Autumn at our house

pickin' pumpkins

We finally picked our pumpkins on Saturday! 

It's funny, I feel like I post the same things every year, just older boys in the pictures.

And I was thinking we didn't have family traditions... 

I guess we do!

We looooove watching the pumpkins from when they are teeny, tiny babies until they are big and orange. The one on the far left in front of Lincoln was planted by Linc in preschool in the Spring. He brought it home in a paper cup and it sat on our sunny windowsill above the kitchen sink until it was time to plant. Linc named him Bob, and we checked on him at least every other day. Lincoln is one proud pumpkin farmer. 

The big one in front of Franky climbed the tree and hung in the air until we cut it down.

So fun to see!

Climbing pumpkin!

I ended up cutting the vine and Elliott grabbed it. 

It got a few scratches from the neighboring tree branch.

It's tag when I bought it said, "red warty thing" but it never turned red. 

It's not even a pumpkin, more like a gourd or squash I think. 

My little pumpkins!

You can tell Franky is tired when he stops smiling. I put him to bed right after this.

before school

Ollie, Ryan, Shawn, Elliott, Dawson

We have a fun carpool this year with 8 kids! 

Every day, just before we leave, everyone rides bikes or plays for a bit before we go.

I just thought I'd take some photos of the boys doing what they do.

Linc asks to play with Ryan every second of every day.

Ryan is two years older so he's in school all day. 

They play for a good ten minutes every morning until they meet again after school. 

Dawson

pinewood derby

 Elliott had his final pinewood derby last week.

Adam worked really hard with Elliott to get the car ready.

I heard the dates wrong, so they were ready a week early!

Adam would come home late from meetings and just want to go to bed, but would do a little sanding, or painting, or whatever. He also took it to work so he could do a paint layer and let it dry while he worked. Maybe if he would have known it was a week later it wouldn't have been such a big deal? But he was glad to have it done too. Elliott was very proud of his car. He chose a spider sticker for the front. Little boys live for this stuff! It's all he would talk about all day, week, month. 

I was sad because I had an important meeting that night, and Elliott was finally in the last heat.

I was already running late when his car went. It flew off the track the first time. Then the second time, the wheel flew off! It's all very technical (according to Adam) because the book said to leave one wheel up so it doesn't touch the ground, so it would go faster. So when it flew off, he just glued it back into where it was supposed to go. Anyway, I had to leave while the gluing was happening. And later the yw leaders from our ward came to the meeting and said that Elliott had won! Elliott's car raced two more times and came out on top! I got a cute picture text from Adam saying, "We won Mom!" And when I got home from the meeting, Elliott filled me in on every last detail. He loved that after it was over, everyone wanted to race him just for fun, and he kept winning. Adam got the funniest text after it was over from a guy in our ward. His son told him,
"In pinewood derbies, nobody touches Elliott. Nobody."

Elliott's green car flying off the track!

Wheel breaking off!

1st place!!