Fall fun: Halloween, fort-building and bike riding!

Life is full and rich! Its amazing how the family is growing. Millie is loving 1st grade and is now our night-time reader to the kids, Tristan is learning how to sound out some words and loves pre-school, and Hallie is a little jewel, sweet and loving to all. There are thousands of amazing moments, although small, every day that make us smile. From Hallie pointing "puppy!" to every puppy we see and giving consoling hugs to anyone sad (friend or stranger), to Millie making in-depth plans for her birthday, Christmas, St. Patrick's day, Labor day, Boxing day (you get the idea ... the last one was a joke :)) months or even one year in advance, to Tristan singing himself "I am a Child of God" in the morning to help calm his fears of the dark (as it is 5:00 AM when he is waking up :)), we do have a full and fun life. We recently carved pumpkins, each kid chose a design from some things we saw on the internet and then we winged it. Millie wanted to experience a "scare," Tristan wanted a happy face and Hallie ... a puppy of course!

Pumpkins got us in the spirit for halloween, which was a hit for our little witch, Peter Pan, and pink poodle (making its 3rd appearance).

While winter is well on its way here we've been enjoying the fall weather and the fun activities that come with it. On a rare 70 degree day we enjoyed building some forts in the woods. Tristan and Millie especially enjoyed building a "home" that was complete with "hangers" as Millie called them for her clothes and "anchors" as Tristan called them ... to keep the fort grounded I suppose. Hallie just loved the leaves and is looking so cute:

Tristan explored and insisted on a short-sleeve shirt :)

And Millie loved directing the building of the fort and was very diligent in her efforts.

Millie loves having a little sister, they're so fun.

If you didn't guess yet, this is Trent and I've temporarily hijacked the blog.:) Finally, the kids just loved bike riding. We were amazed to see them go from falling down constantly (see example below) to up and riding within a day. This was a neat example of "letting the kids fall" so they could learn to ride. No serious injuries happened and now they are officially two-wheel bike riders! One of Tristan's (many) falls:

They performed synchronized turning:

And here are a few more pictures of the fun time.

Its amazing how much the kids are growing, developing, and learning. Bloomington is a wonderful place to be and we look forward to all the fun we'll have here as the holidays approach!