Luke Loses His First Tooth

Several nights ago Luke lost his first tooth! The tooth had been loose for many weeks and had become extremely loose over the previous several days. Each night after brushing teeth, Dad would wiggle it a bit after Luke reluctantly agreed. Not wanting to make it painful, Dad wouldn't wiggle it too much. When asked if he was wiggling the tooth to help it fall out, Luke replied that he was "waiting for nature to take its course". It had reached the it-could-fall-out-and-he-could-swallow-it state so Dad gave it a gentle (but slightly firmer than usual) tug. With no resistance the tooth was removed. When the tooth was placed in Luke's hand, he didn't even know the tooth had fallen out (he just thought that Dad wiggled it too hard). He was very excited to lose his first tooth and the Tooth Fairy visited that night.

The missing tooth

Halloween

The whirlwind month that was October wrapped up with Halloween night and several Halloween-related activities at both kids' schools. At Luke's school there was a Halloween party and trick-or-treating to the classrooms. At Maddie's school there was a Halloween movie night on the lawn. The actual Halloween night was enjoyed by all of the neighborhood kids. We met together to gather a large group of kids at one neighbor's house before sunset. The kids run around and play, asking if it's time to start trick-or-treating every 10 minutes. Finally it was time. Maddie's night lasted for hours, first gathering candy, then trading candy, then playing into the late-night hours with neighborhood friends. Luke has less endurance and is ready to call it a night after about an hour (with a 20 minute break between two 20 minute trick-or-treat sessions). Enjoy some photo highlights below.

Luke's class in Halloween costumes

Luke plays Halloween bingo at school party

Luke in partial costume

Maddie in Perry the Platypus Costume

Maddie with girlfriends at school

Luke and Maddie prepare jack-o-lanterns, notice the focus and concentration

Luke in full Minion Costume, with fake banana

Minion and Rock

Paper, Rock, Scissors

The neighborhood kids count down minutes to darkness

Pumpkin Patch 2015

Our October wouldn't be complete without our annual visit to the pumpkin patch farm, or so I thought until Maddie pointed out to me that we didn't go to the pumpkin patch 2 years ago and last year it was "boys only" because she was sick and Mom stayed home with her. Oh well, so much for annual family traditions. Our pumpkin patch visit is a family tradition even if it's not annual! (For the record, we've only skipped the pumpkin patch 1 or 2 times in the past 10 years). Several weekends ago we took advantage of our beautiful fall weather and continued our "annual" tradition. It was a fun-filled day. Enjoy some photos from the day!

A late afternoon photo of two tired kids

Mom and Luke ready for the train ride

Maddie and Dad are on the train too

A field of sunflowers

Notice the looks of joy on the kids' faces and the look of sheer terror on Mom's face

As parents we discourage running with sticks, however running with "magic wands" is totally acceptable

Maddie and Mom on the hayride

In the pumpkin patch

While wandering through the corn maze, Luke became obsessed with making a "film" to document our adventure. Every few steps he demanded that I turn on the video camera to record him giving status on our progress through the maze or just to see himself on camera. You may notice he even refers to me as "the camera man". I eventually had to remind him that Mom was waiting so we could stop "filming" and find the corn maze exit. I've put together all of the clips without editing... it's amusing.