Downtown

Crunch

Thanks to our neighbor, and his ginormous maple tree, Lincoln + Lila have been having a ball for the last couple of weeks. If we are bored, and it's not raining, we walk down to his front yard.

OR if Lila + Lincoln are driving me bonkers, we will also walk down to his house.

We walk in the leaves, crunch them, roll around, bury each other, throw them in the air, kick them, collect the prettiest...you name it, we've done it.

There is a certain part of this ditch where the leaves go all the way up to Lincoln's waist. A gazillion leaves.

Today the sun made an appearance. It was quite lovely. The perfect autumn day.

You wanna know what someone, {ahem}, is going to anonymously leave on this neighbors doorstep...

...a freaking rake!!!

Apple Picking

We have 3 very lovely apple trees in our backyard. And this fall we have about a gazillion apples. We have made applesauce, apple crisp, dried apples, enjoyed them plain, shared with neighbors and we still have about 500. So I had this semi-fabulous idea, if I do say so myself, that I would take about 20 or so, and throw them out front to feed the deers that we see from time to time...

... In no time at all I made a new BFF when a little buck starting visiting our yard at dawn and dusk. The kids loved it! And then a week or so later, my BFF brought a buddy--a big-daddy buck and we just loved checking in on them twice a day.

Cue the bunnies.

Now we have 7 or 8 of the most adorable bunnies rotate in and out of our yard at any given time munching on the apples. So the twins and I pick a bag full of apples every day and feed them to our buddies. And then we watch them. Or the twins play in the yard while the animals munch away and watch us.

Today I wanted Brian to snap a few pics of us doing our favorite fall routine. But the twins just wanted to be dork-fishes. Man, I love them.

For the love, the Swishers will be on a farm in no time.

Mark my words.

Take 3

We did the pumpkin patch today...for the 3rd time. You heard that right, it's not even half way through October, and we have been to the patch 3 times. We just love Autumn. Today we met some of the ladies from my mom's group and their children.

The twins would've stayed at the duck races all day long. It was 50 degrees this morning, and they were soaking wet, and they could have cared less. Kids are amazingly warm. Must be because they Never. Stop. Moving.

I like these pictures much better than smiling-and-looking-at-the-camera pictures. Because this shows Lincoln + Lila's relationship. BFF's for sure.

The bowling game was awesome. At first, I thought Lincoln might have inherited my fly bowling skills by watching how high his ball went up before it dropped and rolled toward then pins.

But then, I saw Lila's throw and it became clear to me that the Pearl definitely takes after my bowling skillz.

Sometimes I forget how small petite I am...UNTIL I see myself in pictures. Like this one for instance, in which my toddlers almost cover me entirely when I'm squatted next to them. Also, it's been a looooooonnnnggg week in Casa Swish, so please excuse how exhausted I look.

'Hey Mama, LOOK! A potato!'

Oh yeah, Wild Man Jack came to.

Autumn

Autumn is definitely here in the NW. And by the way, Brian + I decided that we are going to start calling Fall...AUTUMN. And teach it that way to the kids. Just because we like the way it sounds. (We have had nothing but time on our hands this past week people!)

Moving on--

Well the biggest news in our house over the past week is Brian's knee surgery...

You're welcome for this lovely photo. And for those of you who know Brian, YES!, there is skin under all that hair. Who knew?

The reason for the surgery...

...the giant (non-cancerous) tumor that was causing so much pain for him over the past year. (That would be the gigantic black hole on the left side of the picture.)

So as he hobbles around and tries to recover, I've decided that I never, ever, ever want to have knee surgery. Or any other kind of surgery. Thankyouverymuch.

So as we have been laying low this week, tending to the patient, we are going a little stir crazy. So I bought some games. Candyland + Memory. So this is a pretty hysterical experiment playing games with 2 year olds

I also take them on 'Fall Autumn walks' just about every day. And we collect beautiful leaves. (And then I try to throw them away when they are not looking.) On this day, their Halloween package from Grammie arrived. That was definitely a very fun surprise.

Oh yeah, that corn was from my garden. So the kids thought is was super-fun to cut it down and decorate with it. I love gardening.

I also tried growing pumpkins this year. But, SURPRISE!, there wasn't enough sun. But 2 of these lovelies were from our garden. Can you guess which ones???

Speaking of no sun, Lila + Lincoln tell me almost everyday how much they like the sun. 'I can't like rain Mama, I like the sun.'

You hear that Brian? Just checking. *wink*

A little surprise I found tonight....

...now I didn't see who did this, but I would bet top dollar that Miss Sneakypants was responsible. Lock up your medicine cabinets when the Swishers roll into town. This girl will check it out. For reals.

My mom sent me these gigantic pine cones. And I immediately thought glitter. Because glitter, I can't quit you. Chocolate, burnt orange and golden yellow were the colors I chose. And they look gorgeous. If I do say so myself.

Lila loves to color. And she is getting pretty good at smiley faces. But this past weekend she drew me. And then I died...because she drew me people.

Check it--

You guys, I'm so beautiful. 2 eyes, a nose, a kinda-smile, gorgeous hair WITH a crown, ears and 2 skinny legs. At a castle.

She's 2.

That's right 2.

Excuse me, I'm going out to buy a frame.

:)