Fire Station!

For playgroup we recently went on a field trip to the local fire station.  This was pretty fun.  Because we live in a small town, the fireman are all volunteers.  The fireman talked about fire safety, let the kids roam in and out of a fire truck (they even turned on the lights), let them put out a fire with the fire hose, and they dressed up in their fireman gear!  It was exciting!  What would have made it even better would have been a better behaved little boy, but we managed!  While we were taking a group picture Lucas was sitting next to his friend, and right when I was taking the picture they started to smack each other, so I have it on camera these two taking and giving each smacks!  These two are a perfect match, they are so alike it is scary!

Rain = Soup!

I am not a big fan of the cold wet weather we have been getting and they fact that we are headed into that season!  But I am not really sad that it is raining right now, because there are a bunch of soup recipes I have been looking at and can't wait to try.  So the Swensons are having soup tonight!

Books!

This past week Lucas has wanted to read a book 24/7.  The other night I wanted to sit down and turn on the t.v for five minutes, but Lucas had other plans, he turned off the t.v looked at me and said, "read book".  What do you say to that?  Lucas and I read the book, and have been reading books nonstop since then.  This is not a bad thing, I just feel guilty that I can't read to him 24/7.  Right now we're obsessed with a book call, "The Doghouse."  We went to the library today so hopefully we can branch out a little bit!  Side note, we were able to find another Dora DVD, thank heavens, I have basically memorized the previous Dora Halloween episode.

Caramel Apples

On Monday for FHE we had our friends over (the James Family) for Caramel Apples.  I have never made caramel apples it just sounded and looked good, and it is the season!  Honestly can you go wrong with apples dipped in caramel then smothered in a topping of your choice and drizzled with chocolate (white and milk)?  By the end we were wondering where the apple was!  This was very successful, almost too successful!  Lucas seemed to like it, he basically licked his apple clean.

Pumpkin Picking!

Saturday afternoon we went pumpkin picking!  There was a fun festival going on at a fruit farm that we go to.  We took a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch and picked a pumpkin.  That is what we planned on doing, honestly, but really Craig picked the pumpkin while Lucas and I were busy stepping in a huge pile of pumpkin goo!  Yuck!  It smelled awful, thus we smelled pretty bad until we got home to wash our shoes! (I think Craig was relieved that I was so willing to leave so quickly, he thinks I take to long picking the pumpkin, but it takes time to pick the perfect pumpkin for our dinner.) So not our funnest trip to the pumpkin patch, but the most memorable trip so far!  And we did end up with a beautiful pumpkin for our traditional dinner in a pumpkin!  Thanks to Craig!  Lucas also rode on this train car ride.  I thought he wouldn't like it, because he had to go all by himself and during part of it we wouldn't be in view.  This was not a problem at all he liked it so much I think he would have gone again!  Instead of riding it again we went and saw the bunnies, which Lucas seemed to enjoy!  He spent most the time trying to pick one up, much to the dismay of the people running the bunny petting booth (Lucas has not learned the concept of being gentle yet.)

 

Football!

Friday night we went to a Penns Valley High Football game.  A young man in our ward is the quarter back, defensive end, and the long snapper.  Basically he is the team!  (He also is also a starting forward on the Basketball team and plays P/1B/SS on the baseball team.)  It was way fun!  The weather was wonderful!  Unfortunately they lost, but our wardie did awesome!  We went with our friends which made it way more fun!  Lucas seemed to enjoy it!  He left the game on a sugar high, at one point he was carrying around a bag of pretzel M&M's.  Yeah that's responsible parenting for ya.  Oh well, isn't that one of the reasons to go to sporting events; to eat junk food!

Penns Valley is the Blue and White

A newspaper shot of Sam

Dora

Lately Sesame Street just hasn't been holding Lucas' attention and he gets bored easily with it, not that this is a bad thing.  We started checking out the old Disney movies, "Robin Hood", "The Jungle Book," etc...  We let him watch them in the evening while were making dinner.  He has really been enjoying them.  Last week when we went to the library, Lucas picked Dora the Explorer.  We haven't ever really watched Dora before, but WOW!  Lucas is a Dora addict.  He loves it, he is so captivated by it.  He has watched the same Dora DVD over a dozen times this past week.  He is even to the point where he starts to interact and respond to her questions.  We have also heard him saying, "oh man," at random times, or when he drops something (A phrase said by one of the characters on the show).  I have also heard him said, "oh man", "Swiper, no swiping".  As a matter of fact while I am typing this he is watching Dora.