Pumpkins=fall

Fall has officially arrived and we celebrated by going to a pumpkin patch to obtain our first pumpkin this weekend. (Pictures to fill the post!)

Mat's family arrived Wednesday night last week - his mom, dad and his grandmother Pletcher. This was the first time Grandma had been to our house, and we were excited to have her. They came in to help take care of the kids while Mat and I were in Boston for Finley's procedure on Thursday.


Anyway, Saturday we went to a local farm/apple orchard to get some pumpkins and some mums. It is the same place we went to last year with his family. We didn't pick apples this time - the weather wasn't being very cooperative, so we didn't want to push our luck. We did take some great pictures of the kids and had a nice time.

We left with three small pumpkins and one large one. We also came home with a beautiful mum (once the flowers open, I will take it's picture)

Arlington spent most of the afternoon deciding if her pumpkin was a boy or a girl. Once decided it was a girl pumpkin, she named it Mamy. No idea why, except that she is weird.

Our little Van Gogh.

The kids painted the pumpkins.

Cainan decided to pain his pumpkin orange. Lots and lots of orange paint on an already orange pumpkin. Why not.


After he was done painting it orange, he said he needed a bath because he was very messy. I looked him over - not a drop of paint on him. Or the table around him for that matter.

Finley was a different story. I was putting the laundry away, and Mat was "watching" them. When I came down, Finley had painted her whole pumpkin chocolate brown.

We won't talk about what it looks like.

And she had also painted herself and about the entire table brown too. Good job, dad.

Arlington painted her pumpkin, but also painted her new bird house. She had a birthday party Saturday afternoon and the project that they had was painted bird houses (dad owns a tree cutting business). She had a great time building the bird house at the party and then painting it on Sunday.

But Arlington needed two baths on Sunday - first one was after the bird house where she painted the bird house, herself, and the floor.

The second was after the pumpkin where she felt she needed to paint her hands as well as her pumpkin. So she was really clean.


We had a nice weekend. It rained so hard on Saturday that I was not sure if we were going to get our trip in to the apple orchard/pumpkin patch, but it stopped just long enough for us to make that trip.

Sunday Mat's family said goodbye early, and we spent the day decorating the house for fall/Halloween, and cleaning.
Monday was back to work and school and the start of another long week. Next week we have another 4 day week, so we are looking forward to that.

Monday I did my first two handwashing classes. I have to do every class in the school over the next month or so. This week, I started with 4th grade. I did two of the three classes today. They were pretty well behaved. Because I showed the signature "clean kids" video earlier in the year, the class went a little quicker. I have a special lotion that glows under a blue light, and the kids love it. My favorite part is putting lotion on my hands (like I have sneezed in my hands) then shake hands with a kid, who touches his pencil, and shakes hands with another kid. It is fun to see their reaction of where the "germs" would be if they sneezed into their hands, then didn't wash.

Anyway, the kids washed for jolly ranchers. (I give them away to the top washers). Amazing. Will wash for candy. That should be their slogan. After that, I took all the kids outside for a pretend sneeze contest with glitter. That was totally fun.

Aren't I a fun nurse? And I wonder why I had almost 4100 visits last year.

Today was wacky busy at work. I had a meeting and then spent the day with my first round of vision and hearing screenings. Did just one 4th grade class. The kids did well. I did sternly talk to two girls who absolutely refuse to wear their glasses, and how now their vision is much worse. Vanity in 4th grade - too much! And I had one boy not pass the hearing test, but I know this little boy. He is kind of "out there". He was more interested in seeing how high he could hold the button (you push when you hear the sound) and not really paying attention 100% of the time.

Spaceball.

Tonight we carved our pumpkin.

We are a little early with our pumpkin this year, so I am sure we will obtain another before Halloween. But with Mat's family here this weekend, we wanted to get a pumpkin together.

Mat cut it open and the kids dug in! The funny part was - Finley was sitting beside the pumpkin before Mat started to cut it. She started to pat it, and in her most maniacal voice she said to the pumpkin:
"We're going to cut you up" Weirdo

Even Cainan put his hands in it, although he was very sensitive. As most of you know he does not like to have his hands dirty, let alone in something slimy like a pumpkin! But he did put his hands in it, and also pulled a few seeds out before asking to go and clean up.

Finley got in on the action.

Once all the seeds were out, Mat finished Carving it. I will take a picture of the kids with it and post it Saturday. We cooked the pumpkin seeds in the oven with oil and salt and enjoyed the tasty treat before bed this evening.

As most of my readers know, Mat and I and the kids decided we are going to take part in a "VisionWalk" on October 24th in Boston. It is a bit of a drive for a walk, but it is the closest one to us.

We are asking our friends and family to sponsor us in the walk so that we can raise money for the Foundation Fighting Blindness. All proceeds go to finding a cure for childhood blindness.

We have named our team "Finley's Fighters". We hope to make this an annual thing and each year raise more money to help find a cure so that someday Finley will have normal vision.

If you wish to sponsor us, you can click on the link on the right that is in red that says "Finley's Fighters" or you can click on this link and it will take you to our page.
Finley's Fighters
We appreciate your sponsorship. All money goes directly to finding a cure for blindness.

So that is about all on our end. Tomorrow is my BIL, Jonathan's birthday, so we would like to wish him a very happy birthday! Enjoy your day, Jonathan!

Enjoy a few more pictures that didn't fit.

See you Saturday.