Halloween

Here are the jack-o-lanterns we carved this year. See if you can guess who carved which one? The three carvers were Heather, Dennis and Eric. Eric and Bay also each painted a smaller pumpkin as well.

Here's the crew, ready to go out on the neighborhood tractor ride. We have started a tradition on our street, last year was the first, this year was even better and actually a little organized! We invited all of the kids on the street to join us in their costumes for a hay ride on a trailer pulled behind a tractor to do their trick-or-treating. With this being such a rural area, and the houses so far apart, it makes it much easier and not as much walking, as well as it is a great time for the neighbors on our street who don't normally see little ones coming around very often. We enjoyed getting to know some neighbors and their children who we don't normally see. Dennis drove the tractor and pulled behind a friend's trailer complete with hay bales and little pumpkin lights. Everybody piled on and off and eventually their buckets were so full that the little ones couldn't even carry them! Anyways, it was a great time. Heather's mom dressed up as a real hayseed, rotten teeth included, daddy went as Cowboy Dennis, and Heather even dressed up this year, however it really scared Dennis and Leah to see her that way! You'll have to see the rest of the pictures in webshots to see if you can pick her out! Dennis' mom even felt good enough to come over for the evening to see all the kids dressed up and have some dinner and candy.

Field Trip to the Zoo

Our home school group just took a field trip to the Baltimore Zoo. We carpooled with some friends and although it was bitter cold and we ended early due to the rain that moved in, we had a good time! Eric's favorites were the cheetahs and the penguins. Leah's favorite was the elephants, and Bay's were the penguins and the Polar Creeper at the polar bear exhibit. Our group has lots of field trips planned for this year and has already gone on several (though this is our first with the group).

Camping at Kerr Lake

We went on our final camping trip of the season recently to Kerr Lake, NC. We had a beautiful site as you can see above, and there were hardly any other campers, so it was very quiet. Of course our crew makes plenty of noise for the whole campground all by themselves!!!! The foliage was perfect, the weather was beautiful and once the wind died down, we even got to canoe and the boys spent plenty of time fishing on the lake. Our lakefront site was great for the boys because they had all that beach and forest to play in which kept them very busy. We also spent a lot of time walking around and at the playground. No real big adventures, just a break from our busy weeks and lots of relaxation. Dennis and I commented that because we all went to bed around 9:30 and every one slept till about 7:00 that we got more sleep on this camping trip than we have at home in a long time! There are more pictures on our webshots album from the trip of you care to browse :) The camper is closed up and winterized for now and waiting for spring to come before we take it out again. Oh, and we found that a mouse had eaten his way through the canvas in the side of the camper and shredded a blanket we had in there, so we had do de-mouse the place and now we have patched the canvas and installed sonic mouse-deterrents in the camper so none set up house over the winter! That was not a fun surprise.

Leah's New Dress

I just finished making Leah a new dress, it is one of a few more that will soon follow. I decided to try and make the bulk of her winter wardrobe if I could be successful and find a pattern I liked that was easy enough to use over and over again. So this is it, I really like it and it was very easy. It is McCall's # 4908. I got this pink fabric which is a fleecy chenille with an embossed star pattern. It is very cozy and warm. I also got some other knit prints and a purple printed fleece. It took me about 2 1/2 hours to make it, not including time cutting out the initial pattern. That is about the quickest I've ever been able to make a dress I think. It called for a zipper in the back, but I really didn't want to go through all of that, so I just sewed the back skirt completely together and sewed the back bodice together halfway up. Then I finished the edge at the back of the bodice and added a hook/eye to secure the top. It fits easily enough over her head. I also considered using a bit of velcro at the top, but the hook/eye worked just fine. Although this dress looks pretty "dressy", I intend for them to be play dresses for her. I'd like to find a pattern for some tight fitting leggins so I can make some coordinating and so she doesn't have to wear tights all the time! Anyways, there are a couple more pics of the dress on my webshots album if you care to see! Happy sewing!

PUMPKIN TIME

We just went to get pumpkins at the farm on our road this weekend. This was trip #1 with the parents. Trip #2 will probably soon follow with the grandparents, for they want to be in on the fun as well!!! Of course it was great to see them having so much fun running around looking for the perfect gourd, waiting for Bay to smash one as it slipped out of his hand, and hear Leah say "pumpkin!" about 500 times! We were surprised when Eric picked out one of the smallest pumpkins...usually he wants the biggest and best, but this one seemed to make him happy this year!

The weather has just cooled down here considerably, as it probably has everywhere lately, so it seemed a fitting time to visit the farm. We are also looking forward to several fall field trips with our home school group...to the local corn maze farm and also to the Baltimore Zoo. We may even squeeze in one more family camping trip if the weather cooperates! Hope you are enjoying your fall and follow the link to our webshots album for more pics from the pumpkin hunt.

Men's Group Picnic

Recently, Dennis' Men's group had a picnic together at my parent's house. It turned out to be a beautiful day since the first scheduled one got cancelled due to Ernesto :) It was nice to relax and get to know each other's families a little bit better, and as you can see from the photos, our kids had a lot of fun. Leah even did a preview of her Halloween outfit!

It is really starting to get cool and feel like fall...cool enough that we can't even have the windows open anymore. Not quite time for flannel sheets, but it won't be long!