Fall Party and other fun stuff

We hosted a Fall Party at our house last weekend. We invited some neighbors and also some friends from school. Everyone brought a pumpkin to carve, so we started with that. 

 I didn't get very good pictures of the finished pumpkins. If I remember right, I was busy consoling children whose pumpkins didn't turn out quite like they had hoped. 

 We played some other games and had dinner together. It was a fun night!

 When we bought our house this summer, our realtor gave us an awesome gift: a membership to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. We're been there several times over the past few months, and the girls are at a great age for the exhibits. This month they had a special exhibit based on the show Mythbusters on the Discovery channel. The exhibit was very hands on, and we got to do an actual experiment to see if the myth was true or not. Here the girls are sitting on a swing that is held up by two phone books. The experiment was something about friction. I don't really remember, but Anna probable does!

 Here Joel and the girls are getting ready to go out and "Boo" our neighbors. It's kind of a Halloween tradition where one neighbor takes treats to another neighbor, rings the doorbell and runs away. They get a note in the bag saying they have been "booed" and they should do it to someone else. So fun! Some neighbors in Champaign did it to us a few years ago and we've tried to start it ever since then. 

Apparently Norah enjoyed doing the Boo thing so much she has been doing it to another first grade classroom at school. After lunch every day her teacher sends her down to the lunch room to pick up their class basket where the kids put their lunch boxes when they are done eating. One day this week I saw her walking down the hall but she was carrying TWO baskets. I offered to help her and asked her why she had two baskets. She said, "Watch! I'll show you." She walked right past her classroom to the one next door, set their basket down, knocked on the door, and then ran back to her own classroom. I guess she thought that would be a nice surprise for that teacher!