Family Fun Evening...

On Friday night Preston brought Rachael over and we had a Family Fun Night.  The boys wanted to slaughter carve pumpkins, so that's what they did.

We had yummy tacos for dinner,

after which Tom did up the dishes!

See what I mean?

Too much fun to take seriously.

Masterpieces in progress.

Even Dad got in on the fun.

All finished!

Top:  Winston's 'Ship-in-a-bottle',  Lighted Pumpkins and

Tom's 'Mr. Buff'.

Bottom:  Rachael's 'Traditional Jack-O-Lantern', Keaton's 'WSU'

and Preston's 'Howling Wolf'.  Masterpieces all!

Then we roasted pumpkin seeds with sea salt.  YUM!

And made a carmel apple for Winston while the rest of us enjoyed apple slices with carmel drizzled over the top.

Winston sure liked that carmeled apple!

Afterwards, we played a game of 'Quarkle'

Which later became Tom's 'Build a tower with the tiles'!

All-in-all it was a successful evening.

Except maybe for the cat, who apparently didn't want

her picture taken.

Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down-Down-Down...

Winston's Leaf Fort.

Jumping in a pile!

It's raining leaves!

Oh, to be a child!

Celebrating

We've had a few things to celebrate in this month of October.

One thing we are celebrating is the fact that I've been fully hired at the school again.  I will be doing small reading groups with the K-3 classes.  I'll also be doing recess duty (ugh).  but I'll take what I can get!

Also, we're celebrating the beautiful colors of Fall.

Our yard has exploded with yellows, oranges and reds.

Our Italian Plum tree was loaded with plums this year.  And the plums are larger than normal, and very sweet.  Tom's been picking them like a mad man and drying them.  He and I both have been taking bags-full to work to share with people.  Once the word got out, we've had lots of special requests!

It has just been an especially lovely Fall around here.

Preston took the outdoor pictures the other day.  I love his eye for detail.

Tom and I have been working hard on losing some pounds again.  In the past two weeks Tom has lost 12 pounds.  I've lost 7.  It's not fair that men lose their weight faster.  But any weight loss is a cause for celebrating!

Another celebration was the 'old man's' birthday.

We had the traditional home-made dinner and cheesecake.

Here the boys are helping me with the dishes.

You can tell Keaton is soooo excited (Ugh!)

Happy Birthday Tom!

Another year older!

 Oh Deer!

Family Pictures 2012

It's that painful time of year again.

Family Picture Time!

We were able to get a couple of good shots.

We only had a couple of mis-fires.

Like when Tom tried to get the dog out of the picture.

She's part of the family too, Dad!

Or like when his finger slipped

while he was adjusting the camera.

We were totally unprepared for that.

I kind of like this one,

but man, we look so chees-ay!

This one's a nice one too,

but I don't like being front and center.

This is the one we all could agree on.

Well, that was fun.

We have to wait until next year to do it again?

Darn!

Easy Fall Craft

I really like to do crafts, especially seasonal ones.  I just haven't really had the time to do much of it the past few years.  By the time I drag all the stuff out to do it, then have to pack it all away when I'm done, it just doesn't seem worth the time.  So when I come across a quick and easy craft to do, I get pretty excited!

I wanted to make something that would have a 'fall' look to it for my table.  I bought the leave plate at the Grandma Shop and thought I could add a candle and something in fall colors to it.  I picked up the fabric leaves at Shopko for about a dollar for a whole bag - I didn't even need half of them for this.  I wanted to add some colored marbles, but I didn't want to spend money on them when I knew I had a ton of clear ones at home, so I came up with another idea...

I picked up some fall colored nail polish at Shopko for less than $2 for all three.  On Saturday Winston and I had fun painting the flat backs of  some of my clear marbles.  I figured red, orange and green make good fall colors.  Plus I can use the red and green ones to decorate at Christmas time.

The red ones were my favorite.  Winston liked the greens.

They dried pretty fast and I think it adds a little bit of shiney color to my tablescape.  Not too complicated, and only took about 20 minutes to do, drying time and all.  The nail polish, I put in my paint basket.  It might come in handy for other craft projects down the road.  I bet it could be used for 'faux' stained glass!

Housekeeping

Sunday Morning...

...it's about 45 minutes until we leave for Sunday morning meeting.  Where's Winston we ask?  We look all over the house for him.  Where is he??? This is where we find him...

Outside.

Playing in the dirt.

With his coat on - and shorts - and no shoes.

Time enough for a quick shower and dress-up!

Gotta love those Sunday morning rushes!

I've been trying to implement a new cleaning routine.  It's called the '5-minute clean-up'.  What you do is set a timer and only spend five minutes in a room - rushing around and cleaning, picking up, whatever you can get done in five minutes.  Then you move on to another room in the house and do another five-minute set.  It actually works pretty good if your house isn't totally falling down around your ears dirty.  My problem is taking the time to do it every day.  If I kept up with it every day, my house would be spotless!

Speaking of keeping a clean house...

...there's been a bit of dust around here lately. 

That's going to take more than 5 minutes to clean up.