I (Almost) Love Fall

I had grand plans to post lots of really fun pictures of our trip to California this week.  But, in a valiant attempt to save money on bag fees (which are ridiculous by the way), I left my SLR home and used my parents' cameras.  Their modem broke this week so no internet for them and no fun pictures for me.  Sad.  Hopefully I'll have some to share soon cuz I'm thinking my blog would be a much happier place with pictures of the beach...and Mickey Mouse.

Instead, I have pictures of the beautiful evening we spent with friends.  It was the kind of night that makes me almost love fall.  Sunshine, cider, s'mores - what's not to love?

Emma was totally thrilled to carve her first pumpkin.  The first thing she said when I told her what we were going to do was, "But, mom, I'm not old enough for knifes" (which she pronounced something like NY-FIZZ).  Once she caught on to the fact that we were really going to let her use a "knife", she couldn't eat dinner fast enough.  Does she look excited, or what?  (And am I a crazy mama for giving a knife to a kid with this look on her face?)

Emma's pumpkin has done double-duty this week.  She actually painted it with friends on Tuesday morning.  We put it outside to dry, and then it poured for two days.  All the washable paint washed right off, and Em had a brand-new pumpkin to carve tonight.  (Emma was a little disappointed about the paint washing off at first, but as soon as NY-FIZZ came into the conversation, she forgot all about her Picasso pumpkin.)

Em did a great job carving her pumpkin with just a little help from Mommy (and Raya).

Here's the finished product.  (Emma's is on the left, and Mommy's is on the right.  Daddy's ghost carving lost its head...literally.)

We finished off the evening with s'mores and cider around the campfire.

I'll take flip-flops and fireflies over s'mores and cider any day, but it was still a pretty awesome night.  (Fall would win a lot of points in my book if it managed to be followed by something other than that w***** season.)

If you'd like a quick update on what's happening in adoptionland, click here.  This mama pretty much says it all.

Happy Friday, everybody!