The Very Fuzzy Caterpillar

So this is what we discovered yesterday - I grabbed the camera and tried to control my cringing while Aurora and Daddy played with the fuzziest caterpillar in the world.

Finally Fall

**** Edited to add: PLEASE - go vote tomorrow! If you are still undecided or don't know what's on the ballot in your state, you still have time to do a little research! Please - stand in line tomorrow for your voter sticker and make sure your voice is heard. If you don't vote, you can't complain!!****

Well, Halloween has come and gone, so I guess that means it's officially Fall. Not that you could tell around here - we're still in the high 90s every day! But you can feel it cooling off incrementally, and nights are absolutely wonderful in the 60s and 70s so I shouldn't complain. We had a fun but quiet little Halloween here - Like Henry, Aurora had a choice between two costumes and violently refused both of them! Cathy loaned us an adorable handmade monkey costume and a Clifford costume but Aurora screamed bloody murder when we tried to put them on. I think it was because she didn't like the "footies" on the monkey costume, and was convinced the Clifford one would have them too. (It didn't, but try convincing a toddler.) So, I just put her monster t-shirt on and some black pants and called it a day. We went to Hastings' music store where her friend Brianna's dad works for their Halloween costume contest and party. It was lots of fun, complete with a cake walk, bingo, snacks and goodie bags for all the kids. I even won a contest in which the goal was to see how many jumbo marshmallows you could cram into your mouth (for the record, it was 9 - but only because I ran out of marshmallows!) The prize for that was my choice of books, and I chose a nice little lift-the-flap book about Outer Space for Aurora. After that we went to Bri's house for some trick or treating and pizza - but unfortunately only one house in the neighborhood was into the Halloween spirit! So we only got one piece of candy, but that's okay because we still have a huge bowl full at home. Mike was in charge of candy distribution at our house, but we had even fewer trick or treaters than last year! Only about 5 or 6 - sad. But, more candy for us, right? Anyway, on the way home from Brianna's house, Aurora spied a huge hot air balloon at a church on the side of the road - so of course we had to stop and check it out. Turns out, the First Christian Church was having a huge festival complete with balloon rides, bounce houses, sack races, bbq, cotton candy and all kinds of fun! But since we didn't know about it beforehand and it was already pretty late, we just walked around for a minute, snagged a pink 'bloon' and went home. But we definitely know what to do for next year! So I forgot my camera on Halloween night, but I did get some shots at the pumpkin patch last week:



And here is a quick movie from Wednesday night - the college was having a free jazz concert at their amphitheater so we packed some sandwiches and a blanket and went to check it out. It was surprisingly good! The band mostly consisted of select high school students from the area, as well as some older musicians and college students. They were all in costume, too - it was pretty funny to see Darth Vader on drums! Anyway, Aurora absolutely loved it - she danced and ran around and had a wonderful time. At the end of each song, she would clap her hands and yell "YAY MUSIC!!!" It was so cute :)

And in other baby related news, we had our first OB appointment today and Aurora's little brother or sister is truckin' right along at 9.5 weeks!