October -- the month of birthdays

For Aunt Kathy's birthday (10/2) we had cupcakes. George and I put on the frosting and sprinkles.


George and Charlotte blew out the candles.


The next day was Grandma Hougen's birthday (10/3). We frosted more cupcakes.

For Aunt Jing's birthday (10/6) we had brownie cake.

For Patrick's birthday (10/7) we had more brownie cake, this time with homemade ice cream.

And for Amy's birthday (10/9), we had banana chiffon cake.

Still to come -- Aunt Nancy (10/20) and Charlotte (10/24, with a party on the 22nd).

Odds and Ends

George is signing "grumpy."


What's he doing here? We never quite figured that out.


Sometimes dressing yourself is hard.


George wanted to dress Charlotte up.


Here he displays the results.

National Night Out

Last night was National Night Out . We had an ice cream social for our neighbors that was lots of fun.

The tall guy is our beat officer. The man in the white shirt is our city council member, and the woman next to him is our next door neighbor.


The woman on the left and the man in white (Lida & Jack) live across the street. The woman in black is the mother of the two little boys, Sam & Clay, and of a 7 week old daughter (being held by her father, who is almost invisible behind Jack).


Clay shared his bike with Charlotte, but grudgingly.


Sam was more generous with his battery-powered motorcycle. I just pushed Charlotte; fortunately her feet didn't reach the pedals.

It took George a while to get the hang of the controls but he loved it.



Charlotte helped pull -- Sam and Clay wanted to go faster!


Here George takes a turn pulling. This wagon was Dean's when he was little.