Halloween Sneak Peak

Happy Halloween Eve! Thought I would do a sneak peak blog tonight with some pumpkin carvings from last weekend. Both girls carved their pumpkins. Laura was the precise carver. Kelly was the get in and get dirty carver.
Laura's creation.
The great pumpkin carvers.
To much carving for one little girl. But not until she had all her "friends" tucked in for the night with her blankie. When we checked on her, we weren't quite sure where she was.
Here is a sneak peak into Laura's costume. Today at the Halloween parade. Another beautiful creation by Grammie. Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Kelly will be a witch.

Pumpkin Walk

Thursday night Rich took the girls and I to Beaver Lake for the annual pumpkin walk. It was a warm night with light rain. Not enough to slow us down. There were two .3 mile trails that we took. Everyone had fun guessing what the carvings were.

Laura liked the Yankees carving. Not sure why when no one in our house watches or even follows baseball. Must be the influence of Rich.

A close up for all those Yankee fans.
Kelly on the other hand just liked the World Series carving. Some of my favorites were the butterfly carvings and the traditional scary cats.

When I was downloading my pictures, I found that Gary and the girls were playing with my camera this week. Aren't they a funny bunch?

This morning Kelly was playing "circle time" with her friends. Circle time is how school starts for her. I found it interesting that she had her friends bring a tractor with them for the day. Who said girls couldn't play with dolls and tractors? Even the red old International finds its way to circle time with the rest of the John Deere tractors.

Nothing Hauls Like a Deere

A perfect fall day to work on the wood supply for next year. Here is a snapshot of how we get our wood for the year. Missed the cutting down stage, but just picture the kids and I standing back out of the way and them yelling "TIMBER". Then if you look closely you can see Laura, in yellow, and Kelly, at the door, both in the cab while they hook on and haul it out.
Dragging it back to the house.
Adding it to the rest. Getting a start on next years pile.

Cleaning up. S'mores anyone?

Wait, is that this year's Christmas tree?

Apple Picking

Yesterday was Kelly's first field trip at Universal Pre-K. The class went apple picking at Behling Orchards in Mexico. This trip was rescheduled from the original one that was rained out. We had nice weather for this trip. It was a little on the cool side but we were prepared with layers. There were 14 excited four year olds on this trip. Kelly and her prize apple. She was serious about her picking.
When it came time for a class picture, Kelly wasn't liking the idea. The little boy behind her in the black coat has taken quite a liking to her. I caught them holding hands across the aisle on the bus trip back to school.

I was a lucky mom to spend some time on this trip.

Fall Frolics

What a beautiful start to the long weekend. I took this picture Saturday morning. These maples were at their peak and the leaves were saved in the windstorm last week.
Another sign of fall is the closing of Sixberry. It was cold there on Sunday when we turned the water off and pulled the dock.

Dan and Gary hauled the dock out. It went much easier after Gary remembered he hadn't pulled the anchor off the end.

Gary and Al pulled the raft in for one last time. Then we helped Al and Jean pull their dock.


Well the intent was to pull their dock. Only the wind caught it and took it down the lake. Which proved to be an interesting adventure.
Good thing Al's son, Tony, came along to join in the fun. It was a joint effort with the motor and oars.

Once they managed to get the dock back to shore we attempted to drag it on the beach. We hooked my Envoy to it but there wasn't enough power in towing it. Dan took over with his truck. He managed to pull it up further and we anchored it down with the boat. It provided some good times and laughter.


In other news of the weekend.... I visited the Fabric Mill and chose a print for curtains in the kitchen. Maybe now I can chose a color for paint. I'll share the print later once I have more information on how long it will take before they are ready.


While I was selecting a fabric, Gary and the girls were delivering round hay bales. They started out with the first load and didn't quite make it to the farm. The wagon had a flat tire. For the girls, they thought it was a great adventure. For Gary it meant changing a tire with a load of hay on along side the road. I should have sent the camera with him.

Happy Birthday Gary (Alex too)

Happy Belated Birthday to Gary! His actual birthday was Monday and we celebrated this past Sunday with a dinner for him and our nephew Alex. Alex turned 13 today. Hello teen years! Gary is a few away from those years.

Gary dreams of having a bulldozer. Except the only dozer I see is the one he had for a birthday cake. Another creation by his mom, amazing and yummy.

Eric, Gary's brother, pretending he knows how to drive the tractor. I like the camera around the neck.

Amanda, our sister-in-law gone country.
Happiness is hay bales. See more of the fun from Amanda's blog. http://thehaydenhouse.blogspot.com/2009/10/party-in-country.html
Saturday night, Noelle came for a visit. We spent some time shopping and catching up. It was so nice to see Noelle and now that she is back in New York, we hope to see each other more.
Last week was just an all around busy week. I managed to snap one picture of the girls during Kelly's Open House at school. Gary was away for a conference in Jersey City and we were down a refrigerator. It was a treat for the girls to eat out.