Of crafts and costumes

All ready for Halloween: we've painted our wooden bats, spread cobwebs across the front of the house, and tried on our costumes. Next will be the pumpkins & roasting pumpkin seeds (oh, and set our DVR to record the Giants' World Series game). Nate says whenever someone hands him treat tonight he's going to respond with a deep "The force is strong with this...candybar."

A trip to the Oakland Zoo last weekend

 

 

 

 

Bad Chickens

 

California Carnivores

After pumpkin picking, we went to Sebastopol to see California Carnivores, the US's largest carnivorous plant shop. Nate's was more interested than Julie -- he knew the differences between a pitcher plant, honeydew, butterwort and venus flytrap. We couldn't resist touching a couple of the plants, and walked away with a couple to gobble up insects at home. We've found so far that ants make a tasty treat.

Pumpkin Portraits

The obligatory pumpkin photos suitable for framing. Or not. That's the largest pumpkin we could find in the second photo.

Petaluma Pumpkin Patch

This is the pumpkin patch that creates a three mile backup on Highway 101 just outside of Petaluma. It was our first time there, so we had to do it all -- jumpy houses, pumpkin picking, and a stroll through the 4 acre cornfield maze (where we rescued a lost family who didn't buy a map). I'm still not sure why it creates a backup, but we walked away with the biggest pumpkin the kids could find.

What they're reading: Nate & Julie edition

Here's Julie reading Dr. Seuss for the first time, and like everything else she puts her mind to, she's improving by leaps and bounds. At the beginning of school, her teacher said she's one of the best readers in her class, which surprised us given how she just started reading. Nate's also a strong reader, and his favorite books now are Harry Potter. We've stopped him at book four since the stories get increasingly darker, so we're trying to find other series that will interest him. His reading assessment at the beginning of the year? 2nd grade reading speed: 44 words per minute. Nate's speed? 180.

Walnut Creek Rock & Crystal Fair

Eggs!

A routine coop check today revealed Carmel sitting on four small perfect eggs. Our first batch! We can't tell if they're all from her, but she wasn't too happy when we took them away, so perhaps she's the first layer in the group. We'll know when we see blue eggs from our two Americanas, Speckels and Fluff Fluff Sparrow.