Karen Hille Phillips Center's Grand Opening

PLU had its grand opening for the remodeled Eastvold in October. The University hosted a fabulous gala on the opening night of its fall play, Kiss Me, Kate. Not only was it special to see the new building, but it was even more special for Chris because he got to spend time with his two favorite professors - Jeff and Dr. Becvar. And to top it all off, there were four former ERHS theatre students in the show! 

Pumpkin Patch Visit

Of course we made our annual trek down to Orting's Spooner Farms this October! We seem to have a trend going the last few years of heading there in the rain. This year followed that trend and we had the patch to ourselves due to the wet weather. It wasn't actually too bad though. We got our pick of pumpkins, didn't have to wait in any lines, had front row parking and got free reign of the duck race gutters....so what more could you ask for!??!!? 

Weedie absolutely loves the Duck Races! The fact that it is under cover always allows her some extra time to play as we don't mind the staying dry part. We tried to make one of these pumps for our backyard a few years back but were quite surprised at the cost of the pump!! At least she can enjoy Spooner's races!

Impromptu Playdate

 One Friday in October we got an early morning call from our daycare provider sharing that she was ill and would not be open that day. After trying to problem solve for a few minutes, we decided it would be easiest if I just stayed home for the day. That way Leila would still get to go to school. Our friends, the Mellicks, were also without childcare since their kids go to Sandy's too, so I offered to pick Wyatt up from kindergarten when I was getting Leila. The kids were thrilled! We had a McDonald's lunch right after pick-up and then headed home to play the afternoon away. These two get along so well. At one point while they were watching the Wild Kratts and having a snack, I looked over to see them sharing a blanket. Too sweet! 

Walk-a-Thon

 Leila experienced her first school fundraiser this fall...a walk-a-thon. She asked all the family members we could think of for donations. She got quite the total! It pays to be the only school-aged grandchild on both sides! She ended up being the top fundraiser for the primary grades at her school...something we weren't trying for, but exciting nonetheless. She was surprised, a few weeks after the walk-a-thon, at a school assembly and was awarded an ipod shuffle. Gramma got to join in the walking the day of the fundraiser. Gramma reported that Leila is quite the social butterfly. Hee hee!

Sounders Soccer Game

 We have been wanting to take Leila to a Sounders game for a while now and we finally got our act together this fall and purchased tickets to a game. Wow! What a fun evening!! Only having been to one event ever at Century Link and not having a clue what the seating was like, boy did we luck out! It was pouring down rain the night of the game and some how, thank the heavens, we ended up about 8 rows under the overhang! Our seats were right next to the end of the section so we had a nice concrete wall on our right that blocked us in from the wind. Honestly, we couldn't have picked better seats for the weather!! Leila was getting over a cold and started complaining of an itchy eye at the start of the game. By the time we headed home, there was no doubt it was pink eye, but this didn't stop her from enjoying the game though! 

We splurged and each of us picked out a Sounders scarf. You can't go to a soccer game without a scarf, right?!?! We all decided it was a necessary purchase as we would definitely be attending more games in the future!

 We had parked on the roof, so Chris left us on a covered floor and ran up to get soaked...I mean to retrieve the car and then picked us up. We took this pic while we waited for our gentleman.

I love experiencing something new with my family. What a wonderful memory!! 

Blasters Soccer

Leila's awesome soccer coach from last year moved from coaching coed micro to coaching an all boys team with her son. So, needless to say, Leila couldn't play on Coach Sarah's team this fall. Chris and I decided to try our hand at coaching micro soccer. We had seven kids total, ranging in age from 4-6. We had a great time and I think the kids did too! Our team was the Blasters and we were assigned bright orange for our jerseys. Leila grew a lot this season. She is still a little hesitant, but when compared to last year (her first season) she has matured leaps and bounds! She even scored this season!! One game, in particular, she scored 4 goals!! She was bursting with pride that day! So were her coaches!! 

Emerson, Leila and Ainsley became quite the pals!

Cameryn, Emme and Leila

This picture captured quite an accomplishment! Our youngest player, Tevyn, doesn't try new foods very easily and for most of the season he would NOT touch oranges....but look what happened near the end of the season!

Tooth Number Four

Leila lost her fourth tooth just 9 days after the third tooth!! If she could have held out for another month, she could have sung "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth." SO close! I am writing this in November and those new top two teeth are about halfway grown in already!