Catch Up

I wanted to post some pictures of Halloween. A friend let us borrow a costume so Benjamin was a monkey and Jacob and I were zoo keepers for Trunk or Treat at the church. I though that was really clever. We decorated our trunk with stuffed monkeys hanging all around and a couple in laundry basket cages (as shown below)















I even gave out treats from a bucket with a 'monkey chow' label on it. I thought it was great fun.
I bought some mini boxes of raisins to give out with all our candy, Jacob thought that the kids would turn on us for trying to sneak a healthy snack into the treats, but they were actually pretty popular. More than one kid found the raisins mixed in with the candy and said something like "Oohh, Raisins!" and one kid came back to our trunk like 8 times for more raisins.
The other great thing about the party at church was that I won an award for my black bean soup in the chili/soup cook off. It was the first time I've made it with dried beans, so I was glad it turned out okay on the first try...I'm suprised it won too because it was black bean soup- it doesn't look pretty, particullarly next to the chicken noodle and other lighter soups that were there.

Halloween day Benjamin and I met Jacob at school and went on a walk around the lake on campus and had a picnic. I got a couple of pictures of the pretty fall colors. It's a really nice little walk. They also have paddleboats and canoes you can rent and take out on the lake, we were just too busy to go before they closed for the winter, but maybe in the spring we'll try it.

In other more recent news, Benjamin is standing already. He's pulling himself up to standing on his toys all the time now. I'm no developmental expert, but it seems like he's pretty precoucious. He gets all over the house and into all kinds of stuff. He's a very fun, happy baby and a great joy.
I snapped these pictures the other day when I saw him pull himself up to standing. (This was Nov. 14) I didn't catch him standing on camera, but he decided to climb into his toy basket which is just as good. :)