Thanksgiving 2011–part one

As we do most every year, we gather first for dinner with my side of the family then head down to Vancouver to see Dave’s side of the family. It’s a great way to make the most of the long weekend and the lovely holiday and this year we weren’t disappointed.

First up: dinner at Nana and Pepere’s house on Thursday with Auntie Erin and Uncle Chris. As always, the girls had a great time with all of the one-on-one (and one and one and one…) attention. For Dave and I, it’s a bit of a chance to hang back and enjoy.

Somehow, the St. Pierre-side family hang time inevitably ends up in stories, snuggles and smothering Uncle Chris with blankets and kisses. Ah, family memories

And of course we hit the swings before hitting the road.

Cummingbird! heeh.

Halloween 2011

This year, we really packed it in for Halloween:

Friday before, we attended my office’s kiddo Halloween lunch then on the day of, both girls had parties at their respective schools, we hit the party at Central Market (of course), and then hit the street to haunt the ‘hood and gather up some treats.

A full and busy time, but this kitty and monkey were pretty great little animals!

Little elves

As I said, I was strangely back on top of my game this fall and part of that meant having my act together in preps for the holidays!

Having some Christmas crafts lined up for pre-dinner and weekend downtime proved to be advantageous for so many reasons…

Note to self: Keep it in gear next year!

Garden girls

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the girls’ love of gardening.

Seriously.

During the happy weather months, one or the other will often pick gardening as the pastime of choice in the few minutes between homecoming and dinner during the work week.

I must say, it’s a pretty great way to get in some fresh air, see the girls get down and dirty and…have a fighting chance with keeping up with my yard work!

I *cannot* wait until they are old enough to send out on their own!

Pumpkin

So one thing I didn’t mention about our visit to Craven Farm was the petting farm…and the box of kitties therein.

That box of tiny, orange fur balls put back into motion the thinking that we could add another kitten to our crew…and this time, it didn’t stop.

(Back story: My first animal love is for dogs. I grew up with a pup and would *love* to have another. But I love dogs too much to not treat them right so before we add a pooch to the mix, a few things are going to change around here: 1) we’ll have a car big enough to transport two kids and a dog, 2) we’ll have a lifestyle that will *not* require the dog to spend 10+ hours alone in the house (or worse, outside) 3) our lifestyle will not require us to put the dog into “puppy daycare” to avoid #2) and 4) I’ll have a job where the role of an office dog is open to a St. Alonzo.)

So, the search began and we quickly (as in days) found Pumpkin. Previously known as “Pixel Pete”, this tiny guy (less than 2lbs!) was an easy add to the household. Lucy and Pumpkin were near instant pals and Oscar, well Oscar was none of the “grouch” he’d been when Lucy was introduced to the family.

After spending the first ~2 weeks with me at my office during the day (thanks to the boss’ paternity leave), he was ready to leave at home and at the mercy of Lucy and Oscar. They treated him pretty well, I think.

Pretty sweet, eh?

Craven Pumpkin Farm

We just so happened to choose a *fantastic* morning to head up to Snohomish and see the Craven Pumpkin Farm. The heavy fog quickly burned off, revealing a lovely, crisp, fall day. Thank goodness, because the girls were raring to go!

Excited drive up to Snohomish

The approach to the farm – seriously, we couldn’t have staged it better!

And the girls jumped right in to take part of the exhibits; the farm did a great job of depicting tons of fairy and Grimms’ tales. So much fun.

Off to choose the right (bunch of) pumpkins!

Then off for a wagon ride through the corn maze

And at the end, a few bright and shiny…pumpkins

FALLing behind…

ba-dum-dum.

Yes, the fall kind of got past me over here on the blog. Otherwise, I actually felt mostly on top of things – a first for nearly two years (yes, since Maggie).

Needless to say, I’ve got LOTS of catching up to do…