Wow....has it really been a month???

Gosh, we need to get better about updating this! Now, it is a little overwhelming. We were very busy with Halloween activities and having my parents here for a visit. I'll try to give a quick recap:

We went to the pumpkin patch and Reggie and Ainsley picked out their pumpkins, ran through the hay bail maze and played in a huge box of corn. They had pony rides and Ainsley watched for several minutes, but couldn't get up enough nerve to try it. Later that day, Ryan and Reggie (well, really Ryan) carved the pumpkins. Reggie wanted a pirate ship, so Ainsley got the typical pumpkin face-there's only so much time for carving. I was very excited because we got a bunch of seeds to bake. We all enjoyed them, but I'm not sure they sat well with Ainsley as she chucked all over in her crib that night. Thankfully, she quickly recovered and no one else had any issues. Ainsley had her school party on Wed. and my parents arrived that night!!! Of course, the kids were too excited to go to bed, so they stayed up a little late and were up bright and early to visit grandma and grandpa in their room :o). Ah, how nice it is to get a little break in the morning! My mom and dad don't do very well with sitting around, so they went exploring around Livermore and fixed up the yard! The yard waste (which is huge) was overflowing on day 2. We finally put the last of the bagged yard waste out today for pick-up. We have lots more to do, but it looks really great. Dad even got up on the roof and blew the leaves off....thankfully he didn't pull his usual and have a fall (I'm not sure how many more lives that cat has!). Thanks for all your hard work!

Reggie and my mom share the same birthday, so we thought it would be fun to do a birthday activity....they built a gingerbread house. It was quite the production and took almost 2 hours. We had a few messes, but lots of fun. Here's some pictures. Ainsley is under the table because she found some candy that fell and was "cleaning" it up for us! Halloween week was chuck full of activities. The Oakland zoo was having a Halloween treasure hunt, so we went there with his friend Michael and his family. It was fun looking at all the Halloween costumes. Reggie was Optimus Prime and Michael was Batman. His school had a field trip at the pumpkin patch and a class party, which I got to volunteer for. It was great timing that my parents were here because I had a little more flexibility. It was a lot of fun and neat to see Reggie at school with his friends. He is such a sweet little boy :o). We also trick-or-treated in downtown Livermore 2 days before Halloween. Ainsley was supposed to be a lady bug, but her costume was too hot (it was almost 80 degrees), so she was a princess instead and is still asking for lipstick. She learned all about make-up when Grandma was here and even got some eye shadow to match her princess costume on Halloween. She was very curious and I'm a little worried about when she gets older. Finally, on Halloween, we went to the church. They had some great crafts and bounce houses, but it was a lot for 2 kids that weren't sleeping so much. It didn't help that our doorbell was ringing non-stop, we had over 100 trick-or-treaters! Maybe next year we'll try to pick just a couple activities.
Other than that, we didn't do a whole lot while my parents were here. Ainsley and Reggie had a lot of play time with Grandma and Grandpa and that is just the way they like it :o). Ryan and I played golf one day and went to the Stanford/WAZZU game, which was a joke. What is up with Washington sports teams??? It was also the worst rain I've ever been in at a sporting event. There wasn't a dry spot on us!!! Ah, the memories :o). They were here for 10 days and it went so fast. We miss them and can't wait to see everyone at Christmas!