Pumpkin patch

Last weekend, we all went to the Aggie Habitat Pumpkin Patch, which benefits Habitat for Humanity. We like to go every year to pick out our pumpkins and take pictures. This photo will give you an idea of the size of the pumpkin patch--this shows about half of it. If you look closely you can make out Annabelle in the pink shirt, Rebekah in brown pants, and Shannon in a red shirt in the back.

While we were there, the volunteers were emptying boxes of little pumpkins to put out for sale. When they were finished, Annabelle, whose favorite game is putting things in boxes, helped out by running with a tiny pumpkin in each hand to put them back in the boxes. She would not be dissuaded from her task and probably put twenty pumpkins away before we finally distracted her.
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Stay tuned for pictures of our pumpkin artwork!

the bit about the ketchup...

On the suggestion of my friend Rochelle, here's the rest of the story. After Rebekah was traumatized by this cartoon, I went to watch it myself to see what upset her so badly. The cartoon is set in a hunting lodge, and at the end a gun goes off and Pluto faints. Then Chip and Dale pour ketchup on him, so when Mickey Mouse comes back, he thinks Pluto has been shot (don't you miss the days when even Mickey Mouse cartoons were good and violent?). Oh! That must be it! She thinks that Chip and Dale killed Pluto! I went back to Rebekah and asked her, "Did you think that Pluto was bleeding?" Tearing up again, she replied, "No. It was ketchup. They dropped a broom on him (she thought the rifle was a broom) and then poured ketchup on him and it is SO MEAN to pour ketchup on people!" And then more crying.

too soft-hearted

Poor Rebekah. She's just too soft-hearted for her own good. She frequently breaks down in tears over the slightest hurt feelings, hers or someone else's. Even though we are careful about the television shows and movies that she watches, we are often surprised by what upsets her. Yesterday, I found some old Mickey Mouse cartoons for her to watch. She was happy at first and giggled like, well, a little girl, but suddenly she ran away from the screen crying. When she calmed down enough to talk, she cried, "Chip and Dale are being so mean to Pluto!" Her distress led to a good half hour of crying, during which she was inconsolable despite her insistence that she knew that Pluto was not real, just pretend. "I'm still just so worried about Pluto," she said. We love that she has such empathy, but we also hope that we can help her learn to cope with her feelings a little better.