Happy Halloween!

A few weeks ago, we decided to take the kids to the local pumpkin patch.  Emily's sister and brother came along as well.

It was beautiful weather.

Karina wanted to go through the haystack maze.

Xiao Yu enjoyed riding on the tracker tricycle.  They look cool but are not well designed for riding as the pedals have very short axles.  

Gabe rode as well.

The boys wanted to husk some corn.

Then you put the de-husked cob into a machine that separates all the kernels from the cob.

And then you take a handful of kernels and put them through a grinder.

We got handfuls of these and fed them to the animals in the petting zoo section.  Xiao Yu thinks it's fun because their tongues tickle your hands as they slurp up the corn.

Gabe usually doesn't like doing this type of stuff but joined in as well.

And then it was on to the corn bin.  Uncle Charles was the only adult willing to get into the bin with the kids and risk getting kernels everywhere.

Needless to say, having an adult who is willing to be a jungle gym made the kids very happy.

Then we went to the pumpkin launch.  You have to try to get these little pumpkins into those white colored plastic bins far away.  Xiao Yu wanted to pull the launcher himself but doesn't have the strength to pull it back very far.  His pumpkin travelled about 15 feet.

And then we were off to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins--a process that can take over half an hour as the kids deliberate over which one is their favorite.

It has become sort of an annual tradition that Uncle Charles balances a pumpkin on his head.

And then we brought then back to the washing station.

And the kids also enjoyed freshly pressed cider.

It was very sweet.

And Xiao Yu drank maybe 6 or 8 of these little cups' full.

Several weeks later it was time to carve the pumpkins.  The kids "helped" to cover the dining table with newspaper.  Lots of newspaper.

Eliana was away at a practice for her musical, so it was the three kids carving...or attempting to.

Boy, it can be hard getting the top off!

Eventually Ruffy got it out!

Karina also needed a little bit of help.

Gabriel got really into cleaning out the slimy seeds inside.  Usually this job is reserved solely for Daddy.

Although Xiao Yu refused to touch the seeds and said he needed help.

The kids picked the pattern than they wanted on their pumpkin.  And then one by one they slinked away to play in the living room, leaving Daddy to actually do the actual carving.   After carving three pumpkins, he was all done with carving for this year!

And here is how they turned out!  Gabe asked for Chase, from Paw Patrol (a TV show he watches online.)

Xiao Yu wanted Curious George.

And Karina wanted a "princess witch."

And then the trick-or-treating began.  The kids were lucky because there were several places in the week before doing trick-or-treating and so they got to go three times this year.  

First, the week before Halloween, they went to a nursing home.

Here is Karina's costume--a mermaid.

They walked around and got lots of candy from old folks.  Probably the easiest trick-or-treating ever!

And then the Friday before Halloween, Elvin's work organized a party for kids.  Xiao Yu decided that he wanted to be a flower.  

The party had face painting which Karina and Xiao Yu took advantage of.

Xiao Yu got a caterpillar. 

Karina got a pink heart, which is so like Karina to ask for that.

Here they are posing behind some silly things.  You may have noticed that Eliana is not in the pictures.  She was at school, so wasn't able to partake in these festivities.

The kids also got prizes at the "fishing" booth.

At this game, Gabe somehow was able to get the velcro-covered balls to stick on the target--three times!  No other kid was able to get even one ball to stick.  We're not sure what happened here as he has not displayed skills in other sports.

Afterwards, the kids wanted to see Daddy's cubicle.

Here it is and the little fireman is helping to undock Daddy's laptop!

And finally...the big day arrives!   It has been sunny all week.  We cannot remember when it was the last time that it was not raining on Halloween.  

The trick-or-treating began.  We mainly walked around our street. 

Xiao Yu was slightly under the weather, so after 3 houses, started asking if he could go home.  Gabe only lasted for 20 min. more, but the girls went through all the houses in our loop.

And now it was time for the kids to analyze all the booty that they have accumulated in the past week.  Both girls were able to fill up a entire gallon Ziploc with candy!

Very happy with her take.

