Sunday, November 8, 2009

Fall Fun

What a fun weekend.

It all began when Emma arrived on Thursday afternoon. She drove all the way from Pisgah Forest, North Carolina. It was so nice to have her here. On Friday, Emma and I had a field trip to Jungle Jim's, which is an international grocery store and it's considered a tourist destination. We even saw many groups on tours. It was a cool store, but honestly, I was very disappointed in their Russian foods....two measly shelves.!

So, Friday at 5pm, Nick decided to make the drive down to Cincinnati. It's a five hour drive, so I totally understood his tough decision. I had been planting seeds all week about K&N coming down. So, little after 6pm, Kaitlyn decided to join him.
Nick picked up Kaitlyn and they kept driving.

I decided to make this a surprise for Mike! At 11pm, Mike and I were sitting in the family room and in they walked. The look on Mike's face was priceless! He was so surprised. And, he is not easy to surprise (or is that I have HARD time keeping a surprise from him??).

On Saturday at noon, we all went to Julia's basketball game. Unfortunately, they lost, but we all had fun watching our little defensive star. Glad she doesn't have to guard me! Whew! She's tough. Kobe absolutely loves Emma!!! Emma is a dog lover, too. Check out Kobe's tongue!
Then, we went to Wilson Elementary. They are celebrating 50 years of education. The chorus sand some fun songs through the decades. Julia loves chorus! (do you see her?)
These are three of her best friends, Camryn, Emma and Lemya.
Kaitlyn and Julia!
Tim joined the Drama Club at the Middle school this year. They had their Dinner Theatre performance last night. It was a Broadway review. He had a couple solos and got to dance! It was a lot of fun. (maybe I'll try to upload the video)
The kids! We all enjoyed Graeter's Ice Cream afterwards to celebrate the two performances!
Today we went to church and out to lunch at Panera. Emma left around 2pm and K&N around 2:20pm. Thank you so much for coming to visit! My heart was overfilling with love for my family! Thank you, Jesus! We had many laughs....many at my expense. I don't care. Laughing does my heart good...
This afternoon, Mike and Julia raked leaves! They had a blast. It was a beautiful day and Julia loved jumping in the leaves, too!
Where's Julia?????
In the leaves....with Kobe!!!
Mike brought the ladder out for her to jump from! Lots of fun!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Carvin' Pumpkins

It's been a tradition for Mike and I to take the kids to pick out pumpkins at a farm type place, rather than just getting them at a grocery store. When we lived in Michigan, we used to go to a fabulous place called Uncle Johns Cider Mill. As the name suggests, they also had a apple orchard and they made their own apple cider. To this day, it's the best apple cider ever! We could all watch as the big machine pressed the apples to make the cider. They also made delicious donuts, pies and other fall treats. The past two years, we've managed to find a local farm that opens a modest fall fest. I didn't get to go this year, but Mike said it was disappointing. They did get pumpkins....and here are the results of the carvings... Mike, Tim, Julia and Kassity!
Tim cleaning out the "insides."
Julia...so beautiful!
The finished product!
(except the pumpkin seeds...yummy)