Trick-or-Treating 2010

Katie and her good buddy, both of them super heroes this year (unplanned coincidence!), had an awesome time visiting all of our neighbors and came home with a ton of candy!

Getting Ready for Halloween 2010

Katie's going as Bat Girl this year!
Today she wore this to school for their Halloween Party.

Mom (Regina) did the carving, with a little help from Katie and Katie did the jeweled pumpkin, with a little help from Momma (Suzie).

Another carved creation by Regina.

I saw this wonderful idea in a magazine and just had to try it.
So, here's my pumpkin kitty cat! I love it!!

Our Japanese Maple in the front yard is on FIRE! So gorgeous!

Skate Date at Skate King

On this rainy Seattle afternoon, I invited Katie to go skating at Skate King in Bellevue. It was "Family Afternoon" so there were lots of kids there and 2 or 3 birthday parties in progress. I liked it, though, because they left the lighting on most of the time. I know I'm not a young chick anymore when a simple thing like dimming the lights and turning on those (irritating) disco balls totally throws me off. I guess the dim part is okay, it's the rotating reflections on the floor created by the disco balls that mess me up when I'm skating over them. I'm only a mediocre skater, so I guess that, combined with fading youth totally work against me when they fire up the disco balls. But, I didn't give up. I kept skating, anyway, being careful to stay out of the way of the expert skaters while also dodging the little ones and other beginners whose feet fall out from underneath them at a moment's notice, making them nothing but a dangerous speed bump in my path I had to avoid quickly! Whew. I'm happy to report though, both Katie and I remained upright the whole time and had fun.

Something up our leaves!

Issaquah's 41st Salmon Days Festival promised they had "something up our leaves", so Katie and I went down there today to check it out. This is an annual festival held to celebrate the salmon returning to Issaquah's waterways to spawn. Katie and I stood on the bridge over the creek that runs through Issaquah (I have no idea what it's called - you'd think I would know by now...) and we watched, along with lots of other folks as huge salmon struggle to swim in very shallow water, against the current, up stream to their destination, where they were born. I had a hard time talking Katie into even walking over there to look, (she was certain it would be BORING - with an attitude) but she enjoyed it once she realized she could actually see the fish and they were very active.

There were several things that Katie was interested in checking out. Of course, if there are inflatable bounce houses there, she always wants some bounce time. So, she did that for a few minutes.


There was something called Human Hamster Balls where you climb inside a giant inflatable ball and roll yourself around like a hamster. Katie was totally into that, but so was everyone else and the line was unimaginably long! We decided not to waste time standing in such a long line. Oh well, it looked like fun, anyway.


There was also something called Puget Sound DockDogs. In the Ohfishal Program, it says, "Watch as dogs of all shapes and sizes daringly dash down the dock to dive into a tremendous tank of water, creating a tidal wave of fun for all." We watched it for a while and Katie loved it. She was especially curious about one of the dogs who had canine cancer who was given an extra turn, but just wasn't performing well due to her illness. That sparked a conversation with Katie about cancer, which she'd never heard of before, and she was so sad that the dog was going to die from the disease.

Another attraction for the kids was a train ride. That was the first thing we did. One of the cars was designed to look like a car that carries circus animals. So, of course we had to ride in that one.




But, Katie's favorite activity of the whole day was the playground, which is there all the time, not just for the festival! She's a sucker for a good playground, for sure.





They had a full schedule of shows to entertain the kids and the last one today was the Reptile Guy. Katie and I sat in on it and she really enjoyed it. She was right up there in the front row, getting up close and personal with all the reptiles. It doesn't seem to bother her.