Category Archives: Journal

Pumpkin Carving

We had a wonderful brunch with our friends Kristin and Mac. We had scrambled eggs, tater tots, and lots of yummy bacon. For desert we had cherry turnovers. After the meal I played ghost for a bit with the kids as they ran around until the screaming was too much for our ears. Then we cleared the table and had ourselves a pumpkin carving. The adults did most of the work while the kids “supervised” and provided the final touches such as popping out the pre-carved sections.

Pirate Princess Debut

We went to our first Halloween event of the season at our favorite Parks & Rec Center. Jasmine made her grand debut as the Pirate Princess. We arrived to the festival just in time to see the zombie dancers give a great performance on stage. And yes, they were playing Michael Jackson’s song Thriller. Jasmine was enthralled. We then wandered around admiring the great costumes and trying out some the activities such as putting your hand into some scary boxes to feel what was inside.

Soon enough Jasmine grew bored and excitedly asked to go the haunted house. So after standing in line for many minutes, we went inside whereupon Jasmine immediately yelled to get the heck out upon hearing all the scary noises. So dad picked her up and carried her the rest of the way through the maze. Afterwords, at the crayon coloring table, Jasmine shared her haunted house experiences with the other kids saying “A zombie chased me and my dad.” The other girl said “A zombie chased us too. When I grow up and have kids, I will make sure they never go to a haunted house.” Jasmine replied “me too.”

Grandma’s Visit

Emily’s mom, Carolyn,  came out to visit. Jasmine really hit it off with ‘Grandma’. We went out for lunch a lot and enjoyed getting our pumpkins for Halloween and fresh caramel apples. We went to an international dance festival at the library. Jasmine almost got up on stage twice to dance. Each day after school Jasmine came home to vegetable appetizers in a variety of shapes and designs made by Grandma. The visit was over too quickly, but we are looking forward to seeing her again at Christmas.

Inflatable Fun

It was my turn for birthday party duty.  The event was at Pump it Up Jr. which is an indoor playground full of inflatable slides, bounces, and obstacle courses. The kids had lots of fun but the enclosed space made the noise deafening – my ears were definitely hurting afterwords. Even so, it was quieter than my Chucky Cheese experience.

After playing, we ate homemade and very tasty cupcakes. Then there was a wild frenzy of present opening as each kid competed to have their present opened first by birthday girl Ella.

Bday party at the farm

It was our friend’s son, Eli’s, birthday. We enjoyed it out on the farm on a beautiful autumn day. There was a talk about all of the different pumpkins,  then we went through a small hay bale maze which ended at a small slide.  Then we went into a larger hay bale maze which ended in a bigger slide,  then there was just a slide. A big slide! Jasmine must have gone on it 10 times. She even had mommy go down it. There were farm animals and water games and a tractor train ride which brought us to a playground surrounded by sunflowers and pumpkins. We then went to pick out our pumpkins and found yet another maze. A really good ‘children of the corn’ corn maze!