Omaha

The second leg of our fall trip took us to Omaha to revisit our siblings and cousins who met us in Minneapolis. One day we went to the children's museum to plant some crops and do some plumbing.

Caleb pretended to be born again.

There was also a big section with balls. We spent a lot of time there. Balo couldn't believe this part of the ball section was included in the price of admission and spent a great deal of time here shooting this ball cannon into a nearly impossible target.

Here they all are in jail in the haunted portion of the museum.

The kids also got to paint their own faces.

Sabrina decided she would like to have her birthday party in Omaha with her cousins, so we threw her a little party. (Not sure why she looks so bored in these pictures.) One thing about this trip is that the kids all had a had a fever that got passed around. It came on fast, but only lasted a day, and they each got in on a different day. Sabrina had it the day before her party, then Clara got it the day of her party, which is why she isn't in the party pictures. (she actually arranged,  through a minor febrile seizure,  to have an ambulance and fire truck come to Sabrina's party and a fireman gave everyone stickers.  Thanks, Clara!)

After the cake and presents came the glow dance party in the basement. And here's the birthday girl sitting for a portrait.

The little roller coaster also gets plenty of use anytime they go into the basement.

Each time we took a picture, Sabrina would prepare by putting on all her glow bracelets, then start dancing and go crazy, so all the bracelets would fly off. This one catches a bracelet in mid air, several feet behind her.

We also went to an orchard somewhere over in Iowa for some fall festivities and delicious, fresh-pressed apple cider slushies.

They had corn in their sandbox instead of sand.

We took what might be termed a hayride through the apple orchard, except we weren't sitting on hay.

There was also a corn maze, with a cowbell to ring at the end.

And since we're on topic, we'll include the Halloween pictures. We were back home in Alaska for Halloween, and it was unusually warm, so we didn't need to bundle up quite as much as usual.

The girls drew the faces on their pumpkins. Celia's has a bow, and Sabrina's "looks suh-pwized."

The next morning after Halloween the girls sorted their candy. They had some system they set up on the stairs.