vegetable art

These are Bekah and Ryan originals . . .I'll let you guess which pumpkin was designed by whom. (Hint: the one on the left is a cat)

Autumn in Austin

Sorry its been so long, little hectic around here! We had Mom & Dad down for a wonderful visit in October. The week went by so fast, but we got in our usual visits to Whole Foods Market, Half Price Books, and a new regular, the Round Rock outlet mall! We also stopped to have breakfast at the Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls one morning on our way to Fredericksburg. Yummy biscuits and gravy, even the kids cleaned their plates. As you can see from the pic, they are proud of their pie, and rightly so . . .we came back to the cafe that same afternoon to buy a lemon cream pie to take home! We also got to have lunch at Maria's Taco Xpress one afternoon, which Mom & Dad had seen on the Food Network. Good tacos - we tried the barbacoa, the al pastor (my favorite) and the picadillo. They just serve the tacos in plastic baskets with lots of napkins, which we took out to the funky courtyard and ate at picnic tables. So to sum up, we shopped, we ate, we played, we drank coffee, we talked . . . and then they were off back to Arkansas and we were back to work. I'm so glad they finally got to see Texas when it wasn't 100 degrees every day.

It's finally feeling like Autumn! We had a cold front blow in today, and it's supposed to get down to 49 degrees tonight! I had to pull out the kids jackets and jeans for the first time since, I don't know, MARCH?? I wish I could say the trees were changing color, but no such luck. We did manage to decorate for Halloween last weekend and buy the kids' costumes. Ryan is going to be the Red Power Ranger, and Bekah is planning to be a "Rocker Girl". She has designed her costume from things she already had in her closet. I'll post photos so you can see how it turns out!

And of course, the day before Halloween is Ryan's 6th birthday! After having to move our stuff all out of the living room and master bedroom for our foundation repair, we decided to really get serious about decluttering and downsizing. And, that includes the kids. They have so much stuff, so many more toys than I ever had! It's gotten to the point that we've asked for no gifts at his birthday party. He gets so much from family alone, we decided that's enough!

Early voting started Monday here and I went directly after work. I have seriously never been so excited to vote in all my life. The lines were already long - I can't imagine what it will be like on November 4th! No matter who you're voting for, be sure you get out there and cast your ballot - it really is one of the greatest privileges of freedom.