Week by week 18

(October 25-31). This was a fun week! There are lots of pictures cuz I felt like putting them all on. On a side note, I owe a huge thanks to Harm for telling me about Picasa and how easy it is to resize my pics so they upload WAY faster!
We started the week off by going to the park (Big surprise, eh?). James discovered a new game. It actually took me about 5 minutes to figure out that my kid was not having some sort of breakdown but that he was actually playing a new game. He still plays this game often. Only now it isn't just sticks that are leaf blowers anymore. Anything can be a leaf blower. A fork, a toothbrush, a broom, whatever. Here he is in action.
My little leaf blower!John-Luke sleeping peacefully in his stroller at the park. Man I miss those days!
This week John-Luke turned 4 months old. Yep, 4 big fat months! He is so yummy I could just eat him up!
This week we also discovered Hippo Park! This is the best park ever! Small (but not too small) with all the best toys and a few cool hippos thrown in the mix. Oh, and it is in a beautiful location overlooking the river too. James was fascinated with the huge hippo's mouth.
See how beautiful it was? Lovely. And totally enclosed with a fence.
Two of James' favorite people. Paisley and Cado! They make being a kid look like so much fun and James adores them both (and "Denevie" as he calls their baby sister, Geneve).
James playing on the hippo's. He was trying to jump like his cool friends. He chickened out every time. Good thing too.
A great example why I need a new camera. It was an awesome day at the park!
Just a cute pic of my two boys in the morning. James is eating a made-from-scratch crepe. Aren't Johnny-Lu's rolls coming along nicely?
On Halloween, we scheduled a full day. We had a family photo shoot with Harmony in the morning in Genthod, Switzerland. I traded with my friend Harmony. I took her family pics (on her great camera) and she took ours (also on her great camera). She does an amazing job. I will be posting those pics soon!
Then we went to a "pumpkin patch" nearby to pick out some pumpkins to carve. Let's just say that this wasn't much of a patch and more like a little heap of pumpkins dumped on the side of the road. We got some pumpkins anyway. Brian helping Bimmy chose some pumpkins.
They had other kinds of squash as well. Bubba liked this one. Notice the pile of tiny pumpkins behind him. They were NOT cheap! We got 4 small pumpkins for $20 (yes, dollars since the CHF and the dollar are pretty much equal these days).
The cash register. It was an honor system. We just pushed our money into the tin can. Actually, there are a lot of things here on the honor system. Like newspapers. It is kinda the same thing where you just drop your money in and take your paper. Notice how the place was really just on the side of the road.
Since Bubba is too young yet for knives (much to his daily chagrin, I might add), we decided to try out painting a pumpkin. He enjoyed it very much. Here he is in the begining. Quite clean actually.
Mid painting James decided to take a taste (much to my chagrin).
More painting.
"Ta dump!" That is how Bimmy says it.
Then he turned on himself with the paint. Oh well. We also had Daddy actually carve a couple of our pumpkins. James was very fascinated with this.
John-Luke. Pretty much bored out of his head watching from his bouncy seat. He is so darn patient with us all. Seriously a saint!
James wouldn't touch the insides to help Brian take them out. His exact word was, "Yucky!" He did try and taste a seed but was not impressed.
Happily holding our first carved pumpkin.
He is a saint but not perfect. He finally had enough and demanded some food and a bed.
Later that night, we headed out to the church for the English ward's annual Halloween party. We don't go to that ward but we do go to some of their activities and I hang out with a few of the momma's with kids. James was a bumblebee! He was so excited to put on that costume. Thanks, Pink, for giving it to us.
Here is James with Elder Escalona (I was his mom's VT in Dallas before we moved). Yes, it is a small world. Funny to move to Geneva and have someone we knew from Dallas called over here.
They did a little cat-walk show of all the kids in their costumes. Bubba stole the show (in my professional opinion).

Don't you agree?

Johnny-Lu was a little Swiss cow (complete with cowbell). And he was happy again after his nip and nap.
Me and Brian with Lil' Captain.
James from the side. Just to get the full effect of his costume. Don't you love the stinger? The only issue with the costume was that he was so cute that I had about 5 people refer to him as a girl.
James also decided to try on a few other costumes as well. Here he is with a gnome hat and a fairy wand. We left just before they started the trick-or-treating. James had a blast!
A full body view of Baby's costume. Yes, we really do call him "baby", a lot! Isn't he a luscious little cow? (Another thanks to Pink for this costume too!)
Hope y'all had a Happy Halloween! We did!