And then commenced a fairly intense bargaining session between the siblings.  Karina does not like and does not eat chocolate.  Eliana does, but does not care for Snickers....  Gabe does... etc. etc.  We suppose that these are important life skills which will come into use later on?

Well, we hope you had a happy and safe Halloween!

Eclipse!

As everyone knows, we recently experienced the eclipse.  Up here in Washington, we were pretty close to the path of totality (two hours' drive south would've put us in the path), so lots of the sun got covered up by the moon...maybe close to 98%.

We got eclipse glasses (from a reputable source) and had fun going out every once in a while to see what was going on.  We only let the girls do this; we didn't trust the boys to not sneak a peak without the glasses.

It was strange that at its peak, it got quite cold--standing outside with a t-shirt got chilly.  We also noticed on the ground that as the sunlight shone through the gaps between leaves on the trees, each little beam of light was in the shape of the eclipse.  Weird and interesting!

Eliana is 9!

Our Eliana is now nine years old!  It's hard to believe that almost a decade has passed already.

This year, on her birthday, we happened to have been helping out at a week-long high school camp that our church is involved in.  So instead of having cake, we had popsicles!  This was appropriate because it was very hot at this camp located in the high desert of Oregon.  Sometimes it was in the high 90's during the day, and we were there on a "cool" year!

We sang happy birthday to her at this impromptu party.

After coming home, Eliana got a couple of presents.  One was a pair of boots that she wanted.

She also wanted some clothes for her doll.

A couple of weeks later, we organized a "real" birthday party for her where she got to invite friends over.  As is a tradition at our house, we always make the Brazilian dessert brigadeiros, which are essentially fudge in the shape of little balls covered with sprinkles.  First you have to cook it on the pan.  She recently has learned how to make her one scrambled eggs in a pan and so was allowed to stir the brigadeiro "batter".

And here we are rolling them into balls.

The next day, her friends came over for the party!  We hung up a piñata and the littlest ones got to whack at it first.  

Here is Gabe swinging at it.

Karina tried her best too.  Each kid had three tries.

Eliana got a good whack at it!

Eventually it got demolished and the kids rushed in to grab the candy.

Eliana decided that the theme for her party would be "camping".  And so for dinner, the kids roasted their own hot dogs.  Because we don't have a fire pit, we put charcoal in a clay pot instead, which worked just fine.

We got soda, which might be Karina's most favorite thing in the entire world, and you can see her guzzling down the last dregs of a ginger ale 2L bottle.

Here is Xiao Yu chillin'.

Eliana also deemed that her party would have an egg-on-a-spoon race.  So we hard boiled some eggs, formed two teams, and they were off!

Some were more calm than others.

Gabe dropped his several times and had to re-start over and over.

Then it was time to open presents.  Gabe sure is excited!

Eliana got various presents: a pencil in the shape of a huge lollipop, American Girl scuba diving and swimsuit set, and a scooter to ride outdoors.

After that, it was time for s'mores.  So they headed on back to the fire.

And finally it was time to eat cake.  However, Eliana wanted strawberry shortcake instead and so that's what we had.  

Blow!

How many kids can you fit into a little house?  We have a little toy house in our backyard and the kids stuffed themselves in here.

And to finish of the evening, we set up our tent in the backyard.  In keeping with the camping theme, Eliana wanted to sleep outside in the tent with her friends.  Karina helped setting it up.

And they crawled in, and got to watch a movie till late at night.  After it was over, they got into their sleeping bags and fell asleep.  Elvin also set up his little backpacking tent outside and slept there just to make sure things were OK overnight!

So that was Eliana's ninth birthday!  We can't believe she is getting so big so quickly, before we know it, she'll probably be a teenager!

Bubble!

Karina has been allowed to chew bubble gum for a little while now and has been asking about how one blows bubbles.  We've tried explaining it to her, but it's a little hard to explain and also hard to show.

But she's been trying and practicing and trying and recently has become adept as blowing bubbles!

Here's a small one.

And here's a bigger one!

She bought herself 6 feet of bubble gum tape from the store (using her own birthday money) so she has plenty of gum to practice on!