Pumpkins & Halloween

It's time for our annual Pumpkin Expedition!  This year, it was back to our old favorite, Grandma's Pumpkin Patch in Healdsburg.  There's always some farm animals to admire - including some rabbits this year.  Brennan was only starting to read the last time we came, so I wasn't anticipating that on this trip that I would breathlessly be informed that "the bunnies are FOR SALE, Mommy!"

After I made up some reasonably convincing case for rabbits preferring the country to the city, it was time to take our cart around and select this year's pumpkins.

They found some great ones.  Despite the continued warm weather, they didn't get the tiniest bit squishy.  (Some of our neighbors didn't appear to be quite so lucky.)

Sadly, this may be the last year we can enjoy Grandma's followed by a little jaunt to the wineries. The kids seem to be aging out of the simpler fun at this pumpkin patch - Lucie kept asking where the train ride was, so they've clearly been corrupted by the full-on tourist trap pumpkin experience that is Half Moon Bay in October.

So I made sure to get them to pretend to drive the tractors-

hide among the scarecrows-

- and get in the tiny barn,

at least one last time.

While they don't always love being photographed, Brennan & Lucie DO always like taking pictures - lately when I'm looking for some way to keep them occupied while waiting in a restaurant, or a line, or for Daddy to order sandwiches, I let them take pictures.  Today's subject was "your sibling and Mommy" - I think they did pretty well.

We had a nice picnic at Preston, terrorized the cats, and admired the multitude of weird pumpkins and squash.

Here's Brennan demonstrating, once again, that little boys will turn anything into a weapon.

He's got a decorative gourd and he's not afraid to use it.

The next weekend was the big day - but first, there was the Grattan Halloween Carnival.  This was my first year attending - somehow I've managed to dodge the Volunteer Press Gang up 'til now.  Nominally I was helping at the photo booth, but business was sporadic so I had some time to roam - 

- at least until 10:30, when I was due to escort the Pre-K crew on their Cole Valley Merchant trick-or-treat campaign.

Highlights included candy, costumes, sweaty hot thirsty kids in said costumes, and -

Teacher Tommy's spectacular alter-ego, Georgia Peach:

On Halloween, we had a big morning of soccer, followed by an afternoon hanging out with our neighbors and friends, carving pumpkins, playing, hitting Belvedere Street for trick-or-treat, and eating too much candy while the (alleged) grown-ups polish off a jug from Preston.

So, why are the only Halloween pictures in Beck's living room?  With toy guns?

Well, my costume didn't have pockets, and getting my phone out of my boot while juggling a Clone Trooper helmet, plastic pumpkin full of candy, and a beer was tricky.  Weirdly, I met another person dressed as the same obscure FX network cartoon character, but that Lana Kane had the Diversity Hire as her sidekick.

After all the fun, it was time to set the jack'o'lanterns on the window ledge and let them watch over us all night.  And yes, it's a Storm Trooper and a Kitty.

Blue Angels & Sand Castles

It's Columbus Day Weekend! (Or, if you prefer, Indigenous Peoples Day Weekend, which cracked the kids up when I said it, because they thought "indigenous" was a silly made-up word, leading to a steadily devolving conversation about Christopher Columbus, Native Americans, our own European roots, and Small Pox Blankets, which thankfully ended when we arrived at the gym on said day) Around here that means warm days, sunny skies, and figuring out your feelings re: celebrating the military-industrial complex, aka Fleet Week.

Making the most of the lovely weather can involve dinners on the patio at Zazie -

- or biking to Golden Gate Park for ice cream!

I thought a Friday afternoon viewing of the air show from Alta Plaza park sounded manageable - so manageable, in fact, I lost my mind and brought an extra kid.  Luckily, I thought to pack graham crackers and jelly beans, so I was able to negotiate an end to the "let's throw wads of cut grass at each other" game.

When they weren't throwing grass, rolling down the hill, and ingratiating themselves with the owners of friendly dogs, the kids seemed to enjoy the Blue Angels.

Plus, we had to go Friday, because this is how we spent Saturday:

Get up, eat breakfast, and get dressed while Mommy does a quick bike ride up Twin Peaks.  Pop in the car and drive across town to a 9:40am birthday party at Pump it Up.  Realize the party is closer to two hours long, not one.  Grudgingly (Brennan) and not-at-all-grudgingly (Mommy) eat pizza, negotiate for a second piece of cake by eating some fruit (Brennan again, although just as easily could have been Mommy).

Drive back across town.  Mount bike rack we haven't used in 2 months to car.  Load bikes and soccer gear.  Drive to some park we've never heard of in a neighborhood we don't know.  Unload bikes. Watch Brennan's 2 pm game until halftime, when Daddy & Lucie take the car to get to her 3 pm Jellyfish game.

I stay behind to watch the Gorillas fight back from a 2-0 game to a 2-2 tie.  Round 2 of excessive carb intake commences, in the form of post-game snack.  Change shoes and bike to the Outer Sunset Soccer Fields, to catch the last half of the little kids' game.

Lucie typically divides her time playing, sulking, and bugging me to borrow the camera.  She snapped this one of her coach:

Game over and Round 3 of excessive carbs (aka, "snack") finished, we decide if we hustle, we can catch the end of the Sandcastle Contest at Ocean Beach.

 Not only were there tons of cool sand structures to admire and climb on - we ran into friends, too.  Of course they're not to hard to spot, in their distinctive "Grattan Football Club" kits.  Aiden from the Awesome Oppossums joined the goofing in front of Sponge Bob and Patrick.

There was also a tremendous Jabba the Hut tableau, complete with a Han Solo frozen in carbonite, but I was unable to get a photo thanks to the obnoxious 11 year old with a hand trowel who declared it was smashing time.

The kids also begged for dinner at the Beach Chalet, but at that point I desperately wanted a shower and a chair, not necessarily in that order.   Also I didn't see how Brennan could possibly ingest another bite, given his party and soccer snack intake.  So I promised we go another time, soon.