Pumpkin Patch

By Earl

Halloween is almost here which means...pumpkin time!  We put on our raincoats (it's Oregon in Autumn...of course we did!) and headed to the local farm.  I was a little nervous getting on the bull at first, but Hank showed us how a real cowboy takes the reins.  

We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch where we got to look around for the perfect lil' pumpkins.

There was a cart for pumpkin rides -

But I found an even better way to ride in style!

Project Dining Nook

By Ms. Mommy
Ms. Mommy here. Earl and Petunia are taking the day off and allowing me to share my latest home improvement project. See, our house is not very large and we don't have much of a dining room. We have a dining nook, which is partially taken up by some Ikea Trofast storage units that house toys and double as a child-sized table which Earl spends most of his day standing at while he pushes his cars around and builds block towers. 

I've been wanting to better utilize some of the space occupied by our table and chairs. We have an appalling lack of storage in our kitchen (considering we are are a family of five), so along with a switch from chairs to benches along two walls, I wanted something that also had extra storage. One of my primary concerns was our budget- it's tight, so we couldn't spend too much on this project.

After browsing ikeahackers.net, I decided that hacking an Expedit unit would be the best option. Many people have used the 5 shelf Expedit bookshelf/storage unit tipped on it's side as a bench. Oh that we could have done something so simple! Unfortunately, we had only 68 inches of space to work with along the longer of the two walls.

I'm a creative thinker, so after browsing Ikea's website for a bit, I determined that it would be entirely possible to hack two Expedit units together to create perfect sized benches for our space! First, we bought the single and 8 shelf Expedits in matching "birch effect" finish. 

 
Sadly, I didn't have the foresight or energy to photograph the processes as I assembled them late at night, but I've color coded the pieces belonging to each bench here:

I hope that made sense! Here is what the large bench looked like immediately after assembly (with storage inserts, also purchased from Ikea). I realized after this photo was taken that the benches were going to overlap, so I had to remove an insert. 

Here they are in the dining nook, with the cushions fully crafted (material purchased during a foam and fabric sale at Joann Fabric) and secured with strips of adhesive velcro!

Oops, I still need to get the last insert in!

The final setup! The Expedit units with a three inch cushion are the perfect height for both kids and adults! So far, so good. As an added bonus, all three kids can sit on the long bench as long as I don't mind them poking and harassing each other for the entire meal. ;)

I consider Project Dining Nook a rousing success!

Leaves, Leaves, Leaves!

By Petunia
It's Autumn! And you know nothing says Autumn (or Fall, as our big brother, Hank, calls it) like TWIRLY SKIRTS! Also, playing in the leaves. Here I am sporting some gorgeous Gymboree and Children's Place outfits while playing in the leaf pile Ms. Mommy raked up for us to jump in. You may notice my lack of glasses in several of the photos. That's because I keep falling and jamming up the nose pieces, not to mention scratching the lenses (did that last bit make you gasp the way Ms. Mommy gasped when she saw the gouges from my latest fall in the driveway?), so every now and then when we're outside I can get away with not wearing them.