Flanagan Clan

On Saturday morning we made our annual trip down to the Orting Valley to find the perfect pumpkin. This was Patrick’s 4th year, Sammy’s 3rd year, and Ethan’s 1st year. As always, it was a ton of fun.

We took the mandatory picture at the growth chart

Sorry, Andrew, I don’t think you’ve grown any in the past year…

Sammy tried to pick out a little pumpkin

Climbing the old woodchip pile

Patrick was impressed by the big turkey they had

gobble gobble…

Checking out the animals

Ethan spent most of the trip strapped onto me

We attempted the corn maze

We marveled at all the different pumpkins, gourds and squash

Patrick helped his daddy push the wheel barrow

Sammy and the pumpkins

Our little Pumpkin Patch Kids

Patrick’s actually smiling in this one

Mommy and Ethan

Sammy got to have a wheelbarrow ride

Each of the boys got to pick out a mini pumpkin. This was Sammy’s

Happy with our finds, we go to get our pumpkin weighed

Patrick acting silly

…and our trip to the pumpkin patch wasn’t complete without…

a trip to Costco afterwards (I don’t know why, but we always seem to end up there after we’re done with the pumpkins!!!)

On Friday night we had a little birthday party for Patrick, complete with a dragon pinata and swords (which means chaos when you add four active boys into the mix!). It was a crazy evening, and the night ended with bringing out the rug cleaner, but Patrick had a wonderful time nonetheless :o)

Patrick, the Dragon Slayer

Ethan spent a lot of time watching safely from his Jumparoo

Patrick in his knight costume that Oma and Auntie Rachel bought for him

Opa and Ethan

We had many sword fights

The Dragon Cake

A tool set from Rachel and Diane was a big hit with all the boys

Patrick had the honor to be the first to try to slay the dragon

Sammy tried, too

Patrick trying again…

Uncle Jonny helping Sammy

The sword didn’t seem to have an impact on the dragon, so Uncle Jonny lopped off it’s head and then we switched to a bat

Keith has a try at killing the dragon with the bat

Finally, Uncle Jonny succeeds in slaying the terrible dragon

Uncle Jonny claims the head and wings as trophies

Our knight in shining armor!

Ethan has been getting weird rashes around his mouth since he started solids and we’re not sure what is causing them. We gave him a milk product a week and a half ago and that really got him, but this morning when he woke up he had a major rash all around his mouth and I felt quite downhearted, as I felt helpless in knowing what was causing all this irritation in his skin. Then I realized that he was really drooling, so I pried open his mouth (much to his dislike!), and saw a definite tooth just barely peaking through the swollen gums. So, yeah, he took a little longer than his older brothers, but it looks like this little guy is about to be the proud owner of a brand new pearly toothie. I hope it pops up soon, so we can get rid of this mouth rash!

Lately Andrew and I have resorted to spelling out everything in front of the boys since they’ve become quite smart. It’s become our little code language. Well, I think Patrick’s starting to figure out some of the spelling meanings, even if he doesn’t know how to spell them himself.On many nights as the time approaches 8 PM I’ll tell Andrew that it’s time to put the B-O-Y-S to B-E-D. Well, the other night Patrick looked at me and said, “No, I don’t want to go to G-R-S!”.

Speaking of Patrick, even though his birthday isn’t for another week, tonight we’re having a little dragon birthday party for him. Imagine 4 active boys, 2 curious and mobile babies, 4 plastic swords and one dragon pinata. Yes, we’re going to have a crazy night. Pictures to come later!!!

As you probably can tell by the lack of posting, we’ve been very busy. We’re having Patrick’s b-day party this weekend and I have much to do besides that between taking care of three boys (one of which is a suddenly very mobile and dangerous 11 month old), keeping the house in order, and doing lots of custom orders for the business. So, I’ve been a little slow on keeping up with blogging, e-mails and other forms of communication. I will try to update soooooooon…

One exciting tidbit to share until then… I’m officially a sponsor for the November 2008 Great Cloth Diaper Hunt! You might have read about it in my personal blog back in May… well, this time around I get to hide a diaper icon on my website and I’ll have lots of people coming through trying to find it. Thankfully, I have a very techno-savvy husband who will be hiding my icon for me. So, if it’s the only one you look for in this contest, I’d love for you to try to find my icon for this hunt, starting Nov. 1st!!!!