Trunk or Treat

 This year our little village did things a little bit different. We scheduled a trunk or treat on Saturday night instead of having it on Halloween. Good thing, too, because the high school football team plays on Monday night in Groton and I don't think many people will be around to hand out treats :)

Grandma Judy gets in on the dress up fun. Some people asked where her costume was. I giggled. She is the furthest thing from a witch in real life, she should have worn a saint's costume.

 My little princess' decided to fall asleep 20 minutes before the fun started so they didn't get warmed up until it was nearly over. Good thing Grandma was there to make things go smoothly.

 Ryan works this weekend so we didn't have a lot of time to party but I made him dress up for a couple of hours and go up to the dance with me.

 We got a whole group of dodge ball wanna be's together. It was fun.

 There were a couple of incognito's at the dance. We still are not sure of their identity. I uploaded the photos to facebook and told them to tag themselves. We'll see if it works.

 This game is called Tippy Cup. We had never played before so we spent the first hour trying to flip the cup and then when the young kids came they told us we were playing it backwards. We are too old to learn new tricks, I guess. No wonder we were nursing our drinks so well. After the young crowd arrived things sped up considerably.

 The girls team rocked. We beat the boys several times out of several times,  I think :)

 Sunday morning, REFORMATION, we celebrated the family birthdays at church with a waffle and sausage breakfast. MMMMMMM it was good. I really appreciate my church family and it was nice to fellowship with them.

 Then we went to Grandma Bonnie's to pick the granny smith apples. These apples are never really good until it freezes so they are perfect now. I am hoping to make some sauce, but I will be content with just eating them for a day or two.

 That tree has a lot of apples, Grandma.

It was a great weekend. I told the kids to count their recees and hide the candy because anything left out is considered community property and will get eaten especially anything chocolate and peanut butter.

Birthdaypalooza comes to a close

For those of you who know us, October 25 brings a close to the birthday MONTH. It has been whirlwind of fun, excitement, weddings, funerals, babies and new experiences. As is our custom we went out with a band. Addi celebrated her fourth birthday at preschool, at home and at her stud cousin's football game. GO MCM! Here is a visual story for those of you who love photos, myself included.

 Addison at preschool on the morning of her fourth birthday

 Opening lots of pink presents at home

Marathon cupcake sprinkling before the football game

 Opening more presents at the football game, it was chilly

 Playing with uncle Kelly, feeding him popcorn

 Watching the game in quilted style, did I mention how cold it was?

 Last night we broke out the carving kits and went to town on the giant pumpkins.

Addi shows off the pumpkin she chose from the visit to Paul's patch.

 Please ignore my messy garage.Yikes.

 OOOOOHHHHH. AHHHHHHH. So pretty.

Happy week before Reformation! Goodbye birthday month, schwew!

one week

In seven days our family has experienced one birthday, one wedding, one funeral, one newborn baby and tomorrow one more birthday.

The circle of life.

In between somewhere we had a costume reading rally at the school, a visit to the pumpkin patch, a visit to the zoo in Madison, WI and some preschool pumpkin carving. The photos to prove it except I forgot my battery when we went to the hospital to visit the new baby this morning. Hopefully this week slows down a bit...

Supper...10 pm after the 8 hour trip to WI an hour of swimming in the hotel pool and the evening funeral with family. Maleah wanted a Chinese buffet. My mom and 3 of her sisters and my cousin and her family.

 Flamingos for Bobbi. They look fake when they are sleeping, we had to look real close to see them breathing to believe they were real.

 Nora's birthday breakfast last weekend at the wedding.

 Nora's birthday cupcakes.

 A dress up reading rally at the school where my kids decided to change their costumes for this weekend.

 Addi at a local pumpkin patch with her preschool class.

 The pumpkin carved at preschool.

 Cousins. Nora, Leah, and Addison. We tipped a whole bunch at that Chinese buffet because my kids ran around the restaurant all night long...I hope they made some memories.

We went to a zoo in Madison with my mom and my aunt Kathy while she waited for her flight back to Texas. It was a beautiful day for a visit with all the animals. The zoo was amazing and we could hardly believe it but it was free admission, too.

I am a little nervous she'll want the cake for herself...

