More Halloween Highlights

J.K. Rowling, Ginny Weasley and Red Gnome

First lolly! He needed absolutely no instruction in how it worked.

Construction worker at the weekend festival.

A repeat winner! The eyes plink down into a skull at the bottom of the board.

Digging for bones.

Happy Halloween!

We have so many events throughout the weekend that Rye gets some costume choices. Mommy made the construction worker vest after he pined for one his cousin Taylor had. It's purposely a little oversized so there is room to grow.

Red Gnome creates some art

Red Gnome decided to visit the knitted Red Gnome at art class. He painted red apples...

He sat and listened with his ears to the story with his hands in his lap....

He follow, follow, follow, followed....

And he and the other kids discovered apples and autumn leaves in the garden with Miss Molly. These fall leaves traveled all the way from Michigan—Rye's Nana sent them!

The Family von Gnome

Rye decided he wanted to dress for Halloween like Miss Gnome and Red Gnome in his Waldorf art class stories. So Mommy and Daddy offered some family support.

Rye loves his tractor pants

Mommy made Rye some tractor pants and he really digs them!

Culinary exploits

Rye has been busy in his Mudpie Kitchen, cooking up soup and tea for us to slurp elaborately. He takes the spoon and carefully scrapes out the imaginary tea from the pink Hello Kitty Band-Aid box, then stirs it into the cups before serving.

What's the special today? It's a surprise!

Exploring the Single Use Tool collection in the big kitchen. While explaining to me, "I'm playing," when I tried to tell him that we have to get dressed and go-go-go to art class right now because we're running late.

The Great Outdoors

We enjoyed a quick trip to Joshua Tree with the Desert Rats last weekend. Rye sang Follow, Follow as we hiked in to the rock. He took turns leading and following, singing the whole way.

Cars, desert figurines and cups with Maia.

A very curious kangaroo rat explored our dinner table.

Cookies in honor of Uncle San Diego's birthday.

Unplugged (finally!).

Eggzactly what I was hungry for.

How cute are these egg molds? Rye loves eating bear eggs and bunny eggs. Yum!

I love my gymnastics class!

Trampoline, balance beam, parachute, rings, bubbles, hand stamps and more!

Helping out with renovations

We've stripped the woodwork in our house and done extensive plaster and painting work. (Well, we hired people to do it.) It's looking great! There have been a lot of details to follow up on, though: Installing hinges, handles and latches, painting the cabinets we had made for the bathroom, installing new floor register vents, re-hanging the pictures.

Rye has been a champion apprentice.

Enlarging the vent hole to accommodate the new register grate.

Measuring to hang pictures.

Screwdriver practice.

Installing bin pulls on the built-in.

Trash truck!

This photo is a little old, but there's nothing stale about watching a trash truck!