pumpkin patch.

what with this being the busiest fall EVER, we took a quick after school walk over to the pumpkin patch to snap a few pics. the kids were less interested in picturesque posing than they were in sliding and playing in the log cabin, but we got a few shots...i love this tradition, even if it's a little bit cheesy.

knife skills and other things.

so i went to japan a couple weeks ago and it was awesome. one of the awesome things that happened was i got justin this gorgeous knives. these knives are sharp, as you might expect. one might even call them ninja sharp. anyway...sunday night i asked jb to chop up an onion for me so he could test out the sweet new blades...

(side note: justin has mocked me for YEARS about my knife skills (or lack thereof), but i would just like to state for the record that as of today i have not had an ER-worthy knife injury. i did jack myself up on a mandolin slicer like a year ago, but i just wrapped that thing right up...)

within a slice or two of the onion, we had a nice cut on his thumb. ouch. there was a lot of blood, and he wouldn't let me look at it (my dude hates the sight of blood), so i suggested we kick it to urgent care. amazingly, the bowmans were walking up to our house at that exact moment, so they were able to hang out with the kids while i drove him to the closest ER. amazingly, we were pretty much the only people there, so it was pretty quick. the doc suggested stitches, but said he could get by with steri-strips, which is what my needle-averse husband chose. there was a traumatic moment or two when the doctor cleaned out the wound (squirting some solution directly into it) and lots of blood happened, and jb would probably say the worst part was having to get a tetanus shot...but he didn't cry :).

anyway...i've been sure to provide plenty of mockery to aid in healing. 

in other news, this weekend was super rainy. all day rain on friday and saturday and most of sunday. the kids got creative with hiding places, ejecting the laundry from the hamper so they could occupy this nook. 

and, finally, on an unrelated note, i snapped this pic of hollis before school on monday. he "wanted to hug emme's pumpkin" before school. that kid, man. 

independence.

hollis is a pretty independent kid - he gets frustrated if we try to do something for him that he knows how to do himself. i have to remind myself to be patient and let him work through it even if i could do it way faster. i think this, more than almost anything else, is the great lesson to me as a parent.

anyway. there are times when hollis doesn't know how to do something or doesn't want to try. jb and i try to encourage him to do it himself (the biggest one lately is not wanting to pick up his own food - don't ask me where this comes from). his reply is "i can't know how to". i love it.

soccer.

ek has been playing soccer this season - her first time attempting the sport. when i was signing her up, i volunteered justin and myself to assist in whatever way - team mom, assistant coach, etc. well, a few weeks before the season started, they called and asked if justin would please coach. of course he said yes, even though we have no foundation for this at all.

the team is pretty adorable - 6 kids, 3 girls, 3 boys. our friend cate is on the team, plus a super sweet girl named gabby. the boys are patrick, hudson, and mateo. mateo is basically a professional soccer player - it's insane. this kid is unbelievable.

anyway. ek is starting to get it, maybe. slowly but surely. when we play at home, i'm actually really impressed with her ball handling, scoring, etc. she does great at practice. but the execution in the game can be a little tough. she spends lots of time asking for snacks and/or whining because she only wants to be "in" when cate is also in. then, there's the whole disconnect of going after the ball. we spend every other minute of the day demanding that she share and not take things that don't belong to her...then in the games we're like "GET THE BALL! TAKE IT!". so, i can see where that is confusing (even if she's not the best sharer out there anyway...).

all that being said, it's been fun so far. the kids looooove justin and he's really good with them. he's super patient and they climb all over him and i think they leave practices and games feeling like they are having fun. the first game was rough on everyone - i didn't know what to expect and i may have gone a little too tiger mom on the situation, but we are getting the hang of it. as the weather gets milder, it's even more pleasant.