I have read hundreds of books about slaves and cotton, so of course I was curious- having never seen an actual cotton field before. On our way home Al randomly pulled over and told me to go get some. (Needless to say I was very excited.) So I picked a piece- seeing for myself why the prickly bolls would tear up your hands.

And then I spent the next 15 minutes experiencing why the cotton gin was necessary. I had read that there were a lot of seeds in each piece of cotton, but I was still impressed with how any could fit inside. It was a lot of work!

Then we stopped at a Peach Farm on the way home to take a break from the car and let Jence and Kiki play. Of course there was a playground but it couldn't hold a candle to the tractors!

(This was officially dubed a tractor by Jence so it got to be a part of the "Tractor tip-it!" rounds- which is what J says the whole time he is on one- his way of saying "tractor tipping" from Cars)

This next sequence is great. We start with J excited that Kiki is drinking her water.

Getting closer.

Participating.

And Kik is driven out. Water is just too alluring, I suppose.

This is Jensen's thing. He oh so carefully stacks his cars in a "crash" and then sits and admires it for a while.

When Jen came through I thought it would be a good time to make some fall wreathes- it's always more fun to do things like that with a friend. For all who know of my indecisiveness (anyone who has met me, I believe) you would be stunned at how quickly I was able to pick out the ingredients. The boys were even with me and didn't die of boredom.

Jence models our almost finished yard. We changed the shape and extended the borders of the flower bed and got our little bushes all planted. I also planted some bulbs so hopefully next spring we can have some color.

Jensen has said "don't touch pumpkins" more times than I can count, and yet we have those contrary days- and apparently today is one of them.