Pumpkins, Leaves, and a new friend

Well, today did not go as planned with my Quiet Day. (H) got sick last night and was still yucky this morning plus had a fever, so I stayed home with him. He did take a 4hour nap in the morning though, and *A* went to play at a friend's house until ^J^ got home, so I sort of did have a semi-quiet day.

This afternoon ^J^ raked leaves and the kids had their first jump-in-the-pile event of the season. Luckily (H) was much better after his nap, so he had fun too.

Then we carved pumpkins, *A* drew on her own face this year and I carved it out exactly the way she drew it. Hers is the one on the left.


I made pumpkin spice cookies to take as a snack for the hospitality table at the Alum house for the festivities this weekend. I made enough for us to keep some too and I added cream cheese icing as suggested on this great blog. Very yummy.


Finally, meet Sophie!

We've recently adopted her from a fellow seminarian family who was unable to keep her due to the wife's severe allergies. She is about 6 or 7 and is so laid back and sweet. She's still getting used to all of us, and we're getting used to her loud ferocious sounding bark when she sees things outside, especially deer. Gracie is so excited and ready to play, but Sophie's not too sure about her yet. I think by this weekend they'll be best buds, after they figure out who's the alpha. The problem is that they're both too laid back to care. Oh and she's good at making us clean up too since she has not such a discerning pallet (her favorite snack according to her old owners is tissues) and she likes to lay on piles of dirty laundry. Luckily we have lots of those...