Scary Night

We had Akemi's best friends over for Halloween. Later they treated us to a ballerina show.

I also included a picture from my deck openning.

Pumpkin Patch and Play Dates

A couple of weekends ago we went to the same pumpkin patch as last year and picked out some nice ones. Although she keeps saying that she's brave, she's really a chicken. She was afraid of this inflatable cat.

We already bought her Halloween outfit. You'll have to wait for the pictures. Her best friend Abby will come over and they'll go out together.

Last weekend Nina had a play date at Abby's house. Watching them use scissors is like watching professional wrestling. It looks like there's going to be damage, but nothing comes of it.

On Thanksgiving I had the deck opening. Nobody fell through so that's a good sign. We've been playing in the backyard quite often lately. When I was putting the deck together Nina would like to help and hand me some screws. We had some picnics on it when only the platform was done. She would prance around it and I would as casually as possible guard the edges when really I was freaking out that she would fall off the side.

A couple of weeks ago her friend Rachel came over to play. I hadn't mowed the lawn in quite some time so the grass was unruly. They were trying to play croquet, but they could hardly move the ball because of the shaggy course. They were trying to decide who to go first, so I picked up a piece of wood cut like a triangle from when I was cutting out the stringers for the deck stairs. One side was dark and the other side wasn't. So, I asked them if they wanted the light side or the dark side and I flipped it on the ground. They found it so amusing they played it over and over, mostly both choosing the same side.