Travel for Business and Pleasure

 In early November Grandma Mary came to Maryland to attend a conference for work. 

The conference was hosted about 45 minutes from our home, which meant we were able to visit her a few of the evenings during the conference. 

We spent time in her cozy hotel room eating carpet picnics, playing games, and reading books.

This was Grandma's first time to meet Joey.  I think she liked him.

When her conference ended on Saturday, Joe and Xandra picked her up and brought to our house for the remainder of the weekend.  The kids couldn't get enough of her.

What's not to like when you get to cuddle on the couch, read books, and play with play-doh all weekend?

Before we completely wore her out,

we said our goodbyes and sent her back to Grandpa Tim,

with promises to see her next month.

Cheers

As you prepare your Thanksgiving Feast today and tomorrow, Theia lifts her glass of sparkling apple cider to you:

I'm guessing she won't be drinking anymore of that at tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner.

At Play

Here's a peek into the play of our 20 month old...

Seven things I love about that video:

1.  How she throws the book to the ground when she decides she's done with it.

2.  The attempt to get under the arch...very funny.

3.  The random acts of dancing.

4.  Her total fascination with the toy and then quick abandonment of the toy at the end of the video.

5.  It totally captures the mind of a 20 month old:  distracted and exploring.

6.  One sock on, one sock off.

7.  The cackling Trisha in the video - I laugh like that everytime I watch this video. 

The New Farmer Joe's Garden

Joe has already passed along his green thumb to his newborn son.  Meet Farmer Joe, his garden (he's got one happy flower and one grumply flower), and the lovely bee who pollinates the flowers.

Here's a closer look at each part of our garden crew.



Busy bee and Farmer Joe.

Flower 1, aka grumpy.

Flower 2, aka Happy.

Our first trick or treating stop after the torturous pictures above, was Miss Carol's house.  She is our next door neighbor turned babysitter.  She watches the kids during naptime if I need to run errands or make a trip to the doctor's office without four small children in tow.

 Miss Carol is well loved for many reasons:  She "knows all the words in the books" as Xandra would say, she tells great stories, she has lots of doggies and kitties at home, she lets the girls stay up from nap when she comes, she wears a cool kitty mask for Halloween, and she loves each of our kids dearly.   We stopped at our other neighbors homes too, and made the traditional rounds.  Just before we hopped in the car to head to a friend's house for more trick or treating fun, we snapped this shot of our jack-o-lantern.

The squirrels were not kind to him.  He looks a lot more scary for Halloween, however.

After our initial trick or treat, I was forced to make a few changes to the flower costumes.  I have a knack for creating costumes that are unwieldy.  Theia was much happier wearing her costume backwards.

Mr. Daniel carried Aliyah most of the night and took her up door to door in his arms to get her candy.

The whole trick or treating crew.

After the kids had filled their bags with loot I'm sure they'll be eating until Easter, we returned to the Holmes house for dinner and fun.

I have to say, Farmer Joe's garden has never looked so good!

The Office

Joe's work in October was filled with lots of late nights, including one all-nighter, and lots of billed hours.  In an effort to get to see a bit more of him during his busiest week, the kids and I ventured into the city one evening, with pizza in tow, to visit him at work and share a meal.

 

After the pizza scarfing was complete (thanks Auntie Beth and Uncle Josh!), we checked out the office.

Joe's inbox has never been fuller.

Since it was later in the evening, the girls ran the halls.

We used Joe's desk as a changing station

and then Joey took a spin in the desk chair. 

The girls colored pictures to help decorate the office,

played with the only toy in Joe's office,

broke his only toy,

and then said goodbye for the evening.

Autumn Applelooza IV: Small Fry Edition

This October, for the fourth year in a row, we hosted Autumn Applelooza, the Pull family celebration including all things fall, apple, and pumpkin.  We enjoyed the company of several friends, some who had endured our festivities before and some who had not, and several who had added small fries to their family in the last year.  With a new small fry of our own (Joey was just six weeks old) we kept things on a simpler scale than in previous years.

The kids enjoyed fun in the yard while the adults identified the leaves from trees, bushes, and a vine (all taken from our yard).  The plants in question were a dogwood, japanese maple, red blood maple, maple tree, azaela bush, cherry tree, pumpkin, holly bush, magnolia tree, and cedar tree.

After leaf identification (Congratulations to Andrew for his win) we participated in an Autumn Applelooza version of guess the weight, small fry style.

Various sized and shaped pumpkins were lined up on a table and assigned letters.  Then Joe would shout out a small fry or combination of small fries (i.e. Xandra, or Xandra and Joey, or all the kids present).  Each team or person would have to choose the combination of pumpkins that weighed most closely to that of the small fry or fries in question. 

Once everyone recorded their answers, Joe weighed each of the small fries and each of the pumpkins.

Theia assisted him in tallying the results.

Then the weights of each were tallied and compared.  The Shumans emerged as the team most capable of accurately judging the weights of both.

Joe's cousin Katie joined us for the day.

Next we got to work carving pumpkins.

Tim S. prepping the pumpkin for Jennifer to carve.

Our friends, Niina and Cheekin, from Finland and Malaysia, had never carved a pumpkin.  They were very interested and fascinated by the process, but despite our best efforts (and the appearance of this picture) we could not convince them to actually give it a try.  

 

Tim and Katie made pumpkins that went together (see below).

 



Xandra was very interested in the pumpkin carving this year.  She helped Joe decide what to carve.



Jacob was one of the new small fries present this year.



Our smallest fry slept for most of the afternoon.

By the time the pumpkins were finished, we'd worked up enough of an appetite to enjoy some taco soup and cornbread.  

  

Once dinner and dessert were eaten, we turned to Andrew for entertainment.

Everyone left shortly after.

The final pumpkins from left to right:  Niina and CheeKin's uncarved pumpkin, the Glenn pumpkin (design by Madeline), the hockey player and goalie pumpkins, Joe & Xandra's pumpkin, the trick or treat pumpkin (it's hard to see the words in this picture).

When all our friends had left, we lit our pumpkin and the girls enjoyed a few minutes admiring it before bedtime. 

Note:  Thanks to Naomi for many of the pictures on this post.