Fall

Ah, autumn -- my favorite season! Actually, it wasn't a very typical autumn, weather-wise. It stayed warm for so long. Would you believe that we picked the last of our tomatoes yesterday...right before going trick-or-treating?! We've never done that before! Hopefully we'll get a little taste of autumn before winter sets in.

When autumn comes, it means that Lily's birthday can't be far behind. We sure have a cute four-year-old!

(I must say that three-year-old Lily was such a hoot, it was rather difficult to say goodbye to her. However, I'm sure four-year-old Lily comes with her own set of perks; I can't wait to see what they are). We had a little party for her at Logan's parents' house where she received a jewelry box with some "fancy" accessories in it. The next day, I happened upon this scene in her bedroom:

It's like Noah's Ark meets the Academy Awards. Like I said, four-year-old Lily will do just fine.

She requested a Cinderella-themed event for her first "friends invited" birthday party. All the invitees arrived in full regalia:

They enjoyed making necklaces, opening presents, receiving party favors, watching a movie and -- of course -- eating cake!

I want it noted that the entirety of this cake was edible. The spiral wheels, pumpkin stem and vine curls were made of taffy. Many thanks to Logan who enjoyed (endured?) his first taffy-pulling experience as a part of the cake-building effort.

The week after Lily's birthday, Logan's parents treated the whole family to a fun getaway in Park City.

We went on a short hike to enjoy the great outdoors:

Spent fun time with cousins:

Participated in crafts provided by Grandma:

And even received beginning tennis lessons from Uncle Ryan. Go Lily!

What a great trip it was! The kids (especially Benson) still ask me a couple times a week if we can PLEASE go to Park City again.

For several years now, Logan's parents have invited all their kids and grandkids to go to a local pumpkin patch to choose a pumpkin. This year, they decided to host a Halloween Carnival at their house. The weather didn't exactly cooperate, so the event was moved indoors -- but the fun was not diminished! All the makings of a real carnival were there, from hot dogs

to cotton candy

to carnival games.

The "eat the donut off the string" game turned out to be particularly entertaining.

Benson just couldn't understand why everyone was attempting to eat their donuts without the use of their hands. His approach made a lot more sense...

Still photos of the three-legged and gunny-sack races don't hold a candle to the video we got, but I'm not feeling that ambitious today...so this will have to do.

There was a contest to see who could a make a mummy the quickest. I don't think Amanda and Lily won, but the end result was definitely photo-worthy!

Good grief, look at that face! You cannot imagine how sticky all the kids were by the end of the evening...

Max wasn't able to participate in the bulk of the festivities...but he was a good sport nonetheless. And yes, he is STILL suffering from a bad case of baby acne. Poor thing! Do they make Proactiv for infants?

This brings us to Halloween. Logan is a vocal Halloween Hater. I've always rather enjoyed Halloween -- but I definitely found myself gritting my teeth and muttering under my breath this year. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that by the time the actual trick-or-treating took place, we had already attended the Halloween Carnival at Amanda's school, the carnival at Logan's parents' house, Amanda's class party, Lily's class party, trick-or-treating at Logan's office and our HOA trick-or-treat walk. This involved dressing up all of the children on three separate occasions, and Lily four times (that doesn't include the fairy birthday party Amanda was invited to that also necessitated a completely different costume). I swear, it's enough to make any mother ban Halloween altogether! Anyway, here are Lily the bride and Benson the train engineer at our neighborhood trick-or-treat walk:

And here is Max the dalmatian puppy:
And where was Amanda, you ask? Well, she went to the dump with her Grandpa -- but when it was time to leave for the trick-or-treat walk, she wasn't back yet! So we had to go without her. We had been there for 10 minutes or so when I saw this little character high-tailing it toward us:

Amanda went as a socialite this year. Here's how that came about:

Amanda: Mom?

Me: Yeah?

Amanda: What do you call a fancy lady who wears fancy clothes and fancy jewelry and does fancy things?

Me: Ummmm...like someone who dresses up and goes to parties and stuff?

Amanda: Yeah!

Me: I guess you'd call that a socialite or something.

Amanda: A socialite? That's what I want to be for Halloween!

So a socialite it was. This little socialite, however, was a bit disheveled. No upswept hair, no makeup, no long white gloves. My friend Heidi and I joked that this was more the "socialite who has a hangover after partying until 3 a.m." look. Not really what we were shooting for, but whatever. I mean, how high class can you be when this is your main mode of transportation?

Anyway, we were able to fluff Amanda up a bit before heading to Grandma's house. Here we all are! This reminds me of another conversation that was had earlier this week:

Lily: Mom?

Me: Yeah?

Lily: What are you going to be for Halloween?

Me: Oh, I'll probably dress up like a mom.

Pause

Lily: A mom?

Me: Yup.

Longer pause

Lily: Just a plain old mom?

Me: Yeah, that sounds about right.

As you can see, my costume turned out perfect. It's really got that authentic "I spent so much time getting everyone else together I didn't have time to do my hair or makeup" look, don't you think?

Anyway, at least the kiddos seemed to have a good time:

Well, most of the kiddos. Don't worry, Max. I pretty much felt the same way by the time it was all over...

Now that Halloween is over, it's on to Christmas! As I said before, autumn is my favorite season...but Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday, so I make it last as long as possible! Besides that, the ridiculous amount of decorating I do justifies starting on November 1st; otherwise, it wouldn't be worth the effort. Logan is leaving town tomorrow and won't be back for a few days. Hopefully I'll be able to get it all up and still clean the house before he gets home. He appreciates the finished product, but despises what I call my "creative process" (he calls it "a giant mess").

For a little over a month now, Logan and I have been early risers (5:30 a.m.). I'm sure that those of you who know me well are a bit baffled by this. "Kara? Waking up early?" I'm sure you'll be even more flabbergasted to learn that I've been waking up that early so I can go to the gym. As in the gymnasium. As in the place where people go to exercise. Yeah, EXERCISE. I'll give you a minute to pick yourself up off the floor -- and while you do, I'll explain a bit. Most of you know that Logan began work on a Ph.D a while back (we won't say exactly how much "a while" is). Well, he flew through his course requirements, leaving him with just a dissertation to write. Ha! Just a dissertation! If only it were *just* a dissertation. Suffice it to say that we've experienced a significant stall in progress. Don't worry, though; we still have to pay tuition to keep him enrolled in his dissertation credits -- whether progress is made or not. So that's GREAT! Poor thing; his time is already so stretched...but it occurred to me one day that it would have to stretch a little more for any forward movement to be made. Logan doesn't want to go to bed early if I'm still up, and he finds it nearly impossible to get out of bed at an insanely early hour when I'm still snoozing away...so it appears I'm the lynchpin in this whole system. Now we both get up at 5:30 on weekdays. He works on his paper, and I do water aerobics. His progress is slow -- but it's still progress! As for me...well, it could be worse, I suppose. I mean, doing water aerobics has given me an excuse to purchase a fetching little piece of swimwear known as an "aquatard." Please, don't be jealous. You, too, can be the proud owner of an aquatard -- for a price. Sigh.