Can you believe it? This little pumpkin turned 10 on Thursday!

We were going to have a busy birthday/Halloween weekend, so we had Joey open his presents first thing Thursday morning. He's our weird kid who doesn't like doughnuts, so he asked to have a special breakfast on the weekend instead.

It's still funny to me that Joey is into Pokemon cards again. We even used his old Pokemon birthday banner from when he was 7. Much to his delight, he got a lot of Pokemon stuff!

After school, we had three of Joey's friends over. (Three of them are wearing matching shirts because the kids had their jog-a-thon that day at school. Joey and Hannah changed their shirts when they got home from school.) They came home, had a quick snack, Joey opened presents from his friends,

and then we went to Boomers! We decided that turning 10 warranted a bigger birthday than our usual low-key affair.

On Thursdays, Boomers has a couple of special deals where you can get unlimited video games and unlimited attractions.

 These guys were pumped!

The kids spent the first chunk of time in the arcade. Can you see all six kids in the picture? 

Then it was time for Laser Tag: Joey, Matias, Adler, and Logan 

 Bumper boats was a hit with the kids. Ellie was tall enough to go, but didn't want to go alone, so Andy went with her.

She loved it!

 After bumper boats, the kids played a round of mini golf. You've never seen kids blast through a course so quickly. I think they finished the round in less than 15 minutes!

 Ellie and Andy went a little slower at their own pace.

 Then it was back to the arcade...

followed by the Bumper Boats. This time Adler offered to take Ellie, which was so sweet.

Then Ellie tried Laser Tag with the boys.

For dinner, Hannah and I drove five minutes away to an In-N-Out to pick up dinner for everyone.

We spent most of the remaining time back in the arcade area, and the kids played one more round on mini-golf in the dark, which was pretty cool.

The parents came to pick up the boys at 8:00 when Boomers closed. It was such a fun night!

 This year we brought Vera and Abel along on our annual trip to Bates Nut Farm. Since Ellie is going to kindergarten next year, this was our last year going. I can't believe it! It's like the end of an era!

 We spent a lot of time with the animals.

After a little initial hesitation, all three kids were really into feeding the animals.

And the animals were REALLY into eating! 

The llamas were our favorites!

The kids enjoyed a short wheelbarrow ride. "Short" because those three kids are heavy! :-)

Yay! Fall colors!

I just love pumpkin pictures!

Especially with this cute little one!

Goodbye, Bates Nut Farm. You've been good to us these past several years. We'll miss you!

Time for a camera dump...

Thanks probably mostly to Pokemon Go, Pokemon cards are all the rage again. The funny thing is that this time around it seems to have a wider range of interest. All the kids in our neighborhood, boys and girls, young kids and older kids are into them.

It's funny because I'll often see a group of kids of all ages comparing, trading, and playing Pokemon cards. Never before have all of our kids been into the same thing at the same time. Andy has fond memories of his dad bringing home packs of baseball cards every once in a while for him and his brother, so a couple of times Andy has come home from work with little packs of Pokemon cards for our three kids. They think it's the best!

Andy's mom flew into town from Philadelphia a couple of weekends ago. They sold their house in Phoenix so she came out to buy a house in San Marcos. Andy's parents have looked for a house around our area for the past two years, so she was able to make the final decision in a weekend. If everything goes smoothly, they should be moving in in a month or so! The kids love looking in model homes (and getting rides in golf carts!) so they were thrilled to get to tag along!

My parents went on a two-week trip so we were up a dog. Phoebe made herself right at home.

Ellie, in particular, loved having two dogs around.

My brother Timmy came down to San Diego for the weekend to meet up with some friends so he first stopped by our house. The kids were so happy to have him visit us.

They loved having a big play mate around!

Look at those moves!

These are the two set of kids that I watch from time to time. I call them my blondes and my brunettes. Aren't they cute?! Last week I happened to watch both sets on the same day. It was a lot of fun. A little crazy, but fun! 

One thing that I love about having younger kids come over, is watching how my kids love to help take care of them. Little ones really bring out the sweet side of Joey in particular, and I love seeing that nurturing, patient, kind side of him. It's very endearing!