anticipation

It takes so long to get dark on Halloween night!

moo....yee haw!

Our neighborhood Halloween parade was yesterday so we got our cow and cowgirl all gussied up and had a good time checking out all the other cool costumes and seeing many friends there. Nate loved having a tail. And they'll get to get dressed up again on real Halloween!

bikers

Watch out world! (In particular anyone walking on our sidewalk...)

dressed for success

Off to the grocery store on a chilly Sunday morning .... Nate wanted to wear this "life jacket".

PS - Abby learned how to tie her shoes!  And she got her six year molars (we weren't expecting those...but were reassured by Dr. Google that they are perfectly normal).

happy day dee dee!

We just got off the phone with the birthday girl Dee Dee ... Happy Day to you!! We love you. (Abby was in a more cooperative camera mood this evening...with her new hairstyle from today.)

breakfast + furlough

Nate's current favorite breakfast these days ... sliced banana with PB and raisins. Abby's fave .... toast with strawberry jam.

And on what appears to be the final day of government shutdown - a recent conversation we had here over breakfast:

Abby: (out of the blue) "Furlough!" (apparently she has been listening to us talk about the topic du jour)

Sarah: "Who's furloughed in our house?"

Abby: (after some serious thought) "Swimmer?" (our new fish)

projects

House project mode continues here, accelerated by Papa's continued furlough status. Here we fulfill a long-standing mommy wish (inspired by this idea) to turn the kids' crib into an art table for the basement. The chalkboard paint surface works well...  Now we are outfitting it with some more art supplies. Oil pastels here we come!

art wall

Check out our new art wall ... dry erase and magnetic and a scotch tape-able surface. Awesome.

farmy fun

Sweet and silly.

pumpkins

Another fun pumpkin patch / hayride / apple picking adventure. We ran into lots of friends at the farm ... including cousins Walter and Silas!

OK DC

Since this blog is for our family and friends to enjoy today, and a record of all sorts of things big and small for us to look back on in 20 years (if Blogger.com still exists!)... Let's talk about DC in 2013 a little bit.

Monday afternoon: Republicans in Congress put on their pouty faces and refused to agree on a spending package that would fund Obamacare.  They threaten to close down the government as a way to stall implementation of a plan that has been passed into law, signed off on by the Supreme Court, and would provide affordable health care to all Americans.

Monday evening: Sarah attends a reception at a law firm with a nice view (see above), where one can stand on a roof deck, mingle, sip sauvignon blanc, and look through a pair of gigantic binoculars into the windows of the White House. 

Monday midnight: Government does indeed shut down, Jamie starts planning out his forced day(s) off without pay.

Tuesday: Kids at school, Sarah at work, Jamie in house project mode.


Wednesday: Ditto above.  Unrelated to the shutdown, but definitely a sign of the times: Abigail asks us if we know what a lockdown is, and reports that her class practiced hiding in the closet with the lights out today....