Pumpkins Anyone?

Hurry!! Must get pumpkin pictures on the blog before the end of October! (Phew. I made it.)

This year we decide to keep it real and go to an actual pumpkin patch. We drove to Oak Glen, an area of California famous for its apple orchards (we were too late to pick apples - that happens in September - maybe next year!), for a day in the country. Debbie and Andy piled in to the van with us and we were off to enjoy some scenery and fresh air. Our day's activities included a corn maze, picking pumpkins straight off the vine, visiting a petting zoo, and drinking apple cider. It was a fun way to celebrate Fall.

Cooking a little pumpkin in the oven!

A little late, but still heartfelt: Happy Birthday Dad! Our little family loves you very much!

What happened to August?

I usually try to get in at least one or two blog posts per month, but August kind of slipped by me. We did have a fun month, though! Here are some of the highlights:

We fit in several visits to the local children's museum, called Kid's Space, including this fun visit with friends:




Nana & Papa, and Uncle David & Auntie Kristi visited! The pictures below are from our day at the arboretum. We all loved having so much family around!


Aunt Debbie took a day off from work to hang-out with her nephews. We went to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. In the summer the museum has a butterfly pavilion, which we visited first. Butterflies of every color - it was amazing. Indoors, it was dinosaurs!

Unfortunately the very end of our summer, the last few weeks, were spent mostly indoors due to wildfires in the foothills near us. The smoke and ash made it unhealthy to be outside. But that only made us more ready for the fall routine to set in.

Time for school!

Soccer Saturdays

Coach Shane started up soccer practice again this summer, so every other Saturday the boys look forward to kicking the ball around with their buddies. Asher loves that he is included and really hustles out there! A friend took these photos last Saturday:


During the last part of practice the kids have a short scrimmage. Asher runs around with a lot of energy, but doesn't usually get to touch the ball much. It's very cute. Toby gets in on the action, though!


Celebrating a goal!

Zoo Playground

On our latest visit to the zoo last week, we thought it would be okay to let the boys get up close and personal with the animals. :)

Too much fun!

I've been teasing Toby that a boy his age just shouldn't be having this much fun. This was his week:

MONDAY: A picnic at the park with his preschool class. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, but he had a blast playing and eating pizza with his class, The Dinosaurs.

TUESDAY: Tuesdays are usually our family day when we do an activity all together. On this day we chose to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific. It was amazing! Toby loves to tell the story of how we saw one enormous ray in a touch pool, thinking to ourselves that it was the biggest ray we had ever seen...until we looked in to the shark tank and saw an unbelievably BIGGER ray (that I think was said to be 10 feet in diameter)! Asher loved the tanks of jellyfish...he called them "up, ups" because of the way they pumped themselves up the tank. There were a lot of other very cool creatures and things to do, but we'll have to tell you about it in person!


WEDNESDAY: Toby's preschool had a carnival day as a grand finale for the school year. The game booths were a hit with the boys. Here is Toby enjoying some popcorn with his buddy Jacob.

THURSDAY: First time bowling! We spontaneously ended up at the bowling alley Thursday morning with Toby's buddy Joseph. I can't tell you how excited Toby was to try this new sport!

FRIDAY: We invited some friends to spend the morning in the pool with us. Where else would we be on an 100 degree day? Toby loved spending time with his friends Ryan and Igy, with all the little brothers, Connor, Imani, and Asher in tow. Boys, boys, boys!

Busy Days

We have had birthday parties, special events and other activities that have kept us busy over the last two weeks. A highlight was going to Katie's 5th birthday party. Katie was born 6 months before Tobiah to my friend Illin and we often talk about how they were each other's first friend. When Katie started talking she used to call Tobiah "Biah". It is hard to believe she is now 5 and will be off to kindergarten next year! Here are some cute pics of the two friends together:

On Saturday, May 3rd, Tobiah's preschool had its annual Trike-a-Thon fundraiser event. Toby has been looking forward to this day since last year! Parents sell raffle tickets to "sponsor" their little racers, who ride their decorated tricycles and scooters in a circle around the parking lot. Toby couldn't get enough of it!

Here is Toby with some of his friends at the starting line.

Making his way around the loop. Below: Taking a much needed water break. It was a hot day!

Toby's biggest fan. He was saying, "Go!" from the sidelines.

On Sunday, May 4, we had another friend's birthday party, so we waited to celebrate Toby's "half birthday" on Monday. He is officially 4 1/2! Because waiting for his birthday to come around only once a year is so hard, we thought it would be special for him to have a 1/2 birthday celebration (just with mom, dad and Asher in attendance). Here he is posing with 1/2 a cake! Asher has been singing bits and pieces of songs lately, and with all the birthday parties we've been to lately, after we sang, "Happy Half Birthday to You!" to Toby, Asher started quietly singing, "Hap Day to You!" on his own. It was adorable.