Fall...

This is a busy time of year for us. Our normal commitments (and some new undertakings) have begun - Motherwise, "Marching School," church Home Group - and honestly it has taken longer than I expected to fall into a routine. Not only that, but the apple orchards and pumpkin patches are open. We have had a warm Indian summer through this last week, perhaps God's gift to us after suffering through a cold and somewhat wet June and July. The leaves change and the sun fades leaving everything sort of glowing. Everything has aligned perfectly keeping us very busy, out of the house, snapping many pictures, and leaving very little time for blogging. Before the cold of November hits, and more parties, trips and adventures occur, I want to be sure to have the blog up-to-date.

Missed September posts:
9/17 Farmer's Market
9/25 Macy's birthday
9/29 Oregon Heritage Farms
9/29 The park
9/30 Dinner with friends

Our busy October:
10/1 The zoo
10/4 Motherwise
10/5 Oregon Heritage Farm (take three)
10/6 Claire's bike
10/7 A week of rain
10/9 Sultan
10/10 Swim meet
10/11 Reptile zoo
10/11 Mariah's birthday
10/12 Amy's birthday
10/13 Selah Ruth
10/15 Soccer
10/17 Bread baking
10/18 Claire's words
10/21 Grace reading
10/22 Pumpkin regatta
10/23 Fireworks
10/25 Lee Farm
10/26 Pillow destruction

We {heart} the pumpkin patch...

We, and most of our friends, love the fall and can't get enough of places like this. This week's adventure was Lee Farm in Tualatin. Other than the fact that it was 35 degrees upon arrival, and there were 8 school buses in the parking lot as we were unloading, we had a great time. 

After being there for hours, watching the last school bus pull away, and finally being able to feel our fingers again, a very nice farmer offered to take us all on a hay ride. Of course we accepted!

The highlight of the morning was this giant bouncy hill. The kids - and moms - loved it!

Our ever-growing crew (minus the Coleman boys).

Wordless Wednesday...

Giant pumpkins...

On Saturday we meet Jenny and Robert's family at the Giant Pumpkin Regatta. We were bummed that they moved the actual pumpkin races until later in the afternoon, so we didn't see that, but we were able watch the measurement and judging and transporting of the pumpkins into the lake. One of the pumpkins weighed over 1400 pounds! After they are weighed, and a winner is announced, the squash is hollowed out and used as a "boat" in a great race across the Tualatin Commons Lake. 

The girls had a great time checking out all of the booths, riding the train, bouncing in the castle, eating kettle corn, playing with friends, and exploring the fish-filled "puddle" (that is what Claire kept calling the lake).

When we had our fill of pumpkin festivities, we headed back to Jenny and Robert's house for food and football. It was a nearly perfect Saturday. 

Bombs and snakes...

Grace got some fireworks for her birthday - sparklers, smoke bombs, snakes and pop-its. We spent the 4th of July at the beach and forgot to take them with us. We used the sparklers up when we went camping, and the pop-its have been loads of fun in our garage (Merrick likes hiding them behind the wheels of my car so they explode when I pull out in the mornings). The snakes and smoke bombs have been providing pre-dinner entertainment for the girls over the course of a few weeks. I am sure the neighbors think we are crazy. 

Reading...

One of the greatest things about Grace knowing how to read is that I sometimes find her like this -  in jammies, on the couch, with a book. A warm blanket, and a cup of tea and I can't think of a better thing to be doing on a cool fall day. I hope her love of books will grow throughout her life and that we will see lots of this in the years to come. 

Wordless Wednesday...

Claire {23 months old}...

Rather than once again going into great detail about every little thing that has changed since last month, I thought I would give a quick update and include the funny Claire-isms that we don't want to forget. This is an incomplete list, but hopefully will give you an idea of her language and personality.

A few of our favorite Claire-words:

• "nudder one" = another one
• "nunner" = other ("Where's my nunner sock, daddy?")
• "yo-guck" = yogurt
• "nuh-kiss" = necklace
• "fanking" = spanking
• "fill" = spill
• "soy" = silly - she manages to get two syllables out of "soy"
• "goal" = girl
• "dowg" = dog 
• "deese" = cheese
• "cack-ohs" = crackers
• "beyuddy" = bloody
• "ban-ain" = bandaid
• "bon-un" = bottom
• "beeg guy" = Big Guy
• "mulk" = milk
• "Gaycee" = Gracie
• "Miiick" = Merrick
• "Mommy-Hannah-Bud" = mommy
• "Baby Dawlie" = baby Charlie
• "Say-ya Rue" = Selah Ruth
• "mow" = kitty
• "neigh" = horse/pony
• "be-ohs" = bears
• "addigador" = alligator
• "ehsent" = elephant
• "yittle" = little (sounds more like a Spanish double L than a Y, but this is close)

A few of our favorite Claire-phrases:

• "I want to go home." = usually means she wants to leave and go somewhere else, even if we are at home
• "My funny, mommy." = I'm funny
• After getting a time out she says, "Sorry mommy. I wanna be nice girl now."
• She usually wakes up and immediately says, "I hungie mommy. I wanna eat."
• She sometimes doubles up certain words to emphasize something, "Big girl take away my toy away."
• Hearing "I yuz you so mush" melts my heart.
• She doesn't always use correct grammar, but can usually get her point across, "I had not any accidents" or "no I had any accidents."
• "mine's own" or "mine own self"
• She will sometimes substitute be for is, "Mommy that water be hot."
• Often she will misuse tenses of certain words "I'm going to found my shoe." or "Mommy, you founding my coat?
• If you ask her if she can have gum she will answer "I too yittle for gum." Recently she said "Big girl has gum. I have food."

