Photo dump!

Somebody turned 7...a month ago.  Doesn't she look so OLD?  For her birthday, Lily, Memere, and I went shopping at the 2nd largest mall in the US.  She was feeling a bit under the weather, but I think she still had a good time.  Back at home, she opened gifts from her brothers and ate a delicious cake her daddy made.  He went a little baking crazy and also made 2 pumpkin pies while we were out shopping.  Once he starts baking...he just doesn't stop!

Here's Lily working on one of her birthday presents...window sun catchers from her Aunt Andrea.  

A few weekends after Lily's birthday, the weather was perfect to go up to the Pocono Mountains and watch the raptor migration.  Hawk Mountain was AWESOME.  We saw lots of raptors...half a dozen hawks, a few falcons, and even one bald eagle, soaring way way overhead on a thermal.  Pretty awesome.  And I kept commenting to Jeff how the path seemed shorter this year...the kids are getting so good at hiking it's crazy!  No whining!  Yay!

 Lily and Michael quickly got bored of searching the horizen for soaring birds, so they found a little spot in the boulders to make a "nest" and pretended to be hawks nesting.  Cute!

 Andrew was all in...of course.  He loved every second of our hiking/bird watching adventure.

 Attempts at family photos should be taken at the beginning of the hike...not the end.  Lesson learned.

 After our hike, we went to the park's ampitheater and listened to a naturalist talk for an hour about raptors.  She was really really a wonderful speaker, and she brought along a few live animals which kepts our kids captivated.  Jeff and I even learned a few new things.  

This is a random photo of the kids with their "go-gos".  They play with these tiny plastic figurines for HOURS.  HOURS, people.  I had to document it.

Pumpkin carving!  And we had power to do it in this year!

Lily has to write a journal entry each week.  Last week she chose to write about her Aunt Sara's exciting news.  She's just a teeny bit excited.  She's even picked out names (Lucy or Benjamin), just in case Sara and Colum have a hard time picking one.  She has no idea that this new cousin is going to live 1700 miles away.  Le-sigh.  Moving to far flung locations seems all romantic and exciting until you really want family close by.

Jack-o-lantern final results!

Mario hated his mustache, but we made him keep it on for the photos...because it was sooooo cute!

Luigi wore his mustache the whole night.  To be fair...it was smaller.

 Doing Mario and Luigi poses.

 Attacking Bowzer

 Posing with the fearsome "Head-tilt" witch.

 Posing with Cuddles the cat.  Also...HEADTILT

 This one is my favorite!

Once Mario shed his mustache, some other people wanted a turn with it.

Another Halloween finished!  Now time to prepare for Andrew's birthday and then...gulp...Christmas!