happy birthday grandpa tom

we were lucky enough to get to celebrate patriarch kafka's birthday this year while they visited

the restaurant

we suited up grandpa lou and grandma joan to take care of the kids

farmyard halloween

in keeping with the farm theme this year, samuel and shira dressed up as a barnyard animal, and a farm vegetable, respectively.

as an extra bonus, grandma and grandpa were in town for the festivities and joined us at the office party.

the rooster arrives

farmer tom and farmer susan

samuel decorates a pumpkin cookie
and a mask
our house gets decorated for the first time ever thanks to bubbie and samuel. grandpa tom and samuel did the honors on the pumpkin.

october art

every week at preschool samuel has the opportunity to create a painting and an art project. here is a sampling of this month's creative endeavors.the witch hat has gotten a lot of use over the past couple of weeks.pumpkin painting with leaf. yes, that is what the green thing is.

is there a theme emerging here?boo!the plate came home with us today. i get the impression that it will be used for every meal for the next very long time.

fish heads, fish heads, rolly, poly fish heads

fish heads, fish heads, eat em up, yum.

samuel eats some headless sardinesand then explains how he pulls the bones out, as you can hear him crunching on them...

glasses

i went to get a new pair of glasses this week, and samuel perused the selection

pumpkins, trains and turkeys, oh my!

We met Joe and Dhea for a picnic at Ardenwood Farm this weekend. In addition to the farm stuff (which included a working blacksmith!) we visited their pumpkin patch and had some fun on the train.

As soon as Samuel saw the pumpkin patch, he ran straight up to this pumpkin, told Steve that we needed to buy it, and refused to leave its side. He tried to pick it up, as we debated whether it was appropriate to instill the "you can get any pumpkin you want as long as you can carry it to the check out stand" rule. We decided it was a bit too early for that rule, mainly due to Samuel's strong attachment to this particular pumpkin. He valiantly tried to pick it up and carry it, but it just wasn't going to happen.
Driving the train
Hanging with the turkeys. Samuel and I walked right up to these turkeys - they were huge - bigger than Samuel, but then Steve became convinced that they were going to attack Samuel or me, so we had to back off.

the aquarium, sort of

i had to get fingerprinted AGAIN today.

thankfully livescan is much better than the old days of ink. results are faster and you don't walk around looking like you just left central booking.

the upside to our afternoon at the fingerprinting office was that we actually passed through downtown during hours that the "aquarium" was open.

it has been at least six months since we have stopped in for a visit, and probably closer to a year. samuel talked about the fish and really took an interest in a way that he hasn't in the past. we'll definitely need to add this back to our list of free diversions in a pinch.

shira snoozed through the pescateria