A few funny Claire stories:

Mommy, where my friends are? Where my friends is mommy?
Who are your friends?
Um, Say-yah Rue (Selah Ruth), Sinnie (Sydney), Dah-ya (Dahlia)

The other morning I was doing Claire's hair and holding a rubber band.
Claire: Mommy, you have a rudder band."
Me: Yep, I have a rudder band.
Claire: Ha! You said, "rudder band."
Me: Well, what is this?
Claire: A rudder band.

A few weeks ago I was taking Mariah to school and had Grace, Laney and Claire in the backseat. I don't know what set it off, but Mariah called Laney a goose. That started a drawn out two minute battle between Laney and Grace over who was a goose. "I'm a goose. No, I'M a goose, etc." After a pause, Claire piped up and exclaimed, "I'm a DUCK!"

Claire and I found a cool caterpillar outside of Macy's house, so when Macy got home I was trying to have Claire tell her the story. In typical Claire talk the story had many pauses, uhs, and ums thrown in. "We-uh-uh-uh-finded-uh-um-cadapidoh-and-and-and-it-uh-uh-uh..." Trying to hurry it up I said, "Claire, spit it out." Immediately she bent over the counter and proceeded to spit all over the place.

Claire and Merrick were playing tag. Merrick said, "You better watch out. I'm a charging rhino." Claire didn't move and said, "I'm a charging turtle!"

This is the face I get when she is posing for a picture... "Deeeeeeese!"

Baking...

I don't often bake - especially bread. It take a long time, is sort of tedious, and kind of messy. I am not patient, have no attention span, and don't like cleaning my kitchen. Recently, however, I have found a few recipes that couldn't go un-tried. Neither of these pictures make the bread look great, but I thought I would share anyway.

Potato and rosemary focaccia bread - I used this recipe. It was really good fresh out of the oven. We ate this and big green salads for dinner. Simple and delicious. The one down side is that it made a huge loaf and we couldn't eat it all before it got stale. Next time I will make less.

Apple & honey challah bread - from Smitten Kitchen - was fantastic. Merrick made this and we ate half of it, hot out of the oven, right before bed. It was delicious. The remainder we finished off for breakfast the next day. We will definitely make this again.

Diefensoccer...

All three Diefen-kids are playing on soccer teams this year. The trick is finding a day when the three games don't overlap too much so we can actually see each kid in action. This week we were able to do that. 

Ella's game was first. She didn't play keeper the whole time, but I love how little the players look next to this giant goal (and wearing a huge t-shirt and gloves). As we were walking up to the field we could hear Ella screaming on the sidelines. She, the ever-encourager, was cheering on her team mates who were on the field playing.  

We also got to see Megan and Scott in action as coaches for Ella's team.

Brennan's game started before Ella's finished, so we didn't see every minute, but we did get to see him play quite a bit. He seems to be a natural defender, he smiles when he plays and legitimately seems to be having fun.

Kyler's game was an exciting one. After a few goals for his team, and a few spirit-crushing-misses by the opponents, Kyler's team beat the top ranked team in the league. Those kids deserved the win - they played hard and they played fair.

Meanwhile, through all three games, my girls found everything in the world they could do except watching soccer. Running bases, splashing in puddles, collecting leaves, bugging uncle Scott.

The coolest farm ever...

After we had worn out our welcome at Macy's house, we headed south to crash with Amy's family. Wednesday was her birthday - I won't tell you how old she is so that she will still be my friend. The kids were all excited about her birthday and woke up nice and early. We decided to head out to breakfast to celebrate and were out of the house before 8:30... and that included showers for both of the mommies. 

After breakfast, and a quick stop at Wal-Mart to buy her kids some rain boots, we headed to the coolest farm in the world. Seriously, this place was amazing. All of the pets were treated like family and allowed to roam around the property... sheep, pigs, horses, chickens, cats, donkeys, peacocks, parrots, kittens, bunnies, dogs, etc. The kids spent almost three hours here chasing, corralling and petting various animals.

There were also pow-pow-power wheel tractors to drive.

These fantastic cars and ramps for racing...

The kittens were a hit! Grace got a bunny for her birthday, maybe Claire needs a... no, not a good idea.

And a rope swing in the hay loft!

This rooster makes me laugh.

The "pony" rides were not what you would imagine... a real horse, a big corral, a lot of fun!

Feeding the birds - turkeys, peacocks, roosters and lots of different kinds of chickens. 

As we left, we spotted this silly goose swimming in the dirty puddle. Claire really liked watching him jump, dive and swim. Silly bird.

We left Fox Hollow at the perfect time for the kids to nap on the way home. They didn't. We drove, and drove, and drove, and finally, after about an hour and a half on the road, they last one crashed. Problem is, we knew we wouldn't get them out of the car and into the house still asleep. So, we went through the McDonald's drive through, got chocolate sundaes, and parked the car in Amy's neighborhood where we sat around, ate ice cream and sent silly text messages to people. We sure know how to have a good time.

When the kids woke up we did some school-like stuff with them. The kids thought they were just playing, but the preschool toys Amy has are really cool. My kids loved them. Eventually though we we had to take the toys away, bundle everyone up and head to E's soccer practice. It was cold, and wet, but the three non-players did well finding things to do. We made it home an hour later in time to feed them all, bathe them all, and let them all crash in bed before 7:30. We wore them out. We were looking forward to a nice, quiet evening. Forrest ran out to pick up Panda for Amy and I, and just as we sat down to relax Amy realized that there was a new video game waiting for her on top of the TV. So much for relaxing. She ripped my food out of my hands, pushed me off the couch, and forced me to play Just Dance 3 with her for hours on end. If it hadn't been her birthday, I might have put up a bigger fight.

Happy birthday, Amy. I'm so glad we were able to hang out and celebrate with you!