The day we went to the pumpkin patch was rainy. Big surprise, for Oregon, right? But we're talking a majorly wet, sloppy, mucky kind of day. The kind of day where your 2-year-old gets out of the car, takes one step, and then falls flat on her bum in the mud. And then your 4-year-old does the same thing (except on her face). Yep, that happened.

But I played it off all cool, "Oh, ha-ha! You fell in the mud! Oh, that's so silly!" and didn't act alarmed at all, and the girls got into the spirit, and we all trudged through the sodden fields and came away with nice pumpkins. Evie picked a little tiny one. I didn't tell her she had to pick a little one or anything--that's just the one that appealed to her. Which was nice since Beth and Lucy picked such big ones we had to borrow a wheelbarrow from the farmer to get all three pumpkins to the car.



As you can see, Beth and Evie were both "ladybug fairies" (whatever that is) while Lucy chose to be a knight. I thought that was a fabulous choice on her part. She went around waving her sword (which she picked off the shelf because it looked much bigger and tougher than the one designed to go with the knight costume--the one SHE picked was labelled "mangling machete") and swearing to protect the beautiful ladybugs. It was pretty stinkin' adorable. And look! Their costumes were all color-coordinated, and I didn't plan that at all.



This is Beth's first-grade class. She's third from the right, kneeling in the front row. Check out the little gangster down on the left in the front row. Isn't he the most adorable mobster you've ever seen?

Kids in costumes pretty much just make my day.