LA NINA

So happy that I got out into the backyard when I did. I thought to myself..... either clean up the backyard of all the dead plants when it is freeze your ass off cold and dry in the Fall or cut back the dead plants when the weather is still freeze your nunnies off cold and wet in the Spring. I chose to do it in the Fall.

Our nice weather is gone till next year. The weatherman says that starting yesterday, it was the first day of La Nina and I so do believe him. It was really windy and cold and rainy. Mimi says that it was so cold and rainy that the kids had to stay inside all day. Unlike California, the kids up here will play in the rain if it is not too bad. They do have the choice also to stay inside. But yesterday they all had to stay inside.

La Nina also left a whole bunch of tree branches in our backyard. We have beautiful trees but oh you should see all of the pine needles that fell off.

Weatherman says that we got 2 feet of snow up in the passes of Snoqualmie, Crystal and more than 2 feet of snow up at Stevens Pass.

This is why I am starting to stock up on our winter provisions. Not sure how much snow we will get down here in the lowlands. If it is anything like a couple of years ago, I want to be ready.

PUMPKIN CARVING

Tonight after dinner, Mimi could not wait to start carving her pumpkin. She was so excited about it that I did not even have to ask her to clear the table. It was done in a flash. Will post the picture at a later date as they did not get to finigh it tonight. Bedtime, tomorrow's school you know. I guess they should have started a little earlier. Oh well, que sera sera.

MY FIRST HOMEMADE PUMPKIN PIE

Moms up here do a lot of baking in the cold weather. While watching the Seahawks game, I was reading fb on my iphone and saw my friend Suzan who lives in Bishop, California talk about the pumpkin spice coffee that Starbucks serves. It sounded so yummy. She also talked about baking a pumpkin pie to go with the coffee. So I had to just make the pie. I had pumpkin on the brain. Besides, that is all what Micah would talk about the other day when the kids were outside playing.

I must say that it is pretty easy to make and it tastes really good too.

ANOTHER COPPERTONE MOMENT

Nice weather is gone and the Fall storm is here. Had a power outage early this morning. They are expecting another storm tonight and into tomorrow morning. The weatherman says we are to get 35 ft waves all along the Washington and Oregon coast.

Therefore it was just that kind of a day. A pj day, all day for Mimi. Of course she had to run around in her Halloween costume. The more she wore it, the more ole' Butch would try to yank the tail off. Now and then you would hear Butch! Stop it!!!

CHINESE PLAYGROUP

Rhonda: Where's Mimi and Elsie ?
Me: Well.....Elsie's driving a car and Mimi's got a shotgun.
Rhonda: Oh No!!! It's Thelma and Louise!!!

We just howled with laughter cause that's exactly how Mimi and Elsie are. That is no lie. Of course when it's with Blake, we call them Bonnie and Clyde. Of course Mimi had put her shotgun away when this picture was taken.

Not many families showed up. Just 4 in all. It was our family, Rhonda's, Simona's and Kris. Greg was the only guy there. Poor fella. None the less we all had a good time as always.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE.

Today was Nicole's birthday party at the fairly new Bounce It Up place out in Black Diamond. Nicole is a girl who lives just kitty corner from us. Although we have lived here for 3 years already, we are now just getting to know Nicole and her family. They don't come outside as much as we do. However I am now getting to know Rosie (the mom) a litttle better as we see each other every morning when taking the kids to school.

Mimi did not know most of the kids however her usual group of cronies were there. In the picture Mimi was duking it out with Rachel (shown seated next to Erin). Rachel has the pink shirt and Mimi is wearing the pink pants.

Later on Blake came up to me and said that Mimi was ignoring him and not being very nice to him. I called her over and asked her what was going on. "I don't want to talk about it" she said. I then peppered her with a bunch of questions...."was he mean to you? did he say something to hurt your feelings?" The list went on and on. Every answer was "No". Then she said that she kept falling down on the bouncy matteress and that made her mad. So I explained that it was ok to get mad but that she should not take it out on anybody especially her friends. She and Blake soon kissed and made up so to speak.

When we got home was when I got the whole skinny on the situation. Mimi and Blake had been duking it out in the ring and according to Mimi, Blake knocked her down 20 times. Well.....hello, Blake is twice as tall as she is so of course that will happen. Dad says that knowing Blake, he most likely was gloating about it too.

All in all the kids had a great time and so did the parents. Then it was time to go home for about one hour till we headed out to Auburn for the monthly Chinese playgroup.

IT'S CIRCUS TIME!!!