Fun Halloween, even if I am a bad mom

I feel like a sucktacular mom tonight because I didn't get one single picture of Orion in his costume! Except that lame one without his hood up the other day. I feel extra stupid because I took some pics a few days ago and deleted them because they were blurry. Blurry would have been better than none! :( It was a fun night though. Orion had a great time trick or treating, although he kept saying thank you about halfway down the walk with his back to the door haha.

Wait! I am not the crappiest mom in the world! I was going through Orion's pics and found this one I thought I had deleted! It is not a great shot, which is why I stuck it in his folder thinking I would get a better one, but at least you can get the idea. Grrrr!

Almost Halloween!

One thing I thought it would be fun to do is start taking pictures of the the gluten free baking I do. This is the banana bread I made to take to a party. I found that adding flax meal and using coconut oil is pretty much producing the best result, and the fact that it got eaten up pretty quickly told me it really was pretty good! And said party. Orion in his lion costume, although you can't really tell what it looks like without the hood up.
Little soccer players.
Orion now in tie dye and lion legs and... doing the limbo! At least that is what Anton proclaimed this was all about.
I thought this picture of little Niamh was really cool. The picture is overexposed, but it kindof worked in this case.

Windy Park Day

But first, a cute Orion trying on Dad's helmet. Orion on the swing.
I was doing a photo assignment with changing apertures and speeds and thought this pic came out kinda cool.
There was a giant pile of pine needles I thought looked like a bird nest. So of course Orion sat in it. :)
OK, maybe we do need to cut his bangs. :sigh:

An oatmeal kind of day

I got this idea from Raising Your Spirited Child. They suggested anything you can scoop and pour, and I already know how much he likes playing with water. But what do you do on a rainy day? Put down a sheet and get out the oatmeal. I can't bake with this anyway as it is not a gluten free brand, so I figured it might as well be played with! The hilarious thing was that he asked for a knife. We have been doing alot of baking lately, so he sees me leveling off the measuring cups like that. And even funnier- he said he was making cookies... and he needed th computer to tell him what to do. hahahaha Recipezaar is my best friend.

My little measurerand pourer
At some point, putting it in his hair seemed more fun than measuring and pouring.

It's raining oatmeal!
After the storm.

Pumpkin Time!

We went to Lakeview Pumpkin Patch on Sunday. They have a neat little set up where the pumpkins are fairly far from the entrance, so you can take a train or a boat out to the patch, and take the other one back.My husband, looking like a psycho killer.
Kettle Corn!
"Friends, Romans, countrymen...
...lend me your ears."
Dad doesn't look impressed with the speech.
Pumpkins still waaay in the background.
I wonder what number jumping picture this is.
Examining the big, orange things.
Still life with pumkins.
Awww, a pony ride.
Can you believe my mother wants me to cut his bangs?!
On the way back - trusty Captain.
There are two of these guys that pop out of the water when the boat goes by. Very cheesy, but still very cute.
Even cheesier!
Passing another boat. Yes, this was the scary type of thing we were riding haha. Looks like something you should see in the Everglades! Oh, and that was the fast boat, btw.
The dock.
I don't know what kind of engine the others had, but this thing looked like a lawnmower engine and was twice as loud!
My little scarecrows.

The Ball Thief

We met Kristin and her sister at Papa's Pizza. What were we thinking on a Saturday night?! We couldn't even find a table! But the kids had fun. Orion stole some of the little balls out of one pit and took them into the big ball pit, which Ron thought was hilarious.

Lips and Leaves

Orion looking even cuter than usual.He found some lip gloss in my purse and wanted me to put it on him.
Look at my lips!
It seems like every other picture of him looks like this these days. And every one where we tell him to smile.
Getting ready to sponge paint around fall leaves on our window.
Sponging...

And then we lost our photographer because we ended up needing both mommy and daddy hands. But this is what it looked like when we were done.

Pumpkins and Rats

We went out to one of the Sauvie pumpkin patches today with a bunch of local moms. There were so many things to do, and Orion had a blast!

I love this picture of Miss Ruby. Can you say, America's Next Top Toddler? Straw pyramid! "Gotta condo made of staw-a..." Um... never mind. (Anybody who gets that obscure reference wins a prize).
This isn't a great shot, but I like the drama of it anyway.
Orion loves these things. I don't even have to ask him to pose. Whenever he sees one, he runs to it to put his head inside.

Straw maze. Look at my little mouse go!

Pumkin hugger.

King of the mountain! (He is the only boy up there).

Such a great photo opp with the blue sky as a backdrop.

Best Orion one of the bunch.
But I Think this one of Naia is my absolute favorite. I just wish her face was a bit lighter. Ron saw it when it was enlarged and said, Did you take that?"

"Yeah?"

"Wow, I can't wait to see what you do when you have a good lens." :)

Hayjumper!

Poking at the dirt. Literally, that is what he was doing.

This is what happens if you leave your kid with me for 5 mintues.

At least I encouraged her to wipe her hands off on a pumpkin LOL. Hopefully Kate is still my friend.
Thirsty piggy. They had a whole barn full of animals and some outside too, which Orion loved. I didn't take a bunch of pictures, though, because, well, we see alot of animals, and I am to the point where I feel like I have taken the same animal pictures over and over.

The "hayride" was FREE!

Orion amidst the large, orange things.
And continuing with our theme of the day, Zoolander?

Oh, and I almost forgot about The Rat! Which rat is that, you might ask. Why, The Little Chef! We decided to take Orion to his first movie since we had heard so many good things about Ratatouille and it was at the $3 theater. The beginning was kindof intense, and I was worried he wouldn't make it past a couple parts. I had him sit with me and nurse so he didn't have to look at the screen. Then the rest of the movie was pretty mellow, and he mostly got into it. It helps that he likes to watch cooking shows! He did pretty much spend the whole movie either on my lap or Ron's, though. I really felt the experience was a bit too much sensory overload for him. We will probably wait a good while before trying it again unless it is something we know is really mellow. (Are there any movies like that anymore?)