Ask Nora what we are doing this weekend and she will say, "It's my wedding." No, my about to be three year old is not getting married. Ryan's brother is and we are staying in a hotel and swimming and dancing the whole weekend away. Happy Birthday dear little baby Nora!

Time

My mom just called. Aunt Patty is not doing well. If you have time today please pray for her. My mom is going out to see her again on Thursday. I am praying for peace, healing and time for me to get to see her, too.

Thank you.


“Heavenly Father, You are intimately aware of the struggle Patty is experiencing -- the pain and the despair. You know the desire of her heart to be healed of this illness. I ask now for Your healing touch. I know that You are able and that just like in Bible times, You can heal her. 

“I also understand that You will chose what is best for her. I pray that through this trial, she will draw close to You -- that You will be her comfort and strength. I pray that ultimately, whatever happens, You will be glorified. I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.”

Birthdaypalooza

October is our busy birthday month. We have three birthdays about a week apart. It is CRAZY. So yesterday after my fun run. My amazing sister met me with my kids and hers at the zoo where we had pizza in the park and then right as we were about to enter the zoo the KSFY truck asked us if we wanted to do the finger wave! Two groups did one and then we were off to the zoo, where the baby rhinoceros was also celebrating HIS birthday. WHEW! It was almost too much to handle. We survived and I forgot to dvr the news so of course it aired tonight. Sigh... Next up Nora's birthday combined with a wedding this Saturday. Pray for us this week! I only got a few photos before my camera died. The videos of Nora are my favorite. She absolutely loved feeding the little goats but every time a big one came close she would say,"Not YOU." It was so funny. We quickly ran out of food for the animals but Nora decided to quench their thirst.

Fall Fun

 Daddy got half the day off on Friday and we took great advantage of it.

 Playing in the leaves, look at Addi! She is so happy.

Days like this are too far and in between.

Beautiful Day

What a great Saturday I had! The sun was shining and the grass was a beautiful shade of green from the drink the rain gave it. Oh, and the company was SPECTACULAR!!!! I had a great time with Deann and coach Carey. Thanks beautiful women! If you asked me a year ago if I would have fun running 3 miles I would have laughed in your face. Today I will tell you I would do it again right now...

Golden Boy!

Tomorrow my little boy turns eight, on the eighth! Golden birthdays are fun when they are little. The rest of my kids will be too old for fun and games by the time their golden birthdays roll around. I wanted to plan a fun party for him and his friends, something he would always remember. Ryan had last weekend off and Gavin wanted to invite all the boys in his class, with a limited budget I had to think fast. I decided to do an AMAZING RACE party. I wrote clues for four destinations at Grandma Bonnie's farm. They also had to complete two road blocks and one detour. Thanks to the help of several parents we were able to pull it off. Hopefully he made some awesome memories.

Each particpant pulled a colored tie from a paper bag to see what team they were on. I had 4 teams and started each one at a different destination for fear of the 3 hour game!

I sent one parent or older sibling with each group on their race to help read the clues and just chaperone while they roamed the farm.

This tree is easy to find because it has a sort of house in it. 

When you find it DO NOT CLIMB it. But instead wrap a piece

of your teams’ colored material around the trunk of the tree.

Then take turns shooting a can with a rubber band.

Ask the adult for your next clue.

Find the tree loaded with green fruit .

They are almost ripe and ready to fall.

Please pick ONLY ONE and not them all.

ROAD BLOCK: Choose one of the following and complete it together.

Eat the whole apple. OR

Peel the apple with the adult.

Ask the adult for your next clue.

Behind the swings was a garden green.
Grandma has since harvested it clean.
She forgot some little orange pumpkins.
Find ONE, use the permanent marker to write your name on it.
Put your pumpkin in the container in the driveway.
Go back to the garden and make 3 baskets before asking the adult for your next clue.

Several large round things are lined up in a row.

Look where lots of grass can grow.

Once you find them climb them.

Count them out loud as you jump on every one.

ROAD BLOCK: Choose and complete one of the following tasks together.

Take turns to shoot the bow and arrow at a target OR

Run across the bales and jump off the end 5 times.

Ask the adult for your next clue.

Every team had one final DETOUR: Find Gavin in the race and sing him Happy Birthday. He will give you a sticker. Once you have your sticker find Rani and she will give you your prize.