A friend of ours who is an excellet photographer recently took some family shots of us with the beautiful fall leaves as a backdrop. Here is one of the kids that we really like. Notice the lovely red welt across Bay's forehead? Yes, he did that immediately before we were ready to take the pictures :) Anyways, the kids did great and we got some good pictures of all of us as well.

I can't believe it has been so long since I have blogged about our family... it certainly is not for lack of things to write about, just lack of time! The boys finished up a wonderful fall soccer season, Eric has a new violin teacher who is a gift from God and his immaculate timing as far as what he needed, Eric played a two-piano ensemble with another boy at a recital recently, we have rearranged both Leah's and the boys' room (taking apart their bunkbeds), we enjoyed a great Thanksgiving with our family here, and are looking forward to the advent season!

Halloween Fun!

Leah the pink bunny rabbit

Bay as Anakin Skywalker

Eric as Darth Vader

Dennis as a Redskin and Heather as....does anyone recognize Pippi Longstocking???

Granni as "Granni from the Beverly Hillbillies"!

We had a great Halloween this year, as we invited the neighborhood over for the 3rd annual Hayride and Trick-or-Treat. We also had a short time of food and fun for everyone to hang out and visit before we left for the hayride. 15 kids showed up, which was a huge success for our rural corner of the world, and we all barely fit on the trailer! We had lots more stops at houses since more neighbors decided to join in on the fun (which is the whole point of our effort to get everyone in the neighborhood out for this!) I have only included here on the blog pics of us dressed up, but follow the link to our webshots to see all the other pictures from the evening!

Camping at Ohiopyle, PA

We just spent a week camping at Ohiopyle State Park in SouthWest Pennsylvania. We went there last year and loved it so much, we just had to go back and stay for a whole week! The kids were so excited to go camping...while we were filling up the hallway with things packed to go the 2 days before we left, every hour or so, Leah would ask..."Are we going camping?!" The time went by too fast, and before we knew it, it was time to come home, but the memories and experiences are still there and we want to share some of them with you!

The first fun thing we did was ride our bikes on the trail that runs along the Youghigheny River. Dennis rode with Bay in the bike seat, myself with Leah, and Eric pedaled himself the 10.8 miles upriver to the tiny town of Confluence, PA. We stopped at our 2nd annual visit to Sister's Cafe for a $1 scoop of ice cream (a great incentive for the long pedal) and then refueled with water and gatorade for the 10.8 mile pedal back to the car. The route is dotted with evidence of the pioneers and old railroad lifestyle as well as great views of some the rapids.

The next day we drove up to New Centerville, PA to a local festival called the Farmer's Jubilee! As you can probably tell from the name and the picture, it was exactly that...farmers! This was quite a "country bumpkin" festival, but it was really neat too. They had tons of steam engine tractors, races and games for the tractors, lots of other equipment run on steam engines like a cider press, saw mill, hay thresher and baler, etc.

On the way back to the campsite we decided to take some back roads, and they really turned out to be dirt roads. Anyways, we ended up atop Laurel Ridge where there are a bunch of windmills. We always see them when we are traveling to Seven Springs to go skiing, and wonder how you get to them...well, we found out! We kept getting closer and closer until we were right at the windmills. They really are huge when you get right up under them and quite impressive! It was a cool surprise!

The last day we spent hiking some of the trails in the state park. The trail we explored was the Meadow Run Trail...supposedly an easy hike. Dennis had Leah in the back-pack carrier, and Bay and Eric walked the whole way. It was not what we would consider "easy" hiking, for the kids anyways. There were many steep areas that were cut directly into the mountain littered with rocks, boulders, and trees you had to either climb under or over to stay on the path. Nevertheless, we all had a great time seeing many waterfalls, and even had a wet break on a really cool sliding rock. On the way back, we decided to take the plunge, clothes and all, sliding down the river on a really flat rock-the water was freezing and refreshing. The kids thought it was great, and besides the slime that clung to our clothes, we did too! This is a picture of Eric in front of the Cascades waterfalls that were at one end of our 3 mile hike.

Below is some video of a small segment of the bike ride as well as some of the sliding in the water on the rocks. You can also check the link to our webshots page for more pictures of the trip...there are some really great ones!

Leah is Potty-trained!!!

Leah has been working since the 3rd week in August on potty-training, and while she is now officially trained without any accidents, it has been quite an interesting journey to get to this point!

I started her once the busyness of swim team ended but hopefully in plenty of time before school started as well. It all started out very well...lots to drink, more to drink, lots of trips to the potty, once success, and then accident after accident after accident! Poor Leah, she tried so hard, but every time she would have an accident, she would burst into tears and be so devastated, that finally I asked her if she wanted to put her diaper back on and she readily consented :) I thought to myself, "Well, we'll wait a couple of months and try again, she just wasnt' ready."

Much to my surprise, the next morning she wanted to put on her panties and try again first thing in the morning. I had given up, but evidently she hadn't!!! Only on her prompting, all day she went to the potty, but I kept a pull-up on her becasue she was so devastated the day before wtih her accidents. Anyways, all this is to say that she was persistent and it took her a couple of days to be accident free in her panties. Of course, going #2 took a little bit longer, but she is now a big girl all the way, and still loves to add stickers to her chart in her bathroom every time she goes. Needless to say, the chart is overflowing with stickers!

Cake Decorating Week

It has been a week of making and decorating cakes! Our swim team had an end of season banquet on Thursday, and I decorated a cake for the team, as seen below. That was lots of fun to do with the lane lines and wave-like border. Everything on this cake was done with decorater's icing, which is just Crisco, powdered sugar and almond extract. Easy to work with, requires no refrigeration, and firms up nicely to keep the cake sealed and fresh.

I was also commissioned to make a cake for a wedding shower my mom is throwing for a friend's daughter. The theme of the shower and the engagement has been much like a fairytale, so I went with a fairytale theme, indirectly. This cake, unlike the top one, used fondant for all of the decorations and covering the cake. Usually fondant tastes awful, and while it makes a smooth and beautiful cake, everyone takes it off because it doesn't taste good. I found a recipe online to make your own fondant using marshmallows and powdered sugar, and it tastes just like marshmallows....much better. Anyways, before you cover the cake with fondant, you first ice it smooth with the decorater's icing, and then roll out the fondant and put it over the cake. All of the decorations were made from fondant or gum paste, which is similar, but hardens like a rock. This was probably the most involved cake I have ever made, but I think it turned out almost exactly as I had planned, so I was happy with it!

One thing that did happen after making both of these cakes, is that my kitchen was COVERED in sugar and grease, so it gave me an excuse to give the kitchen a good scrubbing tonight after it was all done!

Twins turn 50!

Dennis, Mike, Kevin, Chris, Leah

Micael Joseph, Nicholas & Eric (Cousins)

Everyone waiting for dinner :)

Birthday Boy Kevin

Birthday Boy Mike

Dennis' twin brothers, Mike & Kevin just celebrated their 50th birthdays, and since Kevin happened to be in town, we invited them and some other family that live nearby for a little cookout. It turned out to be a beautiful day, after the heatwave last week, we enjoyed an afternoon in the mid-80's. Eric got to reunite and hang out with some of his cousins, and they had a great time swimming, kayaking, playing Star Wars, and swinging on the long swing! Everyone else enjoyed catching up with each other and just hanging out.

Summer Carnival

I think Eric is now officially too big for this ride :) He was being a good sport though to ride with his siblings!

Believe it or not, Bay and Leah loved the ferris wheel! They kept screaming, "Higher! Higher!" Crazy kids.

Well, it is that time of year again...time for the local volunteer fire department's carnival! The kids got a double dose of it this summer. Friday night their grandparents took them, and then Saturday night, Dennis & I and our family friend, Russ, took them as well! Needless to say, they had a great time. Eric's new favorite ride is the Tilt-a-whirl, and as long as an adult could go, it is also Bay's favorite ride!!! They still enjoyed some of the kiddie rides too, but mostly Leah had a blast ringing the bell on the train, riding the carousel, etc... They ended the night with a couple of pulls on the Lucky 7 (pull a string, get a prize). The thing that is so fun about this carnival is that we always see tons of people there that we know...families from Dennis' office, swim team, home school, church...everyone, it seems, makes a stop at the fireman's carnival!

Around the house we've been taking it easy the past couple of weeks...but not too easy! The garden is coming in in bushels (literally!)...we've frozen corn, canned green beans, frozen tomatoes, eaten tomatoes till they come out our ears, pickling cucumbers, and then getting ready to do it all again as the next round of veggies ripen. I have just about finished teaching swim lessons, but the weather is so hot and humid that it seems we have plenty of swimming left in us for the summer! I'll close with one more cute shot of Leah at the carnival. There are additional pictures on our webshots album.