Pumpkin parties and baby dedication

In preparation for a pumpkin party we were to attend, Jade and I spent the day before, first decorating our pumpkin(s) and then cooking one and roasting the pumpkin seeds.
Then we took our fresh cooked pumpkin and turned in into pumpkin spiced whoopie pies. Yum!
The pumpkin party was super fun, with fresh pressed Apple cider...
...and JB is holding a freshly baked pumpkin fritter/donut
Then today, we were able to have Cutter dedicated, Mr. wiggle britches did pretty good during the prayer...
whoops, there he goes crazy...but now you can see Jadey Lady!
Here are some more pics of Cutter and Jade (and Jonathan) on Cutter's special day
Cutter is now seven months old. Time goes by quickly
The beautiful sweater and booties were made by Grandma Bechtle:)

Craft day

My little craft class didn't meet this week so I wasn't as motivated to work on a craft project with Jade as I normally am. However, we did find some time to get out the glitter glue and work on coloring in Jade's "make your own" calendar kit. Then I found Jade's book that has idea's for little girls to "bejewel" everything and anything they own. She was given the book with the jewels as a present before Cutter was born (I think she got it at my baby shower). And I have avoided showing her how to use it. Until...today. Today we bejeweled one of her head bands. You can't see it to well in this picture, but she proudly placed three big, red, hearts on my headband...because "Red is my favorite Mommy!"
modeling for you all
and then it was Jade's turn to take a picture.

Pumpkin patch

We went to the pumpkin patch over the weekend with some friends. It was a perfect Fall day, cool, crisp and SUNNY! Riding to the pumpkin patch was the highlight for Jade
I think Cutter enjoyed the tractor ride as well:)
Most of the pumpkins were either squashed or still a bit green, so we didn't find to many "good" ones. Still, it was fun searching for them.
Jade found and picked a flower while we were out, she is holding it in this pose.
After picking our pumpkins, feeding the goats, letting Jade slide down the super slide, we headed home. I put Cutter in his seat and took off his baseball cap, only to reveal is funny, sticking up, hat hair. Hee, hee...gotta love it!

Silly sock day at AWANA

Jade is a Cubbie this year in AWANA and I have the privilege of being her cubbie leader. It's so much fun for me to see her interact with the other children, learn bible verses, play games and remember stories that were told weeks ago. Sometimes on AWANA nights there are silly themes for the kids to dress up as. One night we had "inside out and backwards" night, and we all had to wear our clothes inside out and backwards. Last night was "silly sock" night.

Jade and I tried to pull off a bit of santa's helper look with our stripped red and white socks (Jade's light up on the sides!) And then Jade told me we should pose serious and silly....so we did
I really love teaching in AWANA, but I love to see how excited Jade is to go even more!

My precious kiddos

Today was one of those beautiful Fall days you want to take advantage of, go to the park, play outside...just be out in the wonderful, cool, sunshine. We didn't make it to the park but we did play outside for awhile. My little Cutter bug likes to sit in the grass and pull at leaves and twigs and eat them:)
Thankfully Jade is a big helper and kept trying to keep him from eating icky things.
this didn't bother him, he likes attention...he likes A LOT of attention. Some ladies in the MOPS nursery today accused me of entertaining him to much and that's why he can't sit still and must have constant attention. I thought it had something to do with him being human, but apparently not. hee, hee
Jade likes to play tennis the way you'd play ball. I throw the tennis ball at her and she swings at it with her racket. She wanted to pose for this pic and got upset with me when I snapped it while she was talking. I love my little diva.
She says the funniest things these days. When I repeat them it's never as funny, but in the moment I don't know where she comes up with these things.

She bit her lip yesterday and was crying. I tried to sooth her and asked her what happened "I bite myself" she sobbed" I bit myself with my sharp teeth!"

This morning while I was feeding Cutter and she was cooing over him, she put her arms as though she were rocking a baby and said "Wouldn't daddy be so cute if he were a tiny baby?" and then she started laughing.

She likes to talk about when she gets big, a few days ago she declared "I want to get big Mommy, I was to grow and be HUGE, just like you!"

I have to wrap this up as my baby is crying...but I just wanted to say that Cutter hasn't been to interested in food as of yet. But I did try him on some turnips yesterday and he actually seemed to like it! Turnips!

When gushing over this to my friend at the gym, she said "what are turnips?". hee, hee (Gym partner, if you read this...well...we'll talk later. I love you!)

Shrink art...it shrunk...and shrunk...

I was so very, very excited to try shrink art with the kids today for our weekly craft. The kids were very excited too!
we picked out our designs and they all couldn't wait to watch their art shrink before their eyes.
Oh, it shrunk alright. Despite covering our little pieces with parchment paper and also trying without and trying a lower setting on the oven and a higher setting....our art didn't really shrink the way it was suppose to. These below were our best pieces.
and these were some of our worst :-(
not to be discouraged we spent the remainder of our craft time stringing animal shaped beads onto plastic string to make bracelets and necklaces. Perhaps I should have called on some professionals in trying the shrink art. LOL

Friday Craft Day

This weeks Friday craft was making "finger kites" ours didn't quite work out very well, but the kids had a blast painting them.
After craft time we headed out to Lattin's Cider Mill to play around and...
feed the goats:)
we didn't have warm sunshine like the weather man predicted, but we still had a really great time!