Doughnut Lovers Unite

On Wedesdays our family heads to church - the boys have AWANA, which they love (Gabe just got his new t-shirt for "truth and training" and is SOOOO proud!), and John and I lead youth alpha, which Katy attends.  Tonight the boys dressed up for costume night; Gabe was Indiana Jones like he is every year, and Zach was a cowboy, wearing the vest Nana made and Uncle John's very old and very dilapidated hat.

One of the games we played with the teens tonight was the classic doughnut on a string, which of course resulted in lots of doughnut pieces littering the floor and ending up in the trash bin. The night ended and my children were rounded up to wait in our room as we cleaned up, vacuuming and putting away chairs and emptying the trash can.  As I headed over to complete the last task I noticed Zach reaching into the trash bag - and he pulled out a doughnut, planning to eat it without any second thoughts.
"Put that down!!!" I grabbed for it, but he held it up, trying to take a bite. "That's trash!"
"No," he said, "its a doughnut, and I'm attracted to it."
"Well, its trash now, so please put it back."
"Mom, I am attracted to doughnuts," he said calmly, his giant cowboy hat slipping down so I could only see one big brown eye blinking at me. "I can't help it. I have a Swedish tooth."

A(nother) Day at the Apple Orchard

Gabe and Ava navigate the pumpkin patch

Max knew how to put his cousin to work

Grandpa and Rilla share an apple

There seems to be some confusion about what is actually happening - is it a ball? an apple?

I seriously have the cutest daughters EVER

Like myself, Zach takes his apple picking quite seriously

This year I managed to squeeze in THREE visits to our favorite apple orchard - really, its the only orchard I take the kids to anymore, so I guess I don't even need to qualify which one. Last Saturday many of our cousins and aunts and uncles etc also joined us for a lovely fall afternoon, eating cider doughnuts, riding the tractor, playing amidst pumpkins, and of course, getting some apples!

Columbus Day

This year my brother Mike's birthday fell on Columbus day - growing up it was always exciting to have a birthday fall on Columbus day because I would get the day off from school. Well, this year it was Mike's turn, and he was willing to share the celebration with both myself and Alice, our "aunt" whose birthday is next week.
We spent the afternoon at my parents, enjoying the unseasonably warm day, riding the new go-cart and taking pictures. As usual Katy snapped some great ones!

They look kind of serious ~ ??

There's a smile!

Zach raced after his big sister to make sure she was ok!

Gabe proved to be very mechanical once again,helping Grandpa with the adjustments to the gocart.

The birthday boy!

So proud of herself!

Daddy took the gocart for a spin.

School House Rock Godsey style

As facts trickle down to my children some of them seem to be a bit diluted.

BIOLOGY:   "Fish don't poop. If they did they would explode."

DNA TESTING:  "I filled this cup with water, put the dried up salamander in it, took it out"   (consequently leaving it somewhere in the bedroom, location unknown)   " and now I have salamder DNA. "

AQUIRING SUPER POWERS:  "We put a dead fly in the water, let his DNA get out, and then Gabe drank it."  (Thank you, Marvel Comics.)

LITERATURE:  "It's almost your bedtime, Mom, so I got a story to read you  - "The Violin Rabbit." (known in some circles as "The Velveteen Rabbit.")

GOURMET COOKING;  "May I please have some missionario cherries on my ice cream? I mean, missionary cherries?"

"Fall is here!" or "Where is my sanity?"

One morning we were a robot workshop; some samples of our creations

She is really too big for this but it was awful fun!

Zach's friend Natalie gave him a snake skin which he proudly displayed as often as possible.

We went to a great concert a couple weeks ago in Mass - Superchick, Hawk Nelson, Mike's Chair, Fireflight

Katy with the lead singer of Hawk Nelson on my phone!

At church

Katy went to a Josh Wilson concert with some friends - it was on the beach

Two weeks ago we started Youth Alpha on Wednesdays, John and I co-lead.

As I always do when our schedule is going to change, I anticipated back to school to be a time of sipping coffee, catching up on my Bible reading, playing quietly on the floor with Rilla, and of course cleaning my house from top to bottom. While I have accomplished some of those things to a slight degree, my housework seems determined to best me. So today I decided - it can wait while I catch up on my blog. We are having a lovely fall and I want to reflect on it and enjoy my family.

Katy Renee turns 17!!!

Katy is 17! Yes, world, our little girl is growing up! For some reason I have always thought 17 is so much more adult than 16; maybe because 16 is such a big deal but when you are 17 you have already established the fact that you are just about an "adult" so you just go on your merry way, becoming who you are meant to be.
Last night I asked John to tell us what he remembered of Katy's birth story (is it just the dads in my life, or dads in general who tend to be rather fuzzy on childhood details?) and so we enjoyed hearing about her quiet entry into the world, looking right at her daddy with those big eyes. (I also figured out that since I was only 14 at the time I was most likely at youth group or learning how to put my contacts in.)
For her birthday Katy asked for tickets to the Josh Groban concert that will be in NH at the beginning of November. What a very grown up thing to ask for!!

Although it appears to be a giant doughnut, Katy actually had a double chocolate cake.

With a pillow in her lap, it looks like Floating Katy, blowing out the candles.

Puddle Walk

One of my ideas when I realized I would be staying home with the kids was to start going on walks together after dinner; like most ideas, it has taken me three months to do anything about it. Last night we went on a lovely walk after dropping the van off at John's work - we fed ducks, we played on the playground, we found giant leaves to measure. My new Walking After Dinner Plan was off to a great start!
Tonight it rained.
So we put on our rain boots, grabbed a giant umbrella, stuck Rilla in the moby wrap and headed out on a puddle jumping adventure. It was awesome.
Of course, the pile of soggy clothing on the floor in front of the door is still there, and the dishes still aren't done  - but hey, it was still awesome.