carving pumpkins

Wednesday, I took the boys out to my mom's and we carved pumpkins! It was a fun time. The boys created their own designs and did their own carving. I decided to try one of the patterns in the little book we got with the tools. OK, I have to say, especially if you are a mom with really small children and have many years of pumpkin carving ahead, see if you can find hard core, really well made carving tools. The little kits you buy cheap? Well, they work but you'll have all the tools broken by the time you finish one pumpkin! I've not done much pumpkin carving in my life. In fact, the first I remember doing was when Sam was just over a year, I carved the Jack-O-Lantern smile to match Sam's newly grown in teeth! Anyway, this year, I bought big pumpkins not realizing that you then get thick pumpkins. They were harder to carve because of their thickness. Sam chose the smaller pumpkin I'd purchased for myself because he liked the shape. It was a bit hard to get good pictures of these lit. I need help with nighttime photography! So, here ya' go...Mine is the owl. Kinda hard to make out.

Max's is the evil grinning Jack-O-Lantern, which I love.. the eyebrows are the magical touch!
Sam wrote out and carved a Halo 3 pumpkin, one of his favorite computer game logos. Unfortunately, we are finding that the "3" part is going limp already so we're having to use toothpicks to prop it up. I think maybe it should have been carved larger and thicker.

My mom found the most gorgeous area rug and purchased it for my living room as a birthday gift! It looks so amazing on my floor! Haven't taken a picture yet though.

Well, must get boys up for school shortly so I need to dress for my morning walk and go pack lunches. I'll get back to vacation posts and wrap that up soon. Right now, I'm buried in the throws of helping Sam make his ipod touch Halloween costume!

Sunrise

I love this time of year because the sun comes up a little later and, for whatever reason, the sunrises are more vivid! This was the sunrise this morning. Amazing!

I also snapped this photo of Kenzy yesterday while we were lounging on my bed watching a movie.

Vacation part 4

Here are some of the photos I took of botanicals in CA. Some really unusual plants there! Don't forget to click on the photo to enlarge it!

Anyone know what kind of tree this is with thorns on the bark?

And these amazing, enormous orange flowers are blooms in a tree! I had never seen anything like this. A tree covered in these? Gorgeous!

These peach bell shaped flowers (don't know the real name) smell so sweet when you walk by them, especially late in the evening.

Here are a few misc. photos I snapped:

Love the patterns in the sand. Like sand trees!


Can you even believe this sunset?

Vacation Part 3

Critters big and small!

Fascinated with the patterns of many of the snakes. Since this particular snake was laying right up against the glass, I was able to get a close up shot of the skin. Gorgeous! Now if I could only remember what kind of snake it was!

Don't these little guys just make you crack up? Such personality in their faces however, they always look depressed and distraught to me. Poor things!

Koala photo by Max

LOVE this close up of the Zebra!

Squirrel from the Marina. I'm still fascinated that squirrels live in rocks by the ocean!

This Egret photo is one of my favorites... I feel the need to paint.....

Vacation Part 2

The beach! DAILY... the beach! I could walk miles and miles on the beach but don't make me get in that water. My kids, on the other hand, love being in it but I was very strict as to how far in they could go, much to their dismay. Sam, however, would grow gills if given the option and would stay in the water all the time. Max goes for a bit and is done. They were disappointed that our condo this trip did not supply boogie boards. I think that if Max ever took lessons to surf, he'd be a natural, much like he is on a skateboard.
Here are some of my favorite shots: (click on photo to enlarge)

This is one of my favorite pictures of Sam in the water.

Love this one of Max digging in the sand.

I just love this shot of the boys walking down the beach. Thankful to catch part of their reflection in the wet sand.

These were all taken our first day there, one of the only days with this much sun! It was overcast almost the entire week. If not for whole days, at least most of it. We woke to several mornings of heavy fog and mist.