Quick Izzie, look at that!
Izzie was a little bewildered by the singing and candles, and had no idea what we wanted her to do with them.
But Ben took care of that...
Just checking to see if these are good.
The masterpiece!
Here are the kids being silly in the car while waiting for Dad to finish work.
Ben was very proud of his pumpkin - I forget which one was his, but I think it was the fatter, shorter one. The other one is Izzie's, of course. At one point we were measuring Ben's pumpkin and it was gaining 1 to 2 inches in circumference every day. 
This picture would lead you to believe that the taller pumpkin was Ben's, but I'm pretty sure they switched. 
Hooray for pumpkins!
And a little pumpkin racing to end the day.
Here's Ben getting his number pinned on. He was doing a lot of thumb-biting that day. 
Here's Izzie getting her number pinned on. And look - I'm in a picture!
And another one too!
??? Your guess is as good as mine! Actually I think they were warming up - Ben decided to invent his own stretches when he couldn't quite follow the ones everyone else was doing.
Daddy getting Izzie all set. I was worried Izzie was going to end up on her face because these shoes were slightly too large for her and she didn't have a lot of practice moving around in them. She stayed on her feet though, and to be honest, it probably wouldn't have fazed her if she had fallen down.
Ben, getting into his zone.
Izzie copying Ben.
Izzie practicing before the race.
Daddy giving her some encouragement.
Izzie was so excited she ran straight into my arms on the sideline laughing and cheering and thought she was done! I had to run with her to finish the race. She came in last, but was very happy about it and proud of herself, as were we!
Technically Izzie was one day short of the 2 year old age group but we figured that didn't matter either. Look how proud she is of her ribbon.
I asked them to show me their ribbons and this is what they did! The ribbons say, "I ran 75 yards at the Eastman Youth Runs. We definitely plan to do it again next year.
Here's Izzie feeding a goat at a farm we went to. It sounded great but was a little disappointing. The highlights were a bouncy castle and the sandbox.
Ben, sleeping on Izzie, sleeping on Daddy.
The guys all got a bee in their bonnets to shave their heads. Here's Wingo trusting Colin with the clippers.
Wade giving Ben a hug.
Here she is with my sunglasses.
And Katie's shoes. We were all surprised at how well she was able to walk in them. Apparently Morley liked the shoes too, because he stole one later that evening and tried to eat it. 
She even takes Daddy's flip flops.
Colin spent 3 days and 2 nights in the hospital and left with this $5000 custom brace which he gets to wear until mid-December. Or possibly not quite as long if he's lucky.
Knock, knock! Anybody in there? 
I was worried about that but they have been very gentle (mostly) so far. Izzie seems to be particularly conscious of the fact that she can't jump on Daddy anymore. She likes to go over and gently hug Colin's leg or slip her little hand into his.
Izzie knows when she's being cute. Today she climbed into bed with Daddy and snuggle up to his plasticky side. She was quite pleased with herself and happy to pose for a few pictures.
We (Izzie) found this toy stroller at a yard sale and decided she must have it, along with a little doll that had a shirt but no pants. (Check out the quirky little smile she's giving me in this picture!)
It was cheap enough, so we got it, and after we returned home she and Ben went careening madly around the block. It's actually very nice having both strollers because the toy one is less obnoxious in the house, the real one is nicer outside (these days I use it when we take Ben to the bus stop) and they can each have one, so no need for bickering. For the last week or so Izzie has been loading both dolls into the stroller - sometimes accompanied by a puppy - and wheeling them around the family room proudly saying, "Two babies! Two babies!" She has suddenly started communicating and is making all sorts of demands that must be met. For example the other day she kept asking me to "wash feet, wash feet!" (Hers, not mine, although that would have been funny too.) And then she wanted me to wash the puppy's feet and the doll's feet...
The kids really enjoyed this bug catcher from Nancy. 
They mostly caught things (or various persons around them did) and kept them for a while before letting them go. I think a few went in that were dead to begin with... This particular day we were very excited to have found what we eventually (perhaps even correctly?)identified as a female stag beetle. We read all about its life cycle and then safely released her.
Ben has a book he likes to read called Some Smug Slug, in which a slug makes his way up a slippery slope despite the warnings of the other animals. The slope turns out to be a toad, and the last line in the book is, "Such a succulent slug." This, of course, led Ben to wonder what succulent meant, and since then he has been asking if he can eat some "succulent pickles." I made about 15 jars of dill pickles with dill, cucumbers and garlic from our garden (didn't grow the vinegar or salt!) and I think we're down to about 10 already - even though they're not officially ready until the end of September! Everybody in our family likes them and we can finish a whole jar in one sitting. In fact, Ben would probably eat a whole jar himself if I let him. Maybe he'll have to get pickles in his Christmas stocking like we got when we were little!
