Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! A few pictures of our cute little monkey. They didn't dress up in costume at day care today, instead having a PJ day. But he did get his face painted--he told us he was a "scary cat." After dinner, we ventured out to a few houses on our block. Jack was less shy than he was last year, but now he understands what it means to get scared. Jeff and I were talking about it later, and it's interesting because he knows enough to know what it means to be scared, but he doesn't really understand that it's all pretend. So by the time he went to bed tonight he had kind of worked himself up about Halloween being "too scary." We made sure to give him lots of tight hugs and kisses, and we spent extra time making sure he was all tucked in. And we told him that tomorrow will not be Halloween anymore. I think that helped! Hope you all had a happy, and only slightly scary, Halloween!

 

Pumpkins!

Happy Halloween (a few days early)! We got into the holiday spirit today and made a trip to a local pumpkin patch. We had a great time! (Apologies in advance for the long post, but if you make it to the end . . . we have some news!)

But first, a quick review of last weekend, when Nike's girlfriends from law school, Katie and Melissa, came to visit. Melissa brought her husband Jason (one of Jeff's physical therapy classmates) and their daughter Emma. We had a great mix of just girls time with dinner on Friday night, family time on Saturday morning, and then adult time with a brewery tour on Saturday afternoon. It was the perfect weekend! Thank you to the Burgarts and Katie for traveling to see us!

Melissa and Emma

 
Emma was a big fan of Jeff

 
And Jack was a big fan of Katie, especially when she read him books

 
Our annual picture of Jack and Jeff hanging the Hawkeye flag on a Saturday morning

And now, on to the farm! Jack got us in the mood this morning by singing Old McDonald at home and during the car ride. We started with a ride for Jack in the "barrel train." We weren't quite sure what that would be until we saw it--literally plastic barrels pulled by a tractor. It was pretty cute.

 

Next it was on to the animals, playing in the hay bale maze, playing in the wooden train, and a pony ride.

 

 

 

 
After an afternoon nap, it was time to carve the pumpkins we picked out. Jack wanted nothing to do with touching the insides of the pumpkin, but he liked using the tools to poke holes while Mommy did the carving.

 
And finally, our masterpieces. Grover was Jack's idea and Jeff's handiwork.

 
You may notice we have four pumpkins . . . one for each member of our family. We'll get to meet our littlest pumpkin on May 8!

Still no pictures

I just read my last post and realized and I'm sorry to report that we still don't have any pictures! We really need to get better at taking pictures of Jack, even if he won't sit still long enough to take them. You'll see in the videos below that each one ends with Jack saying, "I wanna see it" and reaching for the camera. Since our last post, we took a trip home to Iowa City for Homecoming. It was Jack's first flight where we bought him his own seat, and he loved it! He did great and had such fun. Although it's more work to travel with a toddler, it's so fun to see boring things like security lines and airplane rides through Jack's eyes. We are always entertained!

While at home Jack also got to see his first parade! As we were telling him about the parade beforehand, we told him about marching bands and drums. And we showed him how he could carry his own drum like he was in the band. I think he's getting the hang of it:

While Jeff and I went to the game on Saturday, Grandma Jane watched Jack and took him on the Hawkeye train. They had a blast, and Jack is still talking about it. And, as usual, our trip was filled with lots of family, friends, and good food!

And while we're talking about music, here's a couple videos of Jack playing the piano. My favorite part is when he turns the pages in his book like he's reading music.