Happy Halloween!

We have been celebrating Halloween since September. That's when we got out the decorations.

But we didn't get around to carving pumpkins until last night. Here's how it all went down.

Quinn was interested at first ...



but quickly grew bored with the process and took off to the playhouse.



She also grew tired of paparazzi daddy with the camera and closed up shop for the day.



Griffin tried to clean his pumpkin. His had really thick sides. And when you scoop one seed at a time, it is a bit of a process.



Then G decorated with little pegs (rather than cutting). He LOVED it. I'd poke the peg through the pumpkin, then he'd hammer it in. And every time, he'd say "tap tap tap" as he hammered.



This was the first year that Noah really cleaned his own pumpkin - with minimal complaining, too!



His facial expressions gave him away, dontcha think?






This was also Noah's first year of carving all by himself. First he drew his design.



Then he used a small pumpkin carving knife to cut it out.





He was so meticulous about the process - like my Bean usually is.

Last up: Bob and G carved what was supposed to be Quinn's pumpkin.



And here is the final product: 3 Lessinger jack-o-lanterns, just in time for Halloween.

Working on my studio schtuff ...

And that means I have been dragging my victims ... I mean children ... into the garage for lots of photos during the last 2 days.

Here's one of Miss Quinn and a possible Christmas card type pose.



And the G man (poor kid was happily playing in the backyard, and I bribed his dirty little self to let me test my lights). He's easy to bribe - one pack of smarties and we are set for decent number of photos. :-)



And my big boy. He's a cutie - when I can get him to smile and not give me his impression of Bucky Beaver (totally intentional on his part, by the way).





Here's an example of a technically inferior but still darn cute photo:



And just for fun:

Turner

Last weekend, I took a few photos of Turner. Here are a couple that I liked. He absolutely refused to crack a smile for me - but when Uncle Bob came out and played peekaboo behind me, we had outright laughs! I'm not sure what kind of magical power Bob has over this little guy, but it is pretty cool.





And here's a shot of my big boy. 7 years old. Where does the time go?

This might be what happiness looks like.

Auntie June found a killer deal at the garage sale this weekend, and G was the big beneficiary. 

Do you think he's happy?

More of Miss Quinn ...

This time on blue.

Reasonably cooperative (although the girl will not smile when she sees my camera!) ...



Using her cute "this-gets-me-what-I-want-and-I-want-down" face ...



And losing all patience with me.



It gets easier when you can bribe them with candy.



Can you guess what she's in front of?

Quinners on white.

Same photo, just B&W.



She's wasn't exactly thrilled with my desire to take her picture. Poor kid - I put her on a barstool so she couldn't escape. Bwahahaha.



If she'd just smile at my camera, I'd be so happy.

Playing with a new backdrop ...

So it doesn't suit the child (a bit girly for G) and it clashes with his shirt.

But the expression? I love it. :-)

In other news, the twins are doing well. Had an ultrasound and went to the dr. last week, and they are growing nicely and are almost exactly the same size.

I'd love to hear any suggestions for boy names. We are stumped, and we need 2 (yes, the u/s tech spotted boy parts again.)

Speaking of new ...

Here is Quinn with her new skirt and her new baby. I got the baby last week, since I thought it would be better to have now rather than for her birthday/Christmas when those "other" babies are expected to arrive. She has been busy feeding and putting Baby down for naps since she assumed her mama role.

Have you seen G's new haircut?

Now you have. :-) He's had an aversion to clippers until now. A screaming, crying, arm-flailing aversion. But we convinced him that clippers would not hurt, and that preschoolers are brave enough to let the hair stylist use the clippers. It worked!

G's first day of preschool ...

Outside the school, in the bright sun.



Hard at work.



Modeling a fabulous preschooler project.



He loved it. Can't wait to go back, as a matter of fact.

And here's a shot of Miss Quinn. We went to a park after dropping G off, but it was pretty wet so we decided to throw pebbles in the river. It was a great plan ... until she scooped up two big handfuls of mud. Ick!

Back to school!

Noah is off to 2nd grade!



(See him trying to figure out my umbrella?)





And G will be going to preschool, starting tomorrow. Talk about excited!!

Griffin get his picture taken.

G and I ran errands today, and I asked him if he'd let me take his picture. We learned a few things. Like, when taking pictures downtown next to a cool looking door, make sure it isn't actually a door to a open business. G kept trying to open the door, and since it was locked, I let him and snapped away. Turns out, this was a bar door (so it was locked from the outside). The smoker that came out of it was quite amused at the 3-yr-old and his mama taking pictures. He definitely made us jump when he opened the door!



Isn't he cute? I can't believe how much he's grown up lately.

Dirt.

'nuff said.

Another lazy weekend in MN

The kids played ... we hung out ... watched some fireworks ... ate some sweet corn.

It was a good weekend.

Here's Noah, letting me practice some photo stuff. Handsome, isn't he?



Here's G, after playing in the dirt with Alyssa for a bit. The photo is fuzzy because he was a little blur racing past me yelling, "I have to go potty!"



And here's Quinners. She took lots of pictures. And now she "takes a picture" then examines the back of the camera, just like Mommy.



Can you believe school starts in a week? Summer flew by!