Thanksgiving Memories

In November, we went on our annual trip to Georgia, to visit my brother's family. We always have a wonderful time reconnecting with each other and we are gratefully thankful that they provide such a wonderful retreat year after year.

Activities included Yoga with Cindy

Cooking with Marty

Hair with Amanda

Mandel Bread with Aunt Sue

Lots of snuggling!

Oreo Turkeys with Mary Alice

And Musical fun for All.

Like it or not, when we returned home, I greeted my 42nd birthday, with the required chocolate cake!

Aunt Linda & Uncle Tom

We had a lovely visit with Eric's Aunt & Uncle this weekend!

More Halloween Fun!

More cookies. Some are Megan Ling's, some are Mary Alice's, some are mine.
Guess which are which!

Very nice costume, Misty!

You too, Jazzy!

The Chef is IN


Waiting to Trick or Treat!

The witch joins the group.

Pretty Princess

And dear friend, Dortothy!

All around a very fun evening was had by all. Megan was fascinated by the whole "get candy at every house" thing. At every house, after trick or treating she walked down the driveway a little ways and then turned around and looked back at the house. It seemed like she was thinking "Wow, that's cool".

Halloween Fun

We enjoyed carving pumpkins this weekend.

Here are some proud carvers........

And proud pumpkins......




This one is strutting his stuff. I will give you one guess who did it.....

I chased away a squirrel yesterday who was chewing the Turkey's foot!
Ouch! What nerve!

And these beautiful creations were made by... Guess Who......

This is a darling girl who asked to be a computer, and
after Mommy worked hard to make one, now says
"I don't like it".....

Here is her newest thing. She says to one of us "Okay! You say Yes and I say No! Go!" and then we Yes/No back and forth for as many exchanges as we (not her-she never tires) can endure. She loves this game and there is no need for anything to argue about, the YES/NO is enough in and of itself.

Other cute things Megan Ling is saying now are "WoW, Mommy!", "M, M, M says "Cuh" and "Mine, Yours and Yewis" (meaning Louis, a boy in her class)! She also gives me a daily run down of all the kids who are "no here" and "here" in her class. And she calls all of her teachers by their last names...... She is really enjoying school and life in general. And of course, we are enjoying her.

Homecoming Dance

Proud of my handsome boy!

Grand Old Flag!!

Summer Orchestra

This is a video of Matthew's summer orchestra program. They put on an amazing concert for us. It's made up of kids in 5th-9th grades. It ends abruptly, unfort---

A Great Summer

First Day of School

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for the lapse in updates, but I will try to fill in the blanks between July and September.... Now that the kids are off to school again, I just might have moment to do so.

For now, here are the photos of back to school time at our house.

Megan Ling is all set to go!!
Mary Alice and Matthew could do without the photo session!

Megan's 5th Birthday Party

Today was Megan's birthday party. The theme was insects and we had a great time. First, we played games where we pretended we were bees in a hive,

then we played Buzz, Buzz, Sting,

then Pin the Bee on the Flower.

We ate Butterfly sandwiches and drank Nectar (an idea from Megan's preschool teachers) out of a flower with straws.

We put on fun insect aprons and decorated wooden insect plaques.
Everyone did beautiful work.

Then, we acted out The Very Hungry Caterpillar story, by Eric Carle. Earlier, we painted the foods from the story and then held them up as the children "ate" through them. Then we put ourselves into a cocoon (a bedsheet) and stayed inside until we were beautiful butterflies. The children chose two fabric pieces to wave in their arms while running around the yard. It was very cute to see how much they enjoyed it.

Next it was time for presents

After that we ate dirt (pudding and oreo crumbs in a cup).

What a wonderful party!