Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Jack-o's are revealed

When we picked our pumkins a few weeks ago, we tried several times to give at least some of them away. True we didn't go so far as to put out a sign and say "Free Pumpkins", but no one took us up on the verbal offers, so we still ended up with ten pumpkins on our porch come the week of Halloween. I never thougth we'd carve them all, but D did them a few at a time and all of a sudden we had 10 jack-o-lanterns on our porch. Each of the kids either drew a design for Daddy to carve or picked one out of a pattern book. Let's see if I can tell what's what...
There was a witch or two, a spider, a BOO!, a few happy pumpkins, a scared one, a "pretty lady" pumpkin, and a surprised pumpkin.I'm just glad I didn't have to carve them...I seem to have developed a skin sensitivity to pumpkin guts. Fun. I love the way they look, though, and how excited the kids get every night at lighting time. And even how they interrogate me each morning, "Did you remember to blow out the candles last night Mommy?" And now jack-o-lantern season is already past for this year. Maybe we'll grow some different kinds next year!

Friday, October 26, 2007

Happy (Belated) Birthday Mimi!

Mimi turned six a few weeks ago and I am such a slacker-mom, that I am only now acknowledging this on the blog. On her birthday, we sang happy birthday to her and she received a few presents (from Mommy, Daddy and siblings and some from the Grandmas too.) Other than that there wasn't much mention made...we were celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving that day (Columbus day for us US people.) Since Peggy is from Canada, we have been celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving with D's family as long as I have known them. As a matter of fact, six years ago, Mimi was born on Canadian Thanksgiving. We had celebrated the night before at my MIL's house.

Oh she also got to bring Mr. Birthday Frog home from school that day and record what she did with him, to share later with her school class. Here she is decorating cookies at Canadian Thanksgiving with Mr. Birthday Frog.



Last week we were finally able to manage some time to have her party. She invited several little girls from the neighborhood and her (in-town) cousins closest to her in age, E-beth and K-girl. As the guests arrived, they decorated their loot bags.


And then we played a quick game of "pin the crown on the princess."

Some of you may recognize the set up for the next game. When Mimi and I were talking about what to do at her party I suddenly remembered the "spider-web game" (at least that is what I remember it as...does it have a name?) She immediately agreed, and so my work was cut out for me! It took about 45 minutes to wind the room up and about 10 to unwind it all. The girls loved it, and not just the candy treat at the end. After finishing, some began to wind the string around themselves..."I'm webbing myself!" It was pretty cute! The girls then decorated cupcakes, and suddenly, moms were coming to pick up their girls!

Mimi, it is so crazy for me to think that you are already six years old, but at the same time I sometimes am amazed that you are only six years old. You are so sweet, kind and helpful. We love having you here to teach us and be a part of our family! We love you! Happy Birthday!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Apple Abundance


Some of you have seen our apple trees. Well, it's now harvest time, and we have apples coming out our ears! We've picked the apples that we can reach from the south side of our trees, but have yet to venture to the north side. SO far I think we have picked in the area of sixteen or seventeen boxes worth, And that's just from our trees! SPH-1 and Daddy-O also have apple trees, so we're trying to use/preserve those as well. We are canning and drying (thanks to my fantastic mom!) and giving them away...But if anyone wants some, please feel free to come and take a bag, a box or more!

Here are some of the things we have done:

Applesauce


Apple slices


Apple crisp


Caramel Apples


Apple slices for lunch, snacks, and dinner


8 Boxes and countless bags of fresh apples given away to friends and neighbors


Even more apples donated for church activities (apple pies/apple cider/bobbing for apples)


**I started this post what seems like ages ago, planning on taking pics, but haven't managed to do this yet. so here's the post with fewer pics!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Our own little pumpkin pile!

Sorry if you get bored over the next few posts. I'll be recording our harvest and canning, canning and more canning! But first our pumpkins. We grew 10, but one ended up stuck in a drain pipe, and in order to get it out, it got chopped up!( So here is our pile of nine. When we get them carved, I'll update the pics!

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Happy Birthday SPH-1!



Mother dear, I love you so!
Your happy smiling face
Is such a joy to look at;
It makes home a lovely place.

So today is the birthday of one fantastic lady. And we all had some discussion what would be a good gift for such a wonderful lady. After many phone calls and emails, here was the decision for the birthday gift:




The Ektorp Sofa bed from Ikea.

The picture at the top is Mommy's reaction when she found out what was coming into her living room! Here she is relaxing on it.



I won't give you all the blow by blow, but I will let you know that it was with glee that Dani and I pushed the brown beast out of the truck at the dump (although it tried to shove back!)


A big thank you to all who contributed, especially to our designated "nagger", Princess Gerty! But of course the biggest thank you goes out to our wonderful mother, SPH-1, for being the best Mom in the whole world. You are a great example to us all of how to really live the gospel, with true faith and charity. I can't even list all the ways that you are so wonderful. But yo are and I love you. We all love you. Happy Birthday, Moms!

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Soccer Season

We bit the bullet this year and put Mimi and Buddy into the city run soccer league. The "season" was only during the month of September. Their team focused on the basic skills of soccer, and listening to a coach. They scrimmaged a few times. The first time ended in a dogpile. It was hard not to laugh as the coaches pulled one kid after another off the pile, explaining the whole time how it's important to be nice and not tackle in soccer.


The final day of practice was winter-like. I was sure they would cancel due to rain, but was totally wrong...it turned into snow and they still didn't cancel. But I guess they had to hand out the medals and pictures, as well as the treats. Mimi was in full out rebellion by about five minutes into practice, "It's too cold! I'm freezing! I hate soccer!" I guess that's why she told me that next year she doesn't want to play soccer, but would rather (drumroll please) learn how to ice skate! LOL!




When asked what their favorite part of soccer was here are their answers;
Buddy "JUMPING-JACKS!"
Mimi "Nothing!"




Sweetsa loved being there on the field with the "big kids" and she was pretty good at dribbling the ball around.

The faces of Sweetsa