Family portrait

Eloise (and G) stayed home with a sitter yesterday evening and today she showed me this family portrait that she made while we were out. That's Andrew on the right with the blue lengthy frame. Eloise is on the left. And that's me in the middle. Please notice that she drew my 'boobies', a belly with round belly-button and my 'crotch' in orange (by the way, she made me look pregnant - I'm not!). She also explained that the sun is the white area on the top left and what I assumed was the sun is really a disco ball. This one might get framed.

Halloween videos

First field trip!

Today Eloise rode a school bus to Goebbert's pumpkin farm for her first ever field trip. I was lucky enough to chaperone the group but drove separately so that little bro bro could tag along. We were underdressed and frozen to the core (unfortunately the trip was scheduled on one the very few crumby days in this most beautiful month) but the kids had a great time (all except Eloise - she took a spill in the mud and couldn't quite seem to pull it together for the rest of the trip - oh well...). They ate their packed lunch, looked at the animals, went on a hay ride and brought home pumpkins and gourds. The beauty of driving myself was that George and I could stay just a little bit longer to enjoy apple cider donuts, hot cider and buy apples to bring home. We adore fall. Who doesn't?

the bus!

lunch

G field tripped too

we carved our pumpkin when we got home

Augs sure looked cute not helping with the pumpkin carving

Our kinda town (taken last week)

What goes up, must come down...

Beautiful, warm and sunny October weekend

Saturday: house hunting (ugh) and football watching (double ugh)

Sunday: marathon cheering (we cheered for our favorite friend and our favorite babysitter), donut eating, walking and more walking, napping, fall decorating, halloween costume shopping...

Eloise slapped high-fives with all of the sweaty runners.

Many runners crossed to our side of the street to slap five and yell "Go Blue".

Trying on costumes. Don't worry, we didn't get this one (we'll wait until she's 5...)

ArtPrize

We headed to GRaps this weekend for a quick visit and ArtPrize tour. It is very exciting to see so many people walking around the downtown area that has literally gone from drab to vibrant in a decade. I was disappointed to admit it, but our favorites really were almost all voted in the top 10. I know it's been some debate, (although considering our short time and the darling children we were toting around) but I think the voters nailed it. Anxious to see who wins!

proud to be from GRaps - such a beautiful riverfront

monkeys on the bridge (oh, and hanging from the bridge too :)

performance art;

shifts of 2 different men turning themselves into statues for hours on end.

it was doing exactly what art should do - the excitement of the amazed crowds and the chatter/debate was awesome.

beautiful cousins

Rusty

chainsaw grizzlys in the Ford Museum fountain (there were about 8 of them)

cut paper - beautiful dimension and texture

I thought this crucification was cliche when I read about it the paper,

but it is gorgeous and gleaming in person.

very very cool. and debonair.

horray for ArtPrize. horray for GRaps.

We also spent a quick hour at Robinette's on Sunday before hitting the road around lunchtime. We didn't even make it in the Haus to taste the delicious cider and donuts due to the crazy long lines, but we did snap the requisite apple photo. And since apparently apple picking, hay rides, pumpkin choosing and cider drinking are just not exciting enough, they have a new addition this year...a jumping air pillow. Elle thought it was the best thing